Michigan’s Atlas Trophy Match Won By Private Club Team

Michigan’s Atlas Trophy Match Won By Private Club Team

ROTHBURY – Private Team Captain Jean Murray said her lineup didn’t feel good right after it had been selected, but by Sunday morning she felt better about it.

By Sunday afternoon her team representing private Golf Association of Michigan member clubs had won seven of the first eight singles match to power to a 9-3 points advantage in singles and a 15.5 – 8.5 win over the Public Team in the 26th Women’s Atlas Trophy Matches at Thoroughbred Golf Club.

“I looked at it again this morning and thought we can do that one, and we can do that one, and we can do that one, and then it happened,” she said. “There was a lot of good play, but more important I saw a lot of smiling faces, laughter and camaraderie out there and that’s really what this event is all about. It’s really what golf is all about.”

The Public Team had kept the Atlas Trophy the last five times, including keeping the trophy the last two times with ties in the matches. A tie wasn’t in the cards this time as the Public Team jumped to a 3-2 lead in Saturday morning foursomes play, but trailed after afternoon four-ball matches 6.5 – 5.5.

The Private team then started Sunday’s 12 singles matches with a 7 and 6 win by Elayna Bowser of Dearborn over Lori Rogers of Washington, a 2-up win by Jacqueline Setas of East Lansing over Julie Massa of Holt, a 1-up win by Morgan Smith of Muskegon over Olivia Reed of Carleton and a 2 and 1 win by Darci Stocker of Flint over Kaitlyn Mardeusz of Novi.

Donna Tepper of Grosse Pointe Park then scored a half point for the Private Team with an all-square match with Susan Campbell of Kalamazoo before Maureen Whitehead of Charlevoix kept the ball rolling with a 4 and 3 win over Shelly Weiss of Southfield followed by a 2-up win by Donna Benford of Linden over Audrey Akins of LaSalle and a 3 and 2 win by Sarah White of Caledonia over Lily Pendy of Grosse Pointe Farms.

White’s point wrapped up the win, but Veronica Haque of Rochester also won a point with a 2-up win over Morag Mitchell of Kitchener. Joan Garety of Ada earned a half point for the Private Team with an all-square battle with Katelyn Chipman of Canton.

The Public team scored its three points via Kerrigan Parks of Flushing beating Terry Delcamp of Grand Blanc 4 and 2, Jasmine Ly of Madison Heights beating Barb Schmid of Grand Rapids 4 and 2, and the two half points from the all-square matches.

The Private team leads the series 14-9 with three ties.

The Atlas Trophy Matches originated in 1938 as a competition between male private club golfers represented by the GAM and public course golfers represented by the Michigan Publinx Golf Association with the trophy honoring Edward Atlas, who then was a GAM Governor as well as a USGA Public Links Committee member and Detroit area public golf official.

The Women’s Atlas Trophy matches were first played in 1989 and have become a competition between women GAM members who are members of a private club, and women GAM members who do not belong to a private club. The matches are unique in that teams are made up of golfers of all ages, including seniors and juniors.

 Complete scoring at www.gam.org under championships/atlas trophy tab

via Greg Johnson