ROCHESTER – Rick Herpich of Orchard Lake and Terry Delcamp of Grand Blanc won the senior men’s and women’s titles in the GAM Senior Tournament of Champions Monday at Oakland University’s Katke-Cousins golf course.
For Herpich, 67, it capped a super senior summer including his winning the GAM Super Senior title, and it was his first Tournament of Champions win.
For Delcamp, 58, it was a second Senior Tournament of Champions win to go with two previous Tournament of Champions wins.
“With everything that is going on with the pandemic and stuff like that my golf season has been awesome,” said Herpich, an Orchard Lake Country Club member. “This is probably the best golf I’ve played. I don’t remember a time in my life when I was shooting these kind of scores consistently in competition for such a long period. I’ve played well since the beginning of June.”
Herpich’s 2-under 70 was four shots clear of the other seniors in the field.
Steve Maddalena of Jackson and Mitch Wilson of Portage each shot 74 to tie for second, and David Bartnick of Livonia rounded out the top four with a 76.
Herpich, who is a retired Valassis Communications business executive, said he has seen a big difference in his game in the last two years because he has worked with trainer Tom Kruszewski of Orchard Lake Country Club.
“He’s really helped me getting my body better,” he said. “I have better mobility and speed with my swing. My swing speeds have stayed up there, too, the last three years or so.”
Herpich said the key to his winning round was consecutive birdies on holes 15, 16 and 17.
“I had four birdies and two bogeys and played steady,” he said. “I putted really well today and that’s important on these greens. They were fast.”
Delcamp stopped a streak of three consecutive wins in the Senior women’s TOC by Julie Massa of Holt and had to hold off Massa to do it.
She shot 74 and Massa, a five-time GAM Senior Player of the Year playing in the same group shot 75.
Cathy Netter of Monroe, who shot 81 was third and Barb Schmid of Grand Rapids, the 2014 senior women’s TOC winner, rounded out the top four with an 82.
“It feels awesome to win and it’s always great to play with Julie,” she said. “She actually hit the ball better than I did, but she got in a few tough spots. I’ve played a lot of golf here and I kind of know where to miss it and leave it on certain holes and I think that helped me.”
Delcamp said Katke-Cousins feels a little like a home course. Her husband, Jay, was a greens superintendent for 25 years at the Oakland University facility.
“He would be working 12 hours days so I would come over and play and practice,” she said. “I was really comfortable out there and I played well. It’s a beautiful place and I just have a lot of good memories here, too.”
Delcamp said she made a triple-bogey on the 13th hole and lost a two-shot lead, but she played 1-under the rest of the way.
“I kept that one shot on Julie after she made a bogey on 14,” she said. “I was 1-under after the triple-bogey on the way in. It was fun. There’s nobody I’d rather be paired with than Julie. She’s a beautiful player and I look forward to competing with her. It means something to compete with her and win.”
