PETOSKEY – Historic Petoskey-Bay View Country Club, founded in 1915, will host the 26th GAM Women’s Senior Championship presented by Summit Golf Brands Monday and Tuesday.
A field of 78 GAM member women golfers ages 50-plus will play 36 holes over two days to determine an overall champion as well as winners in other flights.
The club was founded in 1915 and officially adopted the name Petoskey-Bay View Country Club in 1919. The first club president, Bert Cook, hired a dynamic duo of early U.S. golf course design and construction, the internationally renowned architect Willie Watson and prolific course builder/designer Thomas Bendelow who created the original course.
Multiple restoration and renovation projects have taken place over the years, including recent work by Holland-based Raymond Hearn Golf Course Designs, and the course maintains an early 1900s style with mature trees lining most of the fairways and mostly subtle elevation changes.
It can be played to a maximum of 6,252 yards with multiple tee options added over the years. Brian Sanderson is the PGA Professional and Jeremy Neer is the superintendent. Learn more at pbvcc.com.
The overall champion of the GAM Women’s Senior Championship will have her name added to the Sara Wold Trophy.
Last year at nearby Birchwood Farms Golf & Country Club in Harbor Springs, three-time champion Terry Delcamp of Grand Blanc made a seven-foot par putt on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff to top Shelly Weiss of Southfield, also a previous champion in 2018.
Delcamp and Weiss are returning and are among seven former champions in the field. The other past champions playing include two-time winner Julie Massa of Holt, two-time winner Donna Benford of Linden, two-time winner Barb Schmid of Grand Rapids, three-time champion Susan Campbell of Kalamazoo and two-time winner Maureen Whitehead of Charlevoix.
Five-time champion Joan Garety of Ada is not in this year’s field, but Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll of Haslett, the Michigan State University women’s golf coach and winningest GAM golfer ever, has turned 50 and will be playing in her first GAM Senior Women’s Championship.
