Link to championship page, pairings, results: GAM Four-Ball
ANN ARBOR – Travis Pointe Country Club will host many of the state’s top amateur golfers in the 6th GAM Four-Ball Championship presented by Chemical Bank Monday.
A field of 50 two-golfer teams with combined GAM/USGA Handicap Indexes under 10.8 will compete in the 18-hole best-ball competition.
Travis Pointe, which from 2016 to 2018 hosted the LPGA Volvik Championship, was designed by Michigan golf architect Bill Newcomb. It features six sets of tees to fit golfers of all skill levels. The course can be played from 5,264 yards to a difficult 7,326 yards.
Travis Pointe had hosted several Golf Association of Michigan championships in recent years, including the Michigan Amateur Championship, as well as several Michigan PGA tournaments and USGA qualifiers.
An international field of the world’s top women golfers thrilled the crowds for three years at Travis Pointe. The 2016 LPGA Volvik Championship was won by Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand, the 2017 champion was Shanshan Feng of China and the 2018 winner was Minjee Lee of Australia.
Previously known as Omega Farms, the private club was constructed in 1976 and opened in 1977. Guy Guarino is the general manager, Rocky Mullendore the head golf professional and Dan Graft the golf course superintendent. See travispointe.com for more information.
The GAM Four-Ball will feature the 50 teams split between a morning wave shotgun start and an afternoon wave shotgun start. Winners and runners-up are determined in each wave, and a card playoff will decide any ties.
Last year at Barton Hills Country Club Anthony Provenzola of Superior Township and Jon Ripperger from Ann Arbor won the Morning Wave and survived a scorecard playoff against the winners of the Afternoon Wave to claim the overall title.
The duo, playing in the Four-Ball Championship for the first time and in a four-ball competition together for the first time, shot a 4-under 67 to top the morning half of the field. Dustin Ferrell of Dexter, a Barton Hills Country Club member, and his partner Michael Boldt of Jackson matched the 67 to win against the afternoon half of the field. A scorecard playoff determined Provenzola and Ripperger won the overall title because they were two shots better on the back nine.
Provenzola and Ripperger are not entered in this year’s field, but Ferrell and Boldt are returning. Two-time former champions Wes Stewart and Peter vanWezel from Windsor, Canada are returning. They won in 2015 and ’16.
-Greg Johnson, [email protected]
