Michigan PGA Professional Championship Starts Monday At Flint Golf Club

Michigan PGA Professional Championship starts Monday at Flint Golf Club

Kyle Martin of Lochmoor Club in Grosse Pointe Woods Defends

  FLINT – The 102nd Michigan PGA Professional Championship is Monday through Wednesday at Flint Golf Club and Kyle Martin of Lochmoor Club in Grosse Pointe Woods is defending his title.

  Martin is hoping, like a year ago, that some long putts will fall to help him in a quest to win back-to-back titles.

  “Flint Golf Club has the five par 5s and five par 3s and when we were playing there before scores kept getting lower and lower, so depending on the weather I’m sure the winner will have to make birdies,” the 39-year-old Martin said. “It has the potential to be a birdie shootout, but you never know. Those long putts I made last year in the final round were game-changers, I know that. I hope to get a few putts to drop and have a chance to win again.”

  The championship for Michigan PGA Section golf professionals determines who takes home this year’s first-place check from an estimated $55,000 purse, has their name added to the Gilbert A. Currie Trophy and is awarded a sponsor’s exemption into the PGA Tour’s 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club.

  Martin, the 2015 and 2020 Michigan PGA Match Play Champion who played last month in the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic, said he would like another shot at playing with the PGA Tour players. He missed the 36-hole cut by two shots.

  “I would have liked to have played better, but practice time for a club professional and those guys is very different,” he said. “You sort of have to go with what you got. I enjoyed it. It was a neat highlight of my career.”

  Martin, who last year in the championship at Prestwick Village Golf Club in Highland shot 8-under 208 to win, also wants to be part of the golfers who take advantage of another feature of the Section championship.

  The tournament serves as the starting point and qualifier on the road to major championship golf with the best players in the world at the PGA Championship of 2024, which will be played in May at Vahalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky.

  The low nine golfers at the end of the Michigan PGA Professional Championship besides Scott Hebert of Traverse City Golf & Country Club and Jeff Roth of BOYNE Golf Academy, who are already exempt, will earn playing spots in the 2024 PGA Professional National Championship next April at Fields Ranch East & West courses in Frisco, Texas, home of the new PGA of America headquarters and Omni PGA Frisco Resort. The low 20 finishers from that championship move on to Valhalla to play with the best players in the world at the 105th PGA Championship.

  Martin is among 13 past champions in this year’s field. Hebert, an eight-time Michigan PGA Professional champion (2006, ’07, ’08, ’09, ’11, ’12, ’14, ’16) and winner of the Yamaha Golf Cars Michigan Senior Open earlier this summer, and Roth, a five-time champion (1998, ’99, 2001, ’03, ’19) who also once worked as a professional at Flint Golf Club, are once again in the field.

  The others are three-time winner Brian Cairns of Fox Hills Learning Center (1996, 2000, 2013), two-time winner Steve Brady of Oakland Hills Country Club (1993,’95), two-time winner and PGA Life Member Barry Redmond of Chelsea (1990,‘92), two-time winner Benny Cook of Country Club of Lansing (2021,’22), Lee Houtteman of Leland Country Club (2018), John Seltzer III of Egypt Valley Country Club (2017), Dan Urban of Gull Lake Country Club (2015), Ron Beurmann of Country Club of Jackson (2010), Jack Seltzer of Seltzer Golf School (1988) and PGA Life Member John Traub of Berkley (1984).

  The field will play 54-holes over three days with a cut to the low 60 scorers and ties after Tuesday’s second round.

  Flint Golf Club’s classic Willie Park Jr.-designed course has hosted the Michigan PGA Professional Championship four times previously from 2017 to 2020, and has a rich tournament history, including the PGA Carling Open in 1957, the Michigan Open Championship in 1949, the GAM Championship in 1995 and 2010, the Michigan Amateur Championship in 1922 and 2001, and multiple national and state championship qualifiers. Part of the club’s history is that legend Sam Snead set the course record in June 1963 shooting a 61. 

  The club dates to 1910 as a social club, and it opened its course in 1919. Park, a two-time British Open champion turned designer, fashioned a parkland golf course that has stayed true to its roots over the years. Recent renovation work has rejuvenated much of Park’s original design. 

  Flint Golf Club’s staff includes head PGA professional Ed Bialek, and Superintendent Jim Smedley. For more information on the club visit flintgolfclub.com. 

  The Michigan PGA Professional Championship dates to 1922 and past champions include golf legends Walter Hagen, Al Watrous and Chick Harbert.

SPONSORS: This year’s presenting sponsors are Club Car, Corebridge Financial and Rolex. Supporting partners are Gallagher, the Golf Channel and the PGA Tour. Supporting sponsors are Titleist/Footjoy, Callaway Golf, Nike and TaylorMade.

RESULTS, TEE TIMES: See michiganpga.com Gallery is welcome. Parking and admission are free. More information on Flint Golf Club is available at flintgolfclub.com.