Boyne Highlands Hosts 2020 GAM Mid-Amateur Sept 2 – 3

Award-Winning Boyne Highlands Resort Hosting 2020 GAM Mid-Amateur Championship

  HARBOR SPRINGS – Boyne Highlands Resort’s Hills and Moor golf courses will welcome a standout field of 148 golfers playing Wednesday and Thursday in the 38th GAM Mid-Amateur Championship.

    Boyne Highlands is hosting the championship for Michigan male amateur golfers over age 25 for the 19th consecutive year and 23rd time in the history of the championship that honors the winner with the Glenn H. Johnson Trophy. The scoreboard at Boyne Highland’s Country Club of Boyne is also named in honor of Johnson, a GAM legend and Michigan Golf Hall of Fame member.

 The Highlands features four courses that are part of 10 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 to take on the Hills and Moor courses for 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 has used each of its four courses at various times to host the championship in the past.

  The Hills course, designed by Arthur Hills, features a memorable three-hole ascent at No. 11 to one of the highest points in the region for a remarkable view from the 13th tee. The layout concludes with a 577-yard par-5 that is reachable in two shots by going over the trademark pond that guards all No. 18s in Boyne golf. The Hills course was showcased in Big Break X: Michigan, the Golf Channel’s popular golf travelogue.

  The Moor was the second course built at Boyne Highlands and challenges golfers with numerous doglegs and water hazards. It, too, has a championship pedigree as host of past Mid-Amateurs, the AJGA’s annual visit, the Kircher Cup and Harbor Cup tournaments.

   Josh Richter is the director of golf at Boyne Highlands. Josh Myers and David Trudell are the PGA golf professionals at the Highlands, and the superintendents are Nick Shaw and Shaun Osborne.

  Last year on the Heather and Moor courses Michael Coriasso of White Lake finished his day birdie-eagle-birdie and won the 37th GAM Mid-Amateur in dramatic fashion.

  Coriasso, originally from Grand Blanc, finished his regulation round on the Moor Course with a birdie on the par 4 17th and an eagle on the par 5 18th to shoot a 3-under 69 and force a tie with Brad Bastion of Shelby Township, who also shot 69 for a 5-under 139 total.

  Coriasso, 29 and a loan officer for Quicken Loans, then birdied the first hole of sudden-death, the par 4 10th, with a 15-foot birdie putt for his first GAM tournament victory.

  In the other divisions, Steve Nichols of East Lansing took third place overall but was the winner of the Mid-Seniors division (over age 45),  Steve Maddalena of Jackson emerged from a four-golfer sudden-death playoff to win the Mid-Am Senior title (55 and over) and Ian Harris of Bloomfield Hills won the Super Senior (over 65) title.

  Coriasso is returning to the field that also includes seven other former champions: 2018 champion Scott Strickland of Bloomfield Hills, 2017 champion John Quigley of St. Clair Shores, three-time winner Anthony Sorentino of Rochester Hills (2006, ’15, ’16), two-time winner Greg Davies of West Bloomfield (2003, ’05), three-time winner Russ Cunningham of DeWitt (2001, ’02, ’03), 2007 winner Mike Ignasiak of Saline, and 2000 winner Kevin Vandenberg of Pulaski.