Daigle Is 2024 GAM Senior Men’s Player of the Year

Leo Daigle of Wixom Tops 2024 Senior Men’s Points List

    FARMINGTON HILLS – Leo Daigle of Wixom had just won the season-closing GAM Senior Tournament of Champions but was unaware that he had also wrapped up the top spot on the GAM Senior Men’s Points List.

  Greg Davies of West Bloomfield and Orchard Lake Country Club, last year’s GAM Senior Men’s Player of the Year and a Michigan Golf Hall of Fame member, filled him in on what he had accomplished.

  “Greg, a great guy who has always been so nice to me, gave me a beautiful gift in telling me I had accomplished something a golfer never forgets,” Daigle said.

  The 60-year-old Daigle has been named the 2024 GAM Senior Player of the Year, Ken Hartmann, senior director of competitions and USGA services, announced today.

  Player of the Year point totals can be found on a pull down from the PLAY tab at GAM.org Carl’s Golfland is the presenting sponsor of the points lists.

  In the last two weeks, McCoy Biagioli of White Lake was named the GAM Men’s Player of the Year, Elayna Bowser of Dearborn was named the GAM Women’s Player of the Year and Randy Lewis of Alma was named the GAM Super Senior Player of the Year. Over the next month the GAM will announce more Players of the Year in gender and age categories.

   Daigle, a GAM member through the Michigan Publinx Golf Association (MPGA), qualified for the U.S. Senior Amateur, reached the semifinals of the GAM Senior Match Play and tied for second in the GAM Senior Championship to help earn 340 points.

  The final critical points for Daigle came in the Senior Tournament of Champions where he finished just ahead of Mike Ignasiak of Saline, another MPGA member who tied for second in the championship.

  Ignasiak finished second on the season points list, too, with 332.5 points, just 7.5 behind Daigle.

  Rick Crandall of Fenton, the GAM Senior Champion and a member at Flint Elks Golf Club, was third with 200 points.

  Davies, who had 197.5 points, and GAM Senior Match Play Champion Kevin Vandenberg of Pulaski, N.Y., a summer GAM member through the Dave Kendall Academy at Miles of Golf, who had 190 points, rounded out the top five.

   Daigle, whose real name is Lloyd Thomas Daigle, is known as Leo in golf circles. He was introduced at age 10 to golf by his father Lloyd Daigle and his grandfather, Leo Daigle, then a golf professional at Indianwood Golf & Country Club, who is sometimes confused with Detroit native Leo Diegel, a World Golf Hall of Fame and Michigan Golf Hall of Fame member.

   “Dad got me playing and my grandfather got me playing it better and some of the old guys started calling me Leo,” Daigle said. “I played some golf until I was about 18, then it was off to the Army and Florida, and around age 30 I met my wife and started playing again but didn’t get serious and take lessons until age 45.”

  He took those lessons from David VanLoozen, a PGA professional who is currently the director of instruction at Oakland Hills Country Club and remains Daigle’s swing coach.

  “Dave made me videos of my swing that I still watch all the time,” Daigle said. “We stay in touch. He taught me how to compete.”

  Daigle, who also won the Senior Scratch title at the Michigan Publinx Match Play Championship this summer, said he hit more balls on the range and was comfortable playing through the season.

  “I wasn’t nervous about my game like a lot of times before,” he said. “I don’t think I always played great, but I was so steady that it turned out to be an exceptional year. I feel fortunate for the GAM and (Ken Hartmann) and the Publinx guys. I have a lot of good players to compete with and good people in my life. I’m thankful for all the gifts God gives me.”

  Hartmann said Daigle was among the most consistent players he saw through the golf season.

  “He was right there at the top of the leaderboard all year,” he said. “Leo doesn’t have the long track record of some of the other seniors, but for his age he still has an aggressive swing and never holds back. He’s also one of the friendliest guys, genuinely loves to play the game and plays a lot of it. It was great to see him have such a great year.”