Highlands At Harbor Springs Hosts 2022 GAM Mid Amateur

The Highlands at Harbor Springs Hosting Another GAM Mid-Amateur Championship

  HARBOR SPRINGS – The Hills and Moor golf courses at The Highlands at Harbor Springs will welcome a standout field of 199 golfers playing Wednesday and Thursday in the 40th GAM Mid-Amateur Championship.

   Previously known as Boyne Highlands, the resort is hosting the championship for Michigan male amateur golfers over age 25 for the 21st consecutive year and 25th time. The overall winner receives the coveted Glenn H. Johnson Trophy. The scoreboard at 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 golf 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).

  The 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 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. Michigan-based Raymond Hearn Golf Course Designs has performed some renovation work on the course in the last two years.

  Casey Powers is the director of golf, John Myers and David Trudell are the PGA golf professionals and the superintendents are Nick Shaw and Jason Bazan. Learn more at boynegolf.com.

  Last year DeWitt’s Nate Clark won the 39th GAM Mid-Amateur Championship on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff with John Quigley of Sterling Heights on the Moor course.

  The 43-year-old financial advisor shot a closing 1-under 70, overcoming a double-bogey on the third hole to finish with a 4-under 139 tournament total. Quigley, 37 and the 2017 Mid-Amateur champion, birdied the par 5 No. 18 hole for a final 68 and 139 to force the playoff.

 Champions were also crowned in three additional age categories. The Mid-Seniors winner was Jud Kotas of Grosse Pointe Farms, the Senior title was won by David LeVan of Ann Arbor and Mike Raymond of Jackson won the Super Senior title.

  Clark is not entered this year, but Quigley is one of nine former champions in the field playing in various divisions. The others include 2019 champion Michael Coriasso of White Lake, 2018 champion Scott Strickland of Bloomfield Hills, three-time winner Anthony Sorentino of Rochester Hills (2006, ’15, ’16), three-time winner Russ Cunningham of DeWitt (2001, ’02, ’03) two-time winner Greg Davies of West Bloomfield (2003, ’05), 2007 winner Mike Ignasiak of Saline, 2000 winner Kevin Vandenberg of Pulaski, N.Y., and Greg Reynolds of Grand Blanc, the winner of the very first Mid-Amateur in 1983 and winner again in 1994.