LINDEN – Eight two-golfer teams emerged from 56 teams in the first stage of the 30th GAM Net Team Championships Monday at Spring Meadows Country Club.
The low four teams from the morning wave, and the low four teams from the afternoon wave move on to the final stage of the tournament on Sept. 17 at Meadowbrook Golf & Country Club in Northville to determine a championship team for 2020.
The morning wave winners were Adam Golden of Warren and Michael Rossman of Canton who teamed up for an 8-under net four-ball 64. Golden, playing with 13 strokes of handicap, shot 85 gross for a net 72, and Rossman, a 17-handicap shot 90 gross for a net 73.
Golden said it was a true team effort.
“We yinged and yanged it, especially on the back nine,” he said. “One of us kept coming through when we needed it.”
Jack and Mike McHale of Macomb will be going after their second championship in the tournament, 18 years after the first title in 2002. They tied for the win in the afternoon wave with a net 10-under 62. It was built by Jack, a 6-handicap, shooting a gross 75 for net 69, and Mike, a 9-handicap, shooting a gross 78 for a net 69.
Also at 10-under was the team of Bill Gibbons of Lapeer and Justin Krehel of Metamora. Gibbons, playing off a 9-handicap, shot a gross 82 for 73, and Krehel, a 14-handicap, shot 84 for 70.
The other three teams from the morning wave included the defending champions and a team that is a two-time former winner. Joining Golden and Rossman in September were defending champions Ronald Blackmore of Lake Orion and Kevin Renaud of Sylvan Lake, who shot net 65, Al Molnar of West Bloomfield and Tom Haller of Commerce, who also shot 65, and Dwaine Jones of Canton and Kevin Kotzian of Milford, who shot 66. Jones and Kotzian are two-time former champions in this tournament from 2015 and 2016.
The other two teams from the afternoon wave making the trip with the McHale and McHale, and Gibbons and Krehel, are two teams at 9-under, including Al Petrulis of Troy and Sal Petrulis of Howell, and Matt Magnotte of Clinton Township and John Bonapace of Grosse Pointe Woods.
Al Petrulis was playing with 8 strokes and shot 79 gross for a net 71. Sal Petrulis also had a net 71 with 14 strokes of handicap off a gross 85. Magnotte with an 11-handicap shot a gross 85 for a net 74, and Bonapace, a 15-handicap, shot a gross 91 for a net 76.
-Greg Johnson, [email protected]
