Classic Plum Hollow Country Club Hosting 40th Michigan Junior State Amateur

  SOUTHFIELD – Plum Hollow Country Club, a
classic course created by the legendary English design team of Colt &
Alison, will host the 40th Michigan Junior State Amateur Championship presented
by Pepsi Monday through Thursday.

  The Michigan Junior
State Amateur features the top 84 top junior boy golfers in the state as
determined by past performance or via sectional qualifiers presented earlier
this summer across the state.

 Plum Hollow, which hosted the 2015 Michigan
Amateur, has a rich history that includes being the site of the 1947 PGA
Championship and the 1957 Western Open.

   The club was founded in 1921, and features
rolling hills, surprising elevation changes and five par 3 holes that impact
scoring with demanding shots and small, undulating greens. The five par 5 holes
offer a few more birdie chances.

   Jim Ferrier won the 1947 PGA at Plum Hollow
by defeating Michigan golf legend Chick Harbert in the then match play finals.
Also in that tournament legend Ben Hogan lost to Toney Penna, and legend Gene
Sarazen fell to Harbert after beating Sam Snead.

    It was 10 years later in 1957 that Plum
Hollow hosted the Western Golf Association’s Western Open, which was considered
a “major” championship in that era. Golf Hall of Famer Doug Ford won that one
with a 279 72-hole total. George Bayer, Gene Littler and Billy Maxwell were
among the other contenders.

   H.S. Colt and C. H. Alison formed a
formidable golf architecture firm in London in the 1900s and partnered for four
years with Alister Mackenzie. Plum Hollow is one of over 300 golf courses they
are credited with designing or redesigning in the United Kingdom and the United
States. Golf course architecture historians point out that Colt was known for
starting projects with picking spots for the par 3s and as a result they are
often especially strong parts of the Colt & Alison courses.

   The course is sure to test the field of boys
in the field who are age 18-and-under and have not yet attended college. The field
will play 36 holes of stroke play Monday to determine a medalist and top seed
to lead the low scoring 32 golfers into the match play bracket.

  First-round or round
of 32 matches are Tuesday with second round and quarterfinals on Wednesday and
semifinal matches and the championship match on Thursday.

  Defending champion
Ben Smith of Novi has moved on to Georgia Tech and is not in the field, but
last year’s stroke play medalist and the GAM Junior Boys Player of the Year
Patrick Sullivan of Grosse Pointe returns.

  Colin Sikkenga of
Kalamazoo, who just last week reached the round of 32 in the U.S. Amateur at
Baltusrol in New Jersey, is in the field, as is Bradley Smithson of Grand Rapids,
who was a semifinalist in this championship two years ago. Max VanderMolen of
Richland, who is 10, will be the youngest player in the field having qualified
recently at Sunnybrook Country Club near Grand Rapids.

  The list of
champions in the history of the tournament is impressive and includes tour
players Ryan Brehm, Joey Garber, Michael Harris and Jeff Roth.

  Last year Smith won
his second consecutive title with a 2 and 1 win over Eric Nunn of DeWitt in the
final match at Eagle Eye Golf Club in Bath. He was the first back-to-back
winner since the format changed to a match play conclusion in 2000.

  More information on
the championship, including daily results, can be found at gam.org under the
championships tab. More information on Plum Hollow can be found at
plumhollowcc.com. Mike Bageris is the general manager, John Jawor the head golf
professional and John Sabat the superintendent.

-Greg Johnson, [email protected] 

 

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