Award-Winning Boyne Highlands Resort Hosting GAM Mid-Amateur Championship

Award-Winning Boyne Highlands Resort Hosting GAM Mid-Amateur Championship

HARBOR SPRINGS – Boyne Highlands Resort’s premier Arthur Hills and Donald Ross Memorial golf courses will welcome a standout field of 165 golfers Thursday Sept. 2 and Friday, September 2 in the 34th GAM Mid-Amateur Championship presented by Boyne Golf.

Boyne Highlands is hosting the championship for Michigan male amateur golfers over age 25 for the 15th consecutive year and 18th time in the history of the event. The Highlands, also home to the Country Club of Boyne, features four courses that are part of 11 golf courses that can be played at three Boyne Resorts in the northern section of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula.

The field is split in half this year to take on the Hills and Ross courses for the 36-holes and two days of stroke play competition, and an overall Mid-Amateur winner (age 25-and-over) and winners in three other age categories will be determined (Mid-Seniors 45-and-over, Seniors 55-and-over and Super Seniors 65-and-over).

Boyne Highlands was the No. 1 choice in the “2015 Top Ten Favorite U.S. Golf Resorts for Value” by GOLF.com, and for good reason.

The Hills course is a deceptively challenging course that features a three-hole ascent at No. 11 to one of the highest points in the regional and a remarkable view from the 13th tee. The round concludes with a 577-yard par-5 that is reachable in two going over the trademark water that guards all No. 18s in Boyne golf. The Hills course showcased Big Break X: Michigan, the Golf Channel’s popular golf travelogue.

The Ross Memorial is, in essence, a “greatest hits” compilation of the designer’s best-known holes from renowned courses. In a round on the Ross players experience holes from storied places like Oakland Hills, Seminole, Pinehurst No. 2, Inverness and Oak Hill.

Nick Shaw and Jeremy Neer are the superintendents at Boyne Highlands. Josh Richter is the director of golf, John Myers and David Trudell are the course golf professionals.

Anthony Sorentino of Shelby Township, the defending champion and the winner in 2006, is in the field, as is six-time champion Tom Werkmeister of Grandville, who won in 2013 and 14 as well as four consecutive times from 2008 to 2011. Also in the field is former champion Kevin VandenBerg of Kalamazoo (2000).

Two-time champion Greg Davies of West Bloomfield (2003, ’05) is playing as a Mid-Senior, and two-time champion Greg Reynolds of Grand Blanc (1983, ’94), is competing as a Super-Senior.

For more information on the tournament, visit www.gam.org. Ken Hartmann, senior director of rules and competition for the GAM, is the tournament director ([email protected]). Information on Boyne Highlands and sponsoring Boyne Resorts is available at www.boyne.com.

via Greg Johnson