ROCHESTER – Great Oaks
Country Club, a rolling championship course in the hills of Rochester, hosted
the second ever GAM Net Chapman Championship a year ago.
It went so well, the
club is hosting the third GAM Net Chapman Championship presented by Michigan
Golf Live. A field of 44 teams or 88 golfers will play 18 holes of net Chapman
competition on Friday.
In a Chapman, two
players play as partners with each partner playing from the teeing ground and
each then playing his partner’s ball for the second shot. After the second
shot, partners select the ball with which they wish to score and play that ball
alternately to complete the hole.
Last year Roger
Chapman of Rochester and Stewart Sloan of Macomb Township topped Chris Hollman
of Novi and Rob Walrich of South Lyon in a three-hole aggregate strokes playoff
after each team checked in with net 9-under 63s off of gross 78s in regulation
play.
Sloan and Chapman
came out on top of the playoff going bogey-par-par on the three playoff holes
for 12 strokes, while Hollman and Walrich went par-bogey-bogey for 13 strokes.
Both teams had the same handicap of 15 strokes for the event so they played
even-up in the playoff.
Many of the same
players from last year’s field return this year, including Sloan and Chapman
and 2015 champions Steve Nimer of Wolverine Lake and Joe LaForges of Rochester
Hills. The championship is open to men and women age 18 or over with a GAM/USGA
Handicap Index.
Great Oaks, founded in 1971, will be familiar
to most of the field.
Once a farm, the land was purchased in 1968
from Howard McGregor, a prominent business man of the Rochester Area. The
Slavik family then developed the area, and in 1971 Great Oaks Country Club was
opened featuring the McGregor Mansion as the Clubhouse. Towering oak trees
lined the boulevard to the clubhouse, providing it with its name. With
continued growth the mansion was replaced with current 43,000 square foot
clubhouse in 1989.
Great Oaks
championship golf course was the original design of course architect William
Newcomb. Following the master plan of the membership, updates to the course,
most recently a $3.5 million renovation in 2006, were completed by Mark
McCumber Associates. Great Oaks has hosted Michigan Amateur Championship
qualifiers, and the Michigan Women’s Amateur Championship among other GAM
tournaments.
Mark Maras is the
golf professional at Great Oaks, and Don Knop the superintendent. The course
can play between 6,513 yards and 4,952 yards with seven tee position options.
For more information
about the club visit www.greatoakscc.com
