Link to championship page – 9th GAM Women’s Four-Ball Championship Home
OWOSSO – Golf legends like Arnold Palmer and Walter Hagen have walked the fairways at Owosso Country Club, and the celebrated venue has hosted several tournaments in recent years.
Many of the state’s top women golfers will play as part of two-golfer teams in the 9th GAM Women’s Four-Ball Championship at Owosso Country Club on Tuesday and Wednesday. The championship is being presented by sponsor Whistling Straits & Blackwolf Run – A Kohler Experience.
Owosso Country Club has hosted several professional and amateur events, including the 1955 and 1965 Michigan PGA Championships and in recent years the GAM Women’s Championship and GAM Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship.
The member-owned private club is located on a bluff along the Shiawassee River and was founded in 1923. The 6,300-yard par 71 course was originally designed by legendary architect Tom Bendelow.
Steve Wakulsky is the director of golf. For more information on the club visit owossocountryclub.com.
The GAM Women’s Four-Ball is open to golfers of all ages with players under 25 now eligible to compete. In the Overall Division gross four-ball winners will be awarded trophies, and gross and net trophies will be awarded in senior flights.
Last year Allyson Geer-Park of Brighton and Michigan State University golf teammate Haylin Harris won the overall title, and Joan Garety of Ada and Terry Delcamp of Grand Blanc won the senior title for the fourth time.
Geer-Park is back to defend, but this time her sister Kassidy Geer is her teammate. The Haque sisters from Rochester Hills – Oakland University’s Veronica and Savannah – are also in the tournament. They finished second last year. The tournament has an early sister-sister theme. Annie and Maggie Pietila of Brighton are also playing as a team. Michigan State women’s golf coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll makes up another interesting pairing with her daughter Olivia as her teammate.
Garety and Delcamp are returning, too. They have won the senior title four times in the last five years.
The gross winners’ names in the overall and senior divisions are inscribed on the tournament trophy, which his named The Garety/Hiestand Trophy in honor of Garety and fellow Michigan Golf Hall of Fame member Mary Jane Hiestand, who now lives in Florida.
-Greg Johnson, [email protected]