Julie Massa Is GAM Senior Women’s Player Of The Year

GAM Player of the Year: Julie Massa Top Senior Woman for Second Consecutive Year

FARMINGTON HILLS – Julie Massa of Holt enjoys competitive golf, but also playing with friends for fun or even alone.

“It all has its own level of fun and different attraction to me,” she said. “It’s all good. I just enjoy the game, appreciate it all. If I’m traveling to a tournament, or playing a new course, or just playing with good friends on a familiar course, it is fun to play golf.”

Massa, 53 and a Forest Akers Golf Course member, is the Michigan Senior Women’s Player of the Year for the second consecutive year, Ken Hartmann, senior director of rules and competitions for the GAM announced today.

Over the next few days the GAM will also two more players of the year (junior boys and junior girls) for 2016. Tom Werkmeister of Grandville and Allyson Geer of Brighton were previously announced as the men’s and women’s players of the year, and Randy Lewis of Alma was named the top senior male. The winners will receive their awards in the spring at the GAM’s annual meeting for 2017. Honorees are determined based on the GAM Honor Roll, which awards points for tournament accomplishments.

Massa, who highlighted her season by playing in the U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur Championship, topped a close Honor Roll race with 492 points. Barb Schmid of Grand Rapids at Egypt Valley Country Club was second with 475.

Rounding out the top five were Shelly Weiss of Southfield and the Michigan Women’s Golf Association, Joan Garety of Ada and Egypt Valley Country Club and Maureen Whitehead of Charlevoix and the Michigan Women’s Golf Association. The complete Honor Roll listings can be found at gam.org.

Massa played in several GAM tournaments with a third place finish in the GAM Women’s Mid-Amateur.

“It was a very close race and it’s a wonderful honor,” Massa said. “I try to stay competitive and there are so many good players in Michigan. That’s what makes it fun – all the great scores being shot.”

Hartmann said Massa always seems to be in the hunt in every tournament.

“She is like Randy Lewis in a way, very quiet, polite, friendly, the kind of golfer you root for,” he said. “You want to see a golfer like Julie have success because they are great people.”

The mother of three golfing daughters said a highlight to her season was qualifying in sectionals with her youngest daughter, Mariah, for the U.S. Amateur Women’s Four-Ball Championship.

“We didn’t play well at the nationals, but we played well to get there and getting to play with Mariah was a great moment,” she said.

She also recorded her fourth career hole-in-one this summer. On a visit to her native Oregon she holed out a 90-yard wedge shot on a par 3 at Quail Valley Golf Club.

“It was a good summer,” she said. “I set goals. I reached some of them, and some of them I didn’t, but I enjoyed being out there and going after them.”

ABOUT THE GAM: Founded in 1919, the Golf Association of Michigan is the governing body for amateur golf in the state. As a not-for-profit organization, the GAM’s purpose is to promote, preserve and serve the game of golf. The GAM, served by over 250 dedicated volunteers as well as nine full-time staff, provides membership to almost 60,000 golfers and more than 470 Michigan golf courses, conducts over 30 amateur championships, oversees 18 USGA qualifying events, administers the GAM/USGA Handicap System and measures and rates almost 70 courses a year for the USGA. Learn more at www.gam.org.

via Greg Johnson