GAM PLAYER OF THE YEAR – Alex Scott of Traverse City Tops Men’s Honor Roll

GAM PLAYER OF THE YEAR – Alex Scott of Traverse City Tops Men’s Honor Roll

FARMINGTON HILLS – Alex Scott of Traverse City achieved goals by pushing boundaries in his golf game in 2018.

“I put in a lot of hard work and dedication and proved to myself that with ability, will power and discipline I can achieve where maybe others think I can’t,” he said. “I pushed boundaries every day and that is why I had the year I had.”

Scott, a senior at Grand Valley State University, is the 2018 Golf Association of Michigan Men’s Player of the Year, Ken Hartmann, senior director of rules and competitions, announced today.

GAM Players of the Year are determined by the GAM Honor Roll points system. Point totals can be found on a pull down from the Championships tab at gam.org. Over the next few weeks the GAM will announce more Players of the Year in gender and age categories.

“At the U.S. Amateur Sectional qualifier, I just knew he was going to make it,” Hartmann said. “He is one of those guys you just know will have a good score at the end of the day because he is consistent and confident. I’m never shocked when he plays well.”

Scott qualified for the U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach with a second-round 6-under 66 to tie for medalist honors in the sectional at Currie Municipal Golf Course in Midland. Once at Pebble Beach he qualified for match play with a tie for 10th in the stroke play portion of the championship, and then fell 1-up in the first round of match play to the top-ranked junior amateur golfer in the world, William Mouw of California.

Just a few weeks prior to playing in the U.S. Amateur, Scott served notice of his great play by shooting a record 11-under 61 in the final round of the Michigan PGA’s Tournament of Champions at Boyne Mountain Resort. His 61 on the Alpine course put him in a playoff with Sam Weatherhead, a professional from Grand Rapids, and Scott emerged the winner. Scott, a GAM member through Traverse City Golf & Country Club, was the first amateur to win the TOC in its 27 years of existence.

His Honor Roll total of 805 points topped Jake Kneen of White Lake, who became just the sixth amateur to win the Michigan Open Championship in its 101 years last summer. Kneen, a former Oakland University golfer who is a GAM member through Mystic Creek Golf & Banquet Center, also qualified for the U.S. Amateur but didn’t make match play. He had 635 Honor Roll points.

Rounding out the top five were Michigan Amateur Champion Beau Breault of Hartland and Prestwick Village Golf Club with 481, GAM Champion James Piot of Canton at Fox Hills Golf & Banquet Center with 475 and Donnie Trosper of Canton and Carl’s Golfland-Plymouth with 410. Breault plays collegiate golf at Eastern Michigan, while Piot and Trosper are on Michigan State’s golf team.

Hartmann said when Scott won the 2017 GAM Championship at Barton Hills it seemed to fuel him for the 2018 golf season.

“That win lit a fuse under him and seemed to slingshot him to a great year collegiately (GLIAC Golfer of the Year, First Team All-American) in the USGA tournaments and with us,” he said. “I think it taught him what he is capable of. He’s not afraid to go low and go after it. That 61 (in the Tournament of Champions) shows that. On top of it all he’s a great kid and level-headed.”

Scott said it means a lot to be Player of the Year.

“There are a lot of really good players in the state and to be at the top at the end of the season is a great accomplishment,” he said. “I have to credit the team I have – everybody at Grand Valley, my dad and mom (Steve, Angela) and my teacher (Scott Hebert). I have support and guidance, and it will be impossible to repay Scott for what he has done in helping me with my game.”