Chapman Shoots 63 To Take Top Seed At 2014 Michigan Amateur

Defending champion Andrew Chapman (above) shot a tournament and course record 63 at the Belvedere Country Club on tuesday to win the number one seed in the match play portion of the 2014 Michigan Amateur.

Chapman’s records, though, will come with an asterisk. The Belvedere course record of 64 was set in 1964 by Chuck Kocsis while playing a fall round when par was set at 72. In 2003, Andy Ruthkoski shot a Michigan Amateur qualifying round of 64, when the course was adjusted to a par 70 for the Championship. This year, par is also 70. It gets more complicated, however: Because of heavy rains, par was adjusted to 69 because of standing water on the 15th fairway. That hole was modified from a 465-yard par 4 to a 190-yard par 3 for the round.

The cut to make match play was set at 150, with thirteen golfers entering a playoff for the final five spots. That playoff was called at 10:18 pm because of darkness with three players still vying for the final two spots.

Press release and full results follow:

Defending Champion Shoots 63 to Take Top Seed in Michigan Amateur Championship

CHARLEVOIX – Andrew Chapman, the defending champion, is apparently serious about defending in the 103rd Michigan Amateur Championship.

He shot a tournament-record 63 at Belvedere Tuesday that will likely earn an asterisk due to course adjustments made in the wake of heavy rainfall and two delays during the second round of stroke play qualifying.

Par was adjusted to 69 after early morning rain from 70, which has been adjusted for the championship from the par 72 the members play on a regular basis.

Nevertheless, Chapman grabbed the No. 1 seed and was awarded the Charles Kocsis Medalist Trophy for topping the field over 36-holes of stroke play. The cut to make match play fell at 150 and forced a playoff of 13 golfers for the final five spots.

Match play starts Wednesday morning with 64 players in 32 matches. Just the “Sweet 16” golfers should remain at the end of the day. Two more rounds of match play Thursday and again on Friday will determine the champion.

“It’s neat, a nice accomplishment, but I would trade being medalist for another year with the Staghorn Trophy (champion’s trophy) in a minute,” said Chapman, a 28-year-old financial planner and native of Grand Blanc.

Chapman’s 36-hole total of 135 was clear of the field by three shots.

Brandon Barrows, a senior-to-be at Rochester Adams High School, and Jacob Johnson, an Oakland University golfer from Holt, each shot second consecutive 69s to finish at 138. Also at 138 was Indiana University golfer Max Kollin of Farmington Hills and Johnson’s Oakland U. teammate Evan Bowser, who each shot 66.

The 139 group included two past champions in Tom Werkmeister (2009), who shot 71, and Greg Davies (2006), who shot 72. Henry Do, a University of North Carolina golfer, netted his 139 with a 68.

The youngest player in the field, 15-year-old James Piot of Canton shot 70 to join the group at 139.

Three golfers – University of Tennessee golfer Mike Nagy of Manistique, Grand Valley State golfer Austin Eccleton of Jackson and Kory Roberts of Battle Creek – were at 140. Nagy shot 70 and Eccleton shot 73. Roberts shot 68.

Brian Hayward of Grand Rapids and Reed Hrynewich, who each shot 73, finished at 141 with Saline’s Mike Ignasiak, who was last year’s runner-up. He shot 72. Also at 141 was Novi’s Casey Baker, who shot 71.

Ironically, Chapman netted the Kocsis trophy after his 63 appeared to top the revered Belvedere course record of 64 set in 1964 by Kocsis while playing a fall round at the course.

In 2003 Andy Ruthkoski of Muskegon shot a Michigan Amateur qualifying round record 64 in winning medalist honors in the 92nd Michigan Amateur at Belvedere. The course was adjusted to a par 70 for the championship by the Golf Association of Michigan, just as it has been adjusted this year for the championship. Members play the course at par 72.

The course, being played as a par 70 over 6,870 yards for the championship, was adjusted to a par 69 for the day because of standing water on the No. 15 fairway. The 465-yard par 4 was changed to a 190-yard par 3 for the round after two heavy bouts of rain in the early morning. The No. 16 hole, a 346-yard par 4, was also adjusted to 290 yards using a forward tee position because of water.

Chapman, who birdied No. 15 and 16 with shots to within one-foot on each, said it was nice to shoot a low score – a record or not.

“It’s been a while,” he said after seven birdies against one bogey. “To do it here is very special and to do it in the Michigan Am is very special. Today was an important round for me because I’ve kind of limped into match play the last few years. I wanted to go out and just commit and play sort of trusting golf, which I don’t always do. I do that in match play, but for whatever reason I don’t always do it in stroke play.”

Chapman was the No. 33 seed last year after a 151 at Muskegon Country Club and worked his way through the bracket to the championship.

“There are so many good players in the state that I’m not sure the seeding really matters,” he said. “I just wanted to go in playing well.”

Jeff Champine of Rochester Hills had perhaps the shot of the day. He made a hole-in-one on the reconfigured No. 15 in a 72 for 151. He missed the cut.

Andrew Yeager of Grand Rapids made the biggest move of the day shooting a 65 after a first-round 82 for a 147 and a spot in the bracket.

Check for the match play bracket at http://www.gam.org.

PLAYER	TO PAR	RD 1	RD 2
1	Chapman, Andrew	72	63	135
2	Barrows, Brandon	69	69	138
	Bowser, Evan	72	66	138
	Johnson, Jacob	69	69	138
	Kollin, Max	72	66	138
6	Davies, Greg	67	72	139
	Do, Henry	71	68	139
	Piot, James	69	70	139
	Werkmeister, Tom	68	71	139
10	Eccleton, Austin	67	73	140
	Nagy, Mike	70	70	140
	Roberts, Kory	72	68	140
13	Baker, Casey	70	71	141
	Hayward, Brian	68	73	141
	Hrynewich, Reed	68	73	141
	Ignasiak, Mike	69	72	141
17	English, Blake	72	71	143
18	Golomb, Nate	73	71	144
	Hogan, Blaze	73	71	144
	Johnson, Ryan	69	75	144
	Piesko, Douglas	72	72	144
	Rider, Jack	73	71	144
	Ruffino, Francesco	71	73	144
	Zeller, Greg	74	70	144
25	Clark, Nathan	73	72	145
	Colburn, Patrick	70	75	145
	Heinze, Josh	71	74	145
	Munch, Winton	71	74	145
29	Gaines, Kyle	73	73	146
	Hudson, Ken	74	72	146
	LaSerra, Tyler	72	74	146
	Martin, Ian	74	72	146
	Rabourn, Benjamin	74	72	146
	Reynolds, Greg	73	73	146
35	Alderink, Matthew	76	71	147
	Anderson, Steve	70	77	147
	Black, Otto	72	75	147
	Dodson, Travis	75	72	147
	Friel, Sean	72	75	147
	Gunthorpe, Nathan	76	71	147
	Horn, Michael	71	76	147
	Quigley, John	77	70	147
	Rodes, Kyle	77	70	147
	Trosper, Donnie	71	76	147
	Yeager, Andrew	82	65	147
46	Alexander, Austin	75	73	148
	Cunningham, Chris	75	73	148
	Gunthorpe, Nick	76	72	148
	Hamilton, Jacob	75	73	148
	Klimek, Derrek	74	74	148
	Smith Jr., David	75	73	148
52	Balaskovitz, Joe	77	72	149
	Burt, Brian	79	70	149
	Hudson, Brett	72	77	149
	McKalko, Steve	78	71	149
	Motte, Mason	77	72	149
	Nichols, Steve	74	75	149
	Schiller, Brody	77	72	149
	Zoerhoff, Michael	79	70	149
60	Doyle, Brendan	81		81
	Brownback, David	71	79	150
	Harris, Ian	72	78	150
	Hartman, Jason	79	71	150
	Jallos, Nick	71	79	150
	Janke, Andrew	78	72	150
	Klemet, Kevin	74	76	150
	Kotas, Jud	77	73	150
	Lewis, Randy	78	72	150
	Park, Nick	75	75	150
	Predmesky, Martin	76	74	150
	Thompson, David	78	72	150
	VanScoyk, Ben	73	77	150
	Willnow, Alex	75	75	150
74	Shoemaker, Tim	82		82
	Barnes, Jim	79	72	151
	Champine, Jeff	79	72	151
	Fortuna, Johnny	77	74	151
	Kneen, James	73	78	151
	Vaclav, David	71	80	151
80	Breault, Beau	73	79	152
	Drost, Wyatt	74	78	152
	Gunthorpe, Jerry	79	73	152
	Kozler, Christopher	79	73	152
	Mills, Grant	74	78	152
	Muller, Gates	79	73	152
	O’Connor, Bill	77	75	152
	Osborne, Landon	78	74	152
	Pietila, Joel	79	73	152
	Scott, Alex	81	71	152
	Sorentino, Anthony	75	77	152
	Sterling Jr., Larry	75	77	152
	Strickland, Scott	81	71	152
93	Hansen, Michael	80		80
	Boghikian, Razmig	80	73	153
	Buckley, Garret	76	77	153
	Garland, Matt	78	75	153
	Green, Brett	76	77	153
	Sarokin, Andrew	76	77	153
99	Vanaelst, Andrew	76		76
	Beeler, Cameron	78	76	154
	Bolton, Charlie	74	80	154
	Francis, Ryan	78	76	154
	Kiefer, Zak	78	76	154
	Multer, Jared	80	74	154
	Rosekrans, Trevor	78	76	154
106	Buko , David	78	77	155
	Conflitti, Jeffrey	80	75	155
	LaFrance, Justin	79	76	155
	Matheison, Bailey	77	78	155
	Messner, Bryce	76	79	155
	Mouw, Ryan	74	81	155
	Pahl, Justin	80	75	155
113	Catto, Joel	77	79	156
	Kinnie, Michael	80	76	156
	Maddalena, Stephen	81	75	156
	Ojeda, Peter	77	79	156
	Olsen, Jeff	78	78	156
	Olson, Charlie	81	75	156
	Park, Matthew	79	77	156
	Walz, Pete	78	78	156
121	Christie, Chuck	80	77	157
	Ferrell, Dustin	84	73	157
	Rex Jr, Tom	75	82	157
	Stetson, Mike	77	80	157
	Torres, Joe	79	78	157
	Worthington, Jake	84	73	157
127	Campo, Joe	81	77	158
	Cunningham, Russ	77	81	158
	Hamilton, Mark	79	79	158
	Hitt, Dean	77	81	158
	Jaschuk, Scott	78	80	158
	Sparks, Scott	82	76	158
	Vick, Nicholas	84	74	158
134	Grube, Brandon	81	78	159
	Murray, Cameron	81	78	159
	Raymond, Mike	81	78	159
	Shollack, Dean	81	78	159
138	Anderson, Michael	78	82	160
	Senkowski, Nikolas	81	79	160
140	Edwards, Broc	82	79	161
	Fuentes, Antonio	76	85	161
	Van Oosten, Adam	84	77	161
143	Bardenhagen, Paul	83	79	162
	Bildstein, Corey	84	78	162
	Moore, Jack	87	75	162
	Weir, Chris	81	81	162
147	Nistor, Victor	87	76	163
	Szymanski, David	84	79	163
149	Farner , Peter	81	83	164
	Martin, David	78	86	164
	Tubergen, Shaun	83	81	164
152	Cramer, Alec	82	85	167
153	Kragt, Bob	87	81	168
154	Rice, TJ	83	86	169
155	Florka, Richard	83	88	171