ST. CLAIR – Historic St. Clair Golf Club, which opened in 1917, is hosting the 4th Michigan Senior Net Amateur Championship Tuesday and Wednesday.
The tournament features senior male golfers over age 55 with GAM/USGA handicap indexes lower than 20.4.
This year’s field of 52 golfers will play for the title over two days and 36 holes of net stroke play competition.
The Senior Net Amateur is among five Net championships presented as part of the GAM’s continuing effort to provide competition for members of all playing ability levels on some of the state’s top golf courses.
St. Clair Golf Club dates to an original nine holes opening 103 years ago, a legendary Donald Ross makeover design in 1923 and the redesign of five holes and additional elements added by prolific Michigan architect Jerry Matthews in 1994.
St. Clair has been a great partner and member club of the Golf Association of Michigan having hosted the 2010 Michigan Women’s Amateur, the GAM Women’s Championship in 2017, qualifying for the U.S. Amateur in 2003 and several other tournaments and championships.
In 1993 a contract was signed with Matthews Associates of Lansing for the design and construction of five new holes and the land-planning for Golfside (79 home-sites on 150 acres). The hole numbers were changed and the front and back nines reversed. The course, in the end a combination of Ross and Matthews design, was ready for the 1994 Invitational.
St. Clair plays to par 72 over 6821 yards from the back tees and 4,927 up front with seven possible tee positions. It is a full-service private golf club directed by Scott Rich, and Jeff Fisette is the course superintendent.
Last year at Flint Golf Club, Ricky Irhke of Oxford shot a closing net 65 for a two-day total of net 133 to win the championship by five shots.
Irhke is registered to defend, as are the champions of the first two Michigan Senior Net Amateurs – 2017 winner Robert Kenworthy of Clio and 2018 winner Greg McComas of Beverly Hills.
