Written By: Greg Johnson
FARMINGTON HILLS – Bridget Boczar of Canton and Elayna Bowser of Dearborn have been named 2026 Co-GAM Women’s Players of the Year, Ken Hartmann, senior director of competitions and USGA services, announced today.
Boczar, 23 and a senior at Baylor University in Texas, and Bowser, 29 and a real-estate agent, finished the golf season tied atop the GAM Player of the Year points list.
Bowser won the women’s title in the season-ending GAM Tournament of Champions to force the tie and is a Player of the Year for a third consecutive golf season, and Boczar highlighted her season by winning the Michigan Women’s Amateur Championship and is a Player of the Year for the first time.
Player of the Year point totals can be found on a pull down from the PLAY tab at GAM.org. Carl’s Golfland is the presenting sponsor of the points lists.
Next week, the GAM will announce the Senior Men’s and Senior Women’s Players of the Year, and in the next few weeks more Players of the Year in gender and age categories.
Boczar and Bowser each earned 550 points, just 40 ahead of Grace Slocum of Traverse City and the University of Wisconsin at 510.
Kate Brody of Grand Blanc, a teammate of Slocum at Wisconsin, was next with 340 and Lauren Timpf of Macomb and Purdue University with 330 rounded out the top five.
“It’s a great honor to be named the best player in Michigan and it’s an honor to be named along with a great player like Elayna,” Boczar said. “This is a first for me and I’m very happy about it.”
Bowser said she doesn’t make being Player of the Year a goal but knows it is possible if she progresses through the golf season with good performances.
“I break the season down tournament-by-tournament and try to prepare and then play well in each one, and then at the end of the year hopefully it adds up and I have a chance to be player of the year again,” she said.
Boczar played for the Baylor golf team this fall and had several top finishes. A transfer player from Oakland University, she is awaiting an answer from the NCAA regarding an extra term of eligibility in the spring. She will graduate with degrees in math and psychology.
“Baylor has provided resources for my education but also my golf,” she said. “I’ve been able to improve and compete at a very high level and gain a ton of experience and wisdom.”
She said winning the Michigan Women’s Amateur was a long-time goal achieved.
“I never really considered myself a good match play player because we don’t play a lot of match play in college and I usually perform best in stroke play,” said the two-time GAM Women’s Champion. “But coming into the Amateur this year I decide just to have fun, focus on myself, and play my own game to give it my best shot. I was super happy that I won. My brother (Jack) was my caddie and that made it special and even more fun.”
Bowser, the 2019 Michigan Women’s Amateur Champion, noted that she won her first tournament of the summer, the GAM Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, and the last tournament of the season, the GAM Tournament of Champions. In between, she qualified for U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship for a third consecutive year.
“Staying competitive has become more important to me as I get older,” she said. “I’m busy with work and busy with golf and I look at it as a challenge to balance both and perform at both at a high level. This was kind of a bookend season with wins, but I played well throughout the summer. It’s always interesting to see how I stack up with the college girls. Now that I’m 29 and it feels like I’ve been out of college a long time, it’s nice to think I can be out there and compete with them.”
