Macatawa Golf Club Hosting GAM Senior Match Play Championship

Macatawa Golf Club Hosting GAM Senior Match Play Championship

  HOLLAND – Macatawa Golf Club has become a regular host of Golf Association of Michigan tournaments in recent years, and the state’s top senior golfers are next to take on the design by locally based architect Raymond Hearn.

  The 17th GAM Senior Match Play Championship presented by Stifel Investment Services is set for Tuesday, May 27, through Friday, May 30. The battle for the Jerry A. Walker Memorial Trophy starts with a single day of stroke play to determine match play brackets in the overall run for the title (age 55-plus) and those competing in the Super Senior (age 65-plus) division.

   The stroke play round on Tuesday will determine a bracket of 32 golfers for the Senior division and a bracket of 16 for the Super Seniors. Matches start on Wednesday and continue through Friday morning’s championship matches in each division.

   Hearn, a Detroit native who bases his international golf course design and renovation business out of Holland, created a challenging championship layout near the shores of Lake Michigan in 2005.

  Weather elements have an impact on play each day, especially winds off the big lake. The course features five sets of tees ranging from 5,000 yards to over 7,000 yards, large, fast undulating greens, strategically placed bunkers and some unique water features.

  The course, built before the surrounding residential community was developed, is part of the RedWater-owned group of courses in West Michigan.

  John Kuenzli is the PGA head golf professional, and Kevin Haack is the golf course superintendent.

 Last year at the Polo Fields Golf & Country Club in Ann Arbor, Michigan Golf Hall of Famer and Mattawan native Kevin VandenBerg beat Gunnar Karlstrom of Clarkston 5 and 4 in the championship match.

  Another Hall of Famer, Randy Lewis of Alma, won the Super Senior title with a 2-up win over Ian Harris of Bloomfield.

  VandenBerg did not enter this year’s championship, but Lewis, who won the overall title in 2014 and 2017, is returning to defend.

  Mike Ignasiak of Jackson, the 2023 champion, Steve Maddalena of Jackson, the champion in 2022 and 2016, David LeVan of Ann Arbor, the 2021 champion, Mitch Wilson of Portage, the 2020 and 2015 champion, Kevin Klemet of White Lake, the 2019 champion, Ray Emsley of Davisburg, the 2012 champion,  two-time Super Senior winner Ian Harris of Bloomfield  and Michigan Golf Hall of Famer Greg Davies are all part of the field.