Six two-golfer teams, including one that includes last year’s GAM Player of the Year, one that includes this year’s GAM Champion, one duo that won the 2017 championship and two that are father-son teams emerged from a field of 81 teams and are moving on to the finals of the 11th GAM Senior/Mid-Am Team Championship after 36-holes of four-ball and foursomes.
Winners and runners-up were determined at three sites, including Monday at Plum Hollow Country Cub in Southfield, Monday at Travis Pointe Country Club in Ann Arbor, and Tuesday at Dearborn Country Club.
The six teams will meet on Tuesday, Oct. 13, to determine a championship team at Barton Hills Country Club in Ann Arbor. The teams, which have a senior player age 55-and-over and mid-am player over age 25, will play nine holes of four-ball, or best-ball, and nine holes of foursomes, or alternate shot in the finals.
Last year’s GAM Player of the Year, Dan Ellis of East Lansing and his father, Dean Ellis of Iron Mountain, teamed up to win at Travis Pointe Monday. They had to turn back 2017 champions Scott Strickland of Bloomfield Hills and Tom Gieselman of Commerce Township in a playoff at 139.
Ellis and Ellis shot 65 in morning best-ball and 74 in the alternate shot format, while Strickland and Gieselman shot 62 in best-ball and 77 in alternate shot to set up the playoff.
The Ellis duo took first-place honors with a best-ball par on the first-hole of a sudden-death playoff at No. 17 made by Dan. Both teams move on to the finals at Barton Hills.
Joining them there will be Jimmy Chestnut of Royal Oak, the 2020 GAM Champion who teamed up with Ken Hudson of Bloomfield Hills to win at Plum Hollow. They shot a 65 in four-ball and a 74 in foursomes for a 141 total.
Taking second was the duo of Mike Kohn of Belding and Joel Siegel of Rockford. They shot 69 in best-ball and 74 in alternate shot for 143.
Three teams finished at 145 missing out on the finals including the defending champions Grant Bruce of Birmingham and Michael Coriasso of White Lake.
The father-son team of David Bartnick and Matt Bartnick of Livonia won at Dearborn on Tuesday. They shot 67 in best-ball and 75 in alternate shot for 142.
Second place and the final spot in the finals went to Bob Carson of Auburn Hills and Lucas Belanger of Clinton Township. They shot 67 in the morning and then 76 for 143.
Just missing out of the finals was the third-place team of Joe Marx of Birmingham and his partner Casey Lubahn of Haslett, the men’s head golf coach at Michigan State University. They shot rounds of 68 and 76 for 144.
Monday and Tuesday’s first two rounds of the championship were originally scheduled for May 18 but moved to this week because of state pandemic restrictions that were in place in May. The finals are typically presented near the end of the season.
