MUSKEGON – Historic Muskegon
Country Club will host the top women golfers in the state for the 27th Golf
Association of Michigan Women’s Championship presented by the West Michigan
Golf Show Monday and Tuesday.
Defending champion
Kerrigan Parks of Flushing and Marshall University, 2016 champion Anna Kramer
of Spring Lake and the University of Indianapolis, last summer’s Michigan
Amateur champion Aya Johnson of Muskegon and the University of Wisconsin, and
two-time Michigan Amateur champion Allyson Geer of Brighton and Michigan State
University are part of the talented field.
The Donald
Ross-designed Muskegon Country Club course has hosted several GAM championships
and USGA qualifiers, including the Michigan Amateur Championships of 2005 and
2013 and last year’s GAM Senior Championship for men. This is the first time it
has hosted the GAM Women’s Championship.
The club was founded
in 1908 on 130 acres of virgin dune overlooking Lake Michigan and features
rolling terrain and fescue lined fairways. It can play up to 6,697 yards from
the back tees, and in Ross fashion features challenging green settings.
The course was
originally laid out by noted designer Thomas Bendelow, but in 1920 was
redesigned by Ross. In recent years the club has concentrated on removing some
trees and returning the design to the original setting Ross intended.
Stephany Pawlowski
is the head golf professional at MCC, and Jeff Hopkins is the superintendent.
Learn more at muskegoncc.com.
Parks, a Marshall
University golfer from Flushing, topped Katelyn Chipman of Canton and Grand
Valley State by two shots in the championship last year at St. Clair Golf Club.
She also took the title on her 18th birthday.
Chipman, runner-up
last summer in the GAM Championship and the Michigan Amateur, is also in the
field of 78 who will play 36 holes of stroke play over the two days. The
tournament is open to GAM member women who have a GAM/USGA Handicap Index lower
than 15.4. The winner receives the coveted Betty Richart Trophy.
-Greg Johnson, [email protected]
