HARBOR SPRINGS – Birchwood Farms Golf and Country Club, a private community on the shores of Lake Michigan, features 27 holes of golf that roll across the natural landscape and offer picturesque views of water, hills and hardwoods.
Starting Sunday and continuing through Monday it will host the 25th GAM Women’s Senior Championship. This is the second time Birchwood Farms has hosted the flighted state championship for Golf Association of Michigan member women over age 50. The facility also hosted in 2015.
Birchwood Farms and it’s three nine-hole layouts, The Birches, The Woods and The Farms will each be utilized at some point in the championship.
The original 18 holes (The Birches/The Woods), founded in 1972, was designed by Bruce Matthews Sr., and Jerry Matthews of the same grand Michigan family of golf architecture designed the third nine (The Farms).
The course winds through scenic woodlands with The Farms nine offering some stunning long views from elevated tee boxes overlooking holes that fit the natural topography. Multiple tee positions make the course playable for any and all golfers, including a championship field.
In addition to golf, property owners at Birchwood enjoy clay tennis courts, a fitness center, heated pools, skiing, hiking and snowshoeing in addition to casual and fine dining options.
Part of the golf offerings for the owners are weekly events, clinics, various member tournaments and instruction from staff professionals. The practice areas and training center are groomed in the same meticulous manner as the golf course.
Cris Cavitt is the director of golf and Tom Brogger is the superintendent. Learn more about Birchwood Farms at birchwoodcc.com.
The GAM Senior Women’s Championship will be decided over 36-holes of stroke play featuring a championship flight that identifies the golfer whose name is added to the Sara Wold Trophy. Net and gross winners will also be determined in other flights.
Last year at Hidden River Golf Club in Brutus, Julie Massa of Holt won her second Women’s Senior Championship by three shots.
Massa, set to be inducted into the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame in October, and the GAM Senior Women’s Player of the Year for six consecutive years, had to hold off a trio of past champions. Shelly Weiss of Southfield, the 2018 champion, and two-time champion Terry Delcamp of Grand Blanc finished second while five-time champion Joan Garety was third.
Massa, Weiss, Delcamp and Garety are among seven former champions playing in this year’s field. The others include two-time champion Barb Schmid of Grand Rapids, three-time champion Sue Campbell of Kalamazoo and two-time winner Maureen Whitehead of Charlevoix.
