ANN ARBOR – Andrew Lang of Grosse Ile took the good with the bad and won the GAM Net Match Play Championship presented by Preferred Data Systems for the second consecutive year.
“I hit a lot of good shots, I hit a lot of bad shots, but somehow I survived all my matches,” he said after closing out Jerry Tranzow of Macomb 2-up in the championship match Wednesday at Polo Fields Golf & Country Club.
The 36-year-old Lang, who has a golf club refinishing business, rallied from a 2-down deficit through 13 holes in the final by winning four of the last five holes, including a key birdie to tie the match at 15.
“I had a great final match with Jerry and he played really well,” Lang said. “I had some doubts in my matches. I didn’t have any big leads, but you have to get that fear out of your mind. You have to block all that out and just focus on what you’re doing and that’s what I did really well this tournament.”
Lang also credited his putter, and made a pitch that others get their putters fitted.
“I’ll say this until I die, it makes all the difference when it’s crunch time,” he said.
Tranzow, who works for General Motors at the Design Center, said he started the final match cold after his morning semifinal was forfeited.
“I needed a few holes to get going and battled back and then we kind of went back and forth,” he said. “Andrew is just a tough player. You know you can’t get one over on him. You can’t make a mistake.”
A field of 78 golfers with a Handicap Index™ authorized by the USGA™ of 20.4 or lower started the tournament on Monday with 18 holes of stroke play to determine the 16 golfers for the match play bracket, and then played two rounds of matches Tuesday and Wednesday.
“It’s a lot of golf and I had a lot of tough matches,” Lang said. “Last year I had big leads in some of my matches, but not this year.”
The Net Match Play Championship is part of the GAM’s continuing effort to serve more than just elite golfers with competitive tournaments by Handicap Index.
Lang, who had to give up 12 shots in handicap but beat William Dietz of Livonia 1 up in the morning semifinal Wednesday, said he will encourage others to play in the Net events.
“The GAM does a great job with it, and winning feels great,” he said. “Polo Fields was great the last three days, too. The golf was intense, but that makes it fun.”
