SAGINAW – Saginaw Country
Club has been busy helping the Golf Association of Michigan this summer, and
most recently agreed to help with a venue change and host the First Michigan
Senior Net Amateur presented by Michigan Golf Live Sunday and Monday.
Senior male golfers
over age 55 with GAM/USGA handicap indexes lower than 20.4 have a standalone
net championship for the first time this year. They will play for the title
over two days and 36 holes of competition on the classic course.
Saginaw CC already
hosted the Michigan Women’s Amateur Championship earlier this summer won by
Muskegon’s Aya Johnson.
The course, which
can be played at 6,143 yards, is sure to identify another great champion. Its
classic design dates to the first nine holes being developed in 1898 by Charles
H. Davis, a devotee of the game who purchased a farm and went to work. By 1902
the club had 100 members. The second nine, which was called the “new course,”
formally opened in 1912 and was designed by Tom Bendelow.
Bendelow is famous
for his design of the Medinah Country Club courses in suburban Chicago, as well
as Birmingham Country Club and The Jewel on Mackinac Island. Saginaw CC’s
course was remodeled in the 1960s, and Michigan golf course architect Jerry
Matthews remodeled parts of the course again in 1983. The current clubhouse
dates back to 1969.
The club has a long
relationship with Golf Association of Michigan tournaments having hosted the
Michigan Amateur Championship for men eight times dating to 1907. Chad Boyce is
the head golf professional and Rob Steger the superintendent.
The five Net
championships presented this year are part of the GAM’s continuing effort to
provide competition for members of all playing ability levels on some of the
state’s top golf courses.
-Greg Johnson
