Link to championship page, pairings, results: Jr. Invitational
EAST LANSING – Forest Akers West, home to the successful Michigan State University golf teams, is hosting the top junior boy and girl golfers in the state for the 7th GAM Junior Invitational Championship presented by Pepsi Saturday and Sunday.
The field of 82 golfers will play 36 holes of stroke play over the two days to determine a boy and girl overall champion as well as winners in the 15-and-under division. The players were invited by the GAM based on performances in a variety of state and national competitions in 2018.
Forest Akers has two golf courses, East and West, and both were redesigned by Michigan State alumnus and highly regarded golf course designer Arthur Hills in 1992. The West plays from 5,278 yards to 7,013 yards with five tee positions and hosts the Big Ten home competition for the Spartans.
The players in the field are familiar with the Forest Akers properties, which have hosted several GAM junior events as well as high school state championship tournaments over the years.
Learn more at golf.msu.edu.
Last year’s champions, Bradley Smithson of Grand Rapids and Jasmine Ly of Windsor, have moved on from the junior ranks to collegiate golf and are not eligible to defend their titles.
The 2018 winners in the 15-and-under division, Ieaun Jones of Ann Arbor and Sophie Stevens of Novi, are returning this year. Jones won this year’s GAM 14-and-under Match Play title, and Stevens won the GAM Junior Kickoff this summer.
Kate Brody of Grand Blanc, who won both the GAM 14-and-under Junior Match Play and her age division in the Junior Kickoff is in the field.
P.J. Maybank III of Cheboygan, the GAM Junior Stroke Play Champion for boys, and Elise Fennel, the Junior Stroke Play Champion for girls, are also in the field, as is Michigan Junior State Amateur winner Patrick Deardorff of Clarkston, and Michigan Girls Junior State Amateur winner Lilia Henkel of Grand Rapids.
August Meekhof of Eastmanville, who won the GAM Junior Kickoff and played in the U.S. Junior Amateur, and Max VanderMolen of Richland, an age group winner at the GAM Junior Kickoff, are also playing this weekend.
