BATTLE CREEK – The 2016 Michigan Senior Open features a field of 114, including PGA Professionals, top amateurs, seven Michigan Golf Hall of Fame members and 10 past champions. The tournament is sponsored by Club Car and is known as the Club Car Senior Open. The tournament will be held Tuesday and Wednesday at Bedford Valley Golf Club in Augusta, Michigan near Battle Creek.
Defending champion Jim Deiters of Midland Country Club will defend his title against the likes of Brian Cairns of Fox Hills Learning Center in Plymouth, the national Senior PGA Player of the Year.
Michigan Golf Hall of Fame members in the field include PGA Professionals Randy Erskine of Lake Orion, Lynn Janson of Hastings Country Club, Jack Seltzer of Linden and Dave Kendall of Saline and the Kendall Golf Academy, and amateurs Steve Maddalena of Jackson, Terry Moore of Grand Rapids and Bill Zylstra of Dearborn Heights.
Deiters tops the list of past champs with Kendall and Ron Beurmann of Country Club of Jackson, who are former two-time champions. Janson and Erskine also have Senior Open titles on their rich resumes. The other past champions in the field are Steve Wells of Dowagiac and Hampshire CC, Denis Husse of Fenton and Tyrone Hills, Bob Ackerman of West Bloomfield and Bob Ackerman Golf Academy, Ron English of Charlotte and Pete Doerr of Coldwater.
The field will play 36 holes of stroke play for a purse yet to be determined. This is the 35th edition of the state championship for seniors (age 50-and-over), and includes a 65-and-over super senior division. Play starts at 8 a.m. Tuesday and the public is welcome.
Bedford Valley Golf Club is part of the Gull Lake View collection of five courses near Battle Creek and Kalamazoo. It was a 2008-2009 Best Places to Play selection by Golf Digest and in 2010 was named the Michigan Golf Course of the Year by the Michigan Golf Course Owners Association.
Bedford Valley was designed in 1965 by William Mitchell and purchased by the Scott Family of Gull Lake View in 1988. The classic parkland design is known locally as “The Big Course” and features big greens, bunkers and fairways lined with large oak trees.
Bedford Valley has hosted several of the state’s top tournaments including the Michigan Open, multiple Michigan Senior Opens, the Michigan Maxfli PGA Junior, the Michigan Publinx State Match Play and the NCAA Division III National Championship.
Visit www.michiganpgagolf.com for more information on the championship.
Read GolfBlogger’s Bedford Valley Golf Club review.
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