GAM COURSE RATER OF THE YEAR: Kurt Visniski of Grand Blanc

Written By: Greg Johnson

FARMINGTON HILLS – Kurt Visniski of Grand Blanc finds it hard to believe he is the Golf Association of Michigan’s Course Rater of the Year.

“When (Hunter Koch, director of course rating) was announcing the rater of the year he had all the previous winners raise their hands,” Visniski recalled of a fall awards and golf gathering.

“I remember thinking that is quite a group, the best raters out there. I look up to all of them. Then he made the announcement, and it still feels unreal that I’m part of that group now. I was quite surprised to tell you the truth.”

Visniski, a 63-year-old retired mechanical engineer, is a GAM member with his wife and fellow course rater Lisa Stewart-Visniski through Flint Elks Country Club.

The award is presented annually to the course rater who demonstrates outstanding proficiency with the Course Rating System™ and is committed to helping grow and develop the GAM Course Rating Program.

“Kurt is well known among our raters for keeping an exceptionally neat Form 1,” Koch said in making the official announcement. “He is easy to work with, extremely approachable, and very helpful to those on his teams. He is also willing to share his opinion at green meetings and he makes many observations on the course that are often easy to miss for other raters. More than anything else, Kurt’s active dedication to continuous learning has made him and all our rating teams better at what we do.”

Visniski said his wife, a past Course Rating Rookie of the Year winner, started with the course rating teams of the GAM before him and she suggested he would like it. In addition, he realized it was a way to play golf courses that he might not otherwise have an opportunity to play.

“As I got more involved with it, I realized I may enjoy the rating part of the job more than the playing part,” he said.

The Visniski duo is heavily involved. While some health issues sidelined him late in the season in 2024, Visniski estimates he participated in 30 ratings in the 2023 season.

“Our rule is if a rating is within 60 miles of our house we try and sign up for it,” he said.

His handicap index is currently 23.0 and he claims a love-hate relationship with playing the game. Lisa is a more accomplished player who has won multiple club championships.

“I never thought about course rating before Lisa got involved, didn’t realize it existed,” he said. “I went in with no expectations and found out the skills I used as a mechanical engineer, the attention to detail, the numbers, fit with it.”

He remains surprised at how the system has been created and how in depth it goes. He said doing an update rating in 2024 at Oakland Hills Country Club of both the famous South Course and the North Course might be his favorite rating.

“It’s my favorite more because of the actual layout and design of the courses, more than the prestige of Oakland Hills,” he said. “We had people from the membership join us on the rate and they were all very helpful in pointing out things to us. It was a very enjoyable part of the experience.”

Beyond the numbers and course rating formula, Visniski reported a familiar final opinion of the courses at Oakland Hills.

“You don’t want to hit it in the rough,” he said.

In addition to Visniski being named the Course Rater of the Year, the GAM chose Brett Quencer, a member through Currie Municipal Golf Course in Midland, as the Rookie of the Year, and Don VanOostveen, a member through Sunnybrook Country Club near Grand Rapids, as Trainer of the Year. Like Visniski, they will be invited to the GAM’s Annual Meeting in the spring where they will be introduced and honored along with other award winners.

The GAM Course Rating Program, which includes 125 or more volunteer raters, typically rates 50 or more courses each year across the state, and the raters are volunteers who collect raw data for the Course Rating System.

It is one of the many services provided to Michigan golf by the GAM and is dependent on volunteers. Course raters are typically avid golfers who have an analytical inclination and the process orientation to apply the methodology while playing the course. Their data collection helps to produce the course ratings needed to apply the World Handicap System via the GAM and the United States Golf Association.

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