YPSILANTI – Washtenaw Golf Club, one of the oldest golf courses in Michigan, has hosted various Golf Association of Michigan tournaments over the years, and will be hosting the Michigan Net Amateur Championship presented by Michigan Golf Live for the second time.
A field of 74 male golfers with USGA/GAM Handicap Indexes of 20.4 or better square off over 36 holes of net stroke play Monday and Tuesday to determine a state net champion.
Washtenaw, which previously hosted the Michigan Net Amateur in 2014, opened in 1899 and has evolved over the years into a 6,512-yard classic parkland style golf course featuring tree-lined fairways, strategically placed bunkers, and quick, undulating greens.
In January of 2020 a new ownership group headed by Michigan Golf Hall of Fame player and golf instructor Dave Kendall took the reins of the historic golf club that remains open to the public.
The course has a rich tournament history, including hosting the 1927 Michigan Amateur Championship, and many major events since for both the Golf Association of Michigan and the Michigan PGA.
The original founders persuaded a local farmer to let them stick three empty tomato cans in his freshly cut hay field west of the city and invited their friends over for a game of golf. The event was a success, and 15 men from Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor formed the Washtenaw Country Club in Ypsilanti Township a year later. Eventually, the sheep that grazed on the greens were replaced with lawnmowers and the tomato cans with golf holes, and the small hay field became a club.
Kendall announced in the spring that some restaurant/banquet remodeling would be undertaken and promised a quality course condition. Raymond Hearn Golf Course Designs Inc. has completed a master plan and has started renovation projects on the course.
Zach Szawara is the golf professional and Mark Pappas is the superintendent. Learn more about Washtenaw at washtenawgolfclub.com.
Last year Brad Christians of Fountain near Ludington, a Meijer bakery department team leader playing with a 20-handicap at Polo Fields Golf & Country Club in Ann Arbor ,shots net rounds of 69 and 64 for an 11-under total and victory. Dustin Ross of Garden City was second after a pair of net 72s for 144.
Christians is returning to defend and several other past champions are in the field including 2018 winner Matt Magnotte of Clinton Township, 2014 winner Steve Szymanski of Rochester Hills, 2013 winner Jack Germain of Punta Gorda, 2009 winner Mike Kidder of Ann Arbor, 2008 and 2007 winner Michael Brown of Battle Creek and 2002 winner Jack McHale of McComb.
