Collura, Sui win GAM Tournament of Champions

Chelsea Collura, Justin Sui Top GAM Tournament of Champions

  BRIGHTON – Chelsea Collura of Wyandotte won for the third time in the last four years, and Justin Sui of Lake Orion won for the first time since junior golf in the GAM Tournament of Champions presented by BOYNE Golf Monday at Oak Pointe Country Club.

  Champions, male and female, invited for having won a 2024 GAM member club championship, a GAM title this season, or for being among the top golfers in GAM Player of the Year points, played a final 18-hole stroke play tournament to determine a male and female champion.

  A Senior Tournament of Champions presented by BOYNE Golf will be played next Monday, Oct. 7, at Oakhurst Golf & Country Club in Clarkston.

  Sui, 19 and doing this semester on-line at the University of Florida while living at home, made consecutive birdies on holes 10 and 11 to survive a three-golfer playoff for the win.

 He shot a wild 4-under 67 in regulation play with nine birdies and five bogeys and was tied with two other 67-shooters, Jon Swint of Wyandotte and Michael Coriasso of Royal Oak.

  Sui birdied the first playoff hole, No. 10, from the natural grass area left of the fairway. He caught a break when his approach shot bounced and then hit Swint’s ball on the green and rolled closer to the hole. He made the 10-foot birdie putt.

  Then on the par 3 11th, he hit his 183-yard 6-iron shot to three feet for the win.

  Swint, a recent GAM Net Match Play Champion, played to par on No. 10 to drop from the playoff, while Coriasso, a Detroit Golf Club member, matched the birdie of Sui at 10 with a 9-foot birdie putt, and then missed from about 15 feet on No. 11.

   “I saw Michael hit it to like 10-feet on the first playoff hole, then Jon also hit it on the green, so I was going to try to whack it from the long grass and make sure I didn’t leave it short,” Sui said. “Then it hits Jon’s ball and rolled at least 15-feet closer than it would have been, but the thing is I had the same putt this morning. I knew what it was going to do. I caught really good breaks there.”

  Sui caught some breaks but also ended up with 11 birdies in 20 holes of golf for the day.

 “On No. 11 I was like, ‘I have adrenaline, it’s downwind, so I clubbed down and it ended up being the perfect club,” he said.

  Sui said his last GAM win was in the GAM Junior Invitational five years ago.

  “That has to be the most birdies I’ve ever had in one round, then to make two more in the playoff was amazing,” he said. “My driver got me in trouble a few times and I didn’t give myself birdie chances on some holes, but when I did get a birdie chance it seemed like I made them all. I made pretty much every putt today.”

   Meanwhile, in the women’s competition Collura said she didn’t make many of her birdie chances but played steady golf.

  “I hit a few close, didn’t make a ton of putts, but that was all right because tap-in pars are not a bad thing,” she said. “It was a good round. I had real good tempo and hit the ball well.”

   Collura, a West Shore Golf & Country Club member on Grosse Ile, shot 1-under 70, slipping past Oak Pointe Country Club member Erin Larson of Brighton, who shot 71.

  Elayna Bowser of Dearborn, this summer’s GAM Women’s Mid-Amateur Champion, shot 72 to finish third.

  Collura said she had never seen the Oak Pointe course until Monday.

  “So, it was a little bit of a new experience,” she said. “I think sometimes not having played a course can be an advantage. You just kind of see it, hit it where you can see it and go from there.”

  Collura, 31 and the owner of Nuggett Leasing in Flat Rock, said winning the TOC for the third time in the last four years felt great.

  “It’s a good day because this season was kind of so-so for me,” she said. “It’s really nice to end the year with a win a take a trophy home.”

  She came out to watch the men playoff for the title. Swint is her boyfriend.

  “We were going for the girlfriend-boyfriend matching trophies,” she said. “He played great to get in the playoff. It is so hard to win against all these great players.”

RESULTS: GAM.org schedule or Golf Genius