Link to championship page: Senior Mid-Am Team
ANN ARBOR – The wind whipped across the rolling landscape of Barton Hills Country Club making for tough playing conditions, but Grant Bruce of Birmingham and Michael Coriasso of White Lake finished strong to win the GAM Senior Mid-Am Team Finals presented by Imperial Headwear Thursday.
The duo teamed up for a 1-over round of 71 in the team format of nine holes of best-ball and nine holes of alternate shot to earn a spot on the permanent plaque of the 10th edition of one of the GAM’s most popular tournaments.
The Detroit Golf Club members were one of six duos that played in the finals. They earned their spot by winning at one of three sites in the first portion of the championship in May, which included 117 two-golfer teams. They won at TPC of Michigan in Dearborn on May 20, the same day The Sharf Course at Oakland University in Rochester and Flint Golf Club hosted parts of the field. The top two finishing teams from each site advanced to Thursday.
On Thursday they finished one shot ahead of Rick Herpich of Orchard Lake and Michael Anderson of Northville, who shot 72. They were the winners in May at Flint GC. Kevin Klemet of White Lake and Anthony Sorentino of Shelby Township shot 73 for third. They won in May at The Sharf.
Bruce, 55 and a real-estate broker with Signature Associates, and Coriasso, 29, works for Quicken Loans, said they play often in the same group at Detroit Golf Club and enjoy being teammates.
“Our games are complimentary,” Bruce said. “We read putts the same and we know each other’s distances with the irons.”
Coriasso, the recent GAM Mid-Amateur Champion, said the winning score was keyed by their performance on holes 15, 16 and 17.
“We had a tough tee shot on 15 and luckily we got it on the green,” he said. “Grant made a great lag putt and I made a four or five-footer to save par. That was big. Then at 16, the tough par 3 downhill. I flushed a 6-iron over the flag on the back edge of the green. We took as long as we possible could to read the putt and Grant just made a great putt. He left it hanging on the lip, half in, half out. It would have been a fabulous 2. Even with a 3 I think we gained a stroke on the field there. Then at 17 Grant pumped a drive and I hit a good (wedge) to about nine feet. Grant then hit the best putt of the day right in the heart of the cup.”
-Greg Johnson [email protected]
