MOUNT PLEASANT – The brothers-in-law team of Mike Ignasiak of Saline and Randy Frederick of Chesterfield shot a final round 6-under 66 to go with an impressive 11-under 61 from the first round to win the 15th GAM Senior Four-Ball Championship Tuesday at The Pohlcat Championship Course.
“Randy put the ball in the fairway and on the green, and that let me swing as hard as I wanted and the driver was working,” said Ignasiak.
“We didn’t make a bogey for two rounds.”
They won by three shots over 2019 champions Tom Daigle of Wixom and Kevin Klemet of White Lake who teamed up for a closing 63 and 14-under total.
Three teams tied for third at 10-under, each team closing with 68s, too. The teams: Dave Seida of Traverse City and Dave Sperry of Williamsburg, Ken Chicka of Shelby Township and Tom Senkowski of Rochester Hills and Chris Bailey of Rochester and Gary Rymiszewski of Oxford.
The defending champions, Jeff Lane of Northville and Jim Lewis of Novi, shot a final 66 for 136.
A field of 49 two-golfer teams played 36-holes of four-ball over the two days to determine the champion team in the senior overall division (age 55-plus) and a super senior division (age 65-plus).
As the overall winners, Ignasiak and Frederick will have their names inscribed on the Gus Cosmos Trophy.
In the super senior division the Jackson duo of Mike Raymond and Pete Walz shot a final 7-under 65 for an 11-under 133 total. Dan Hughes of Bay City and Roy Schultheiss of Saginaw finished second shooting a 69 for 8-under.
Three teams tied at 5-under 139: Terry Moore of Grand Rapids and Kurt Vandenbosch of Zeeland, who shot a final 71, Rick Herpich of Orchard Lake and Tom Rex of Charlevoix, who shot 70, and Thomas Johnson of Gobles and Gary Thompson of South Haven, who shot 70.
Ignasiak, 55, was playing in his first senior GAM tournament and was elated to win with his 65-year-old brother-in-law.
“I wasn’t expecting to do this well,” he said. “We played very solid. We were not as aggressive today as we were in the first round, and that worked out for us. We really stuck to the plan.”
Ignasiak said they did notice Daigle and Klemet were making a charge.
“I started check the scoreboard about the 15th or 16th hole and I said, ‘okay, we’ve got to tighten up. Those guys are making a good run,” Ignasiak said.
Klemet called he and Daigle’s effort a good try.
“We left a couple out there the last few holes with short puts we missed,” he said. “We tried to put more pressure on (Ignasiak and Frederick) but it didn’t happen. The slow start yesterday (67) costs us.”