Jordan Fletcher of Portage captured the 31st Michigan Junior State Amateur, conducted by the Golf Association of Michigan, after rolling in a 25 foot birdie putt on the 18th green at Pine Lake Country Club in Orchard Lake. Fletcher outlasted a field of 84 players and played 125 holes in four days to rightfully claim the crown.
Following fifty-four holes of stroke play Fletcher held the number four seed in the sixteen player bracket. With convincing wins in Thursday?s opening rounds Fletcher saw much more work during Friday?s semifinal and final matches. Fletcher opened Thursday?s play by defeating Stroke Play Champion and number one seed, Joey Garber of Petoskey in a 20-hole thriller. Not to disappoint in the final match against last year?s champion and number two seed, Blake English, Fletcher calmly stuck to his game plan to play aggressive throughout the match play portion and make the most of his last opportunity to win the Michigan Junior State Amateur.
The final match was a seesaw battle with neither player able to hold on to a lead of more than two holes. After the match was squared through the thirteenth hole the there it would remain until Fletcher calmly rolled in his birdie bid against English of Charlotte. English?s spot in the final gave him a chance to defend his title he claimed last year at Forest Akers.
With the title on the line coming down the stretch both players made all-world pars on the par-3 seventeenth. After a superb up and down by Fletcher, English holed his ball from thirty feet to keep the match square and head to final hole.
On eighteen neither player was tempted by the opportunity to overpower the 350 yard par four. Fletcher played the hole like a seasoned veteran playing to well placed iron shots to 25 feet. English escaped a misplaced tee shot and was in the hole with four when Fletcher claimed his biggest golfing accomplishment on Pine Lake Country Club?s superb layout.
