HOLLAND – Avery Howard and Abby Grevel of Muskegon worked well together like good friends do, and Shelly Weiss of Southfield and Barb Schmid of Grand Rapids finally finished first in a tournament that had eluded them.
The two duos were the winning teams Tuesday in the 12th GAM Women’s Four-Ball Championship presented by Pepsi at Macatawa Golf Club.
Howard, a Wayne State University golfer, and Grevel, a Ferris State University golfer, won the Overall Division title in a three-hole sudden-death playoff. Grevel made an eight-foot birdie putt on the third playoff hole (par 5 No. 18) for the win in the playoff against Hannah Pietila-Heinonen and Emmie Pietila-Sheffer, the now-married sisters from Brighton who played in a GAM event for the first time in five years.
“We’re like lifelong best friends and this is a memory we will never forget, a cool experience,” Grevel said after their closing 70 for 142 helped them catch the Pietila sisters, former University of Tennessee golfers who had opened the tournament with a 67 Monday and followed it up with a 75. “I think that whenever (Avery) struggled I stepped up and whenever I struggled (Avery) stepped up, so we kind of balanced each other out.”
Lilia Henkel of Grand Rapids and Logan Potts of Norton Shores shot a second consecutive 72 for 144 and third place.
Weiss and Schmid had finished second multiple times in the Senior Division of the tournament to the team of Joan Garety of Ada and Terry Delcamp of Grand Blanc, who have won it six times. This time, however, they shot a closing 2-under 70 on the heels of a first-round 71 for a 141 total and four-shot win.
Cathy Netter of Monroe and Julie Gloor of Grosse Ile shot 72 for 145 and tied for second with Ann Lauer of Auburn Hills and Meredith Weaver of Grosse Pointe Park, who shot a closing 75. Garety and Delcamp shot 76 for 148 and tied for fourth.
“We’ve finished second in this four or five times so it’s good to finally get one over on (Garety and Delcamp),” Weiss said. “We’ve been trying for a bunch of years.”
Weiss said they both played well over the two days.
“We definitely had the motivation to finish first,” she said. “Yesterday we ham and egged it really well and one of us managed to play solid golf on each hole. We kind of stayed the course today and we were paired with Joan and Terry today and we knew if we stayed just ahead of them we had a good chance to win this. It feels pretty good.”
Howard and Grevel, grew up in the same area of North Muskegon, didn’t set a goal to win the event when they signed up.
“We just wanted to play steady and have fun,” Grevel said. “We didn’t have like a number in our heads to shoot or anything like that but it turned out we won and that’s pretty awesome. This will give us both confidence going to back to school and for playing in the GAM Championship next week.”
Grevel said they realized in the playoff it was going to take a birdie to win.
“Everybody kept making pars, but finally,” she said of her wedge shot to eight feet on No. 18 to set up the winning putt.
Weiss said her and Schmid enjoy being teammates and kept knocking on the door in the best-ball tournament knowing it was likely they had to beat Garety and Delcamp.
“They were on our radar, and they have their names on that trophy a lot, and now we get on there, too,” she said.
The gross winners’ names in the Overall and Senior Divisions are inscribed on the tournament trophy, which his named The Garety/Hiestand Trophy in honor of Garety and fellow Michigan Golf Hall of Fame member Mary Jane Hiestand, who now lives in Florida. The tournament was originally a senior tournament but opened up to serve more women players in the GAM.
