Written By: Greg Johnson
AUGUSTA – Ryan Langan of South Lyon and Brendan South of Livonia usually drive home from the GAM Net Chapman Championship lamenting what could have been if a few shots produced more favorable results.
This time they made the drive frustration free as champions.
“It’s always driving home talking about what we left our there, and like, it could have been this, it could have been that if we made a putt,” South said.
“We typically shoot 76 even 78 in the Chapman format, but today we were just on. We made so many putts,” Langan said. “I’ve never putted like that in one of these before.”
Langan and South teamed up for an 8-under net 63 at Gull Lake View Golf & Resort’s Stoatin Brae Course, won the Morning Wave by five shots and topped the Afternoon Wave winners by two shots Tuesday in the 12th GAM Net Chapman Championship presented by Summit Golf Brands.
Joseph Shaffer of Ortonville and Matthew Mikesell of Manchester shot 5-under 66 to win the Afternoon Wave.
Runners-up in the Morning and Afternoon Waves were decided by scorecard playoffs.
Four Morning Wave teams tied at 3-under for second place with Andy and Christy Kozlowski of Brutus taking home the trophies by topping the others in a scorecard playoff. The others at 3-under included Brad Christians of Fountain and Joel Marquez of Rockford, Tzu-Li Chang of Dearborn and Rick Grezak of Livonia, and Jake and Jeff Blum of Port Huron.
Three teams tied at 4-under 67 behind Shaffer and Mikesell in the Afternoon Wave, and Matt Magnotte of Clinton Township and John Bonapace of Grosse Pointe Woods, a past champion team in the championship, won the scorecard playoff to take home the runner-up trophies.
The other teas at 4-under were Dale Boone of Southfield and Matt Walter of Troy, and Greg Fisher of Chesterfield and his playing partner James Caris of Sterling Heights.
Langan and South started on hole 15 in a shotgun start, birdied 16, 17 and 18. They also finished with a bang as Langan rolled his tee shot less than a foot past the cup on the par 3 No. 14 hole.
“After the way we started, we were just making sure the wheels didn’t fall off, we made a bunch of putts in the middle of the round and then we managed to keep it together coming down the stretch,” South said.
Langan, 38 works in property management and coaches golf at Madonna University, while South, 39, is a mailman. They met through mutual friends several years ago and have played a lot of golf together for the last 15 years.
“We don’t come thinking we are going to shoot 8-under and win,” Langan said.
“We come because we like the tournament, and even though we didn’t like the format at first, we do now,” South said. “We’ve figured it out, and today Ryan just kept making big putts.”
Shaffer, 68, and a retired veteran who runs an adult care facility with his wife, and Mikesell played as partners for the first time in the tournament, and Mikesell, 67 and also a retired veteran, said he almost didn’t make it.
“My lower back bothers me and I have been telling him he might want to find an alternate,” Mikesell said. “Joe did most of it today. I’m sure his back hurts from carrying me all day.”
Shaffer admitted he had a good day, especially on approach shots.
“I was sticking them in there,” he said.
The tournament, which included 72 two-person teams, used the unique Chapman format in which each player on the two-person teams plays from the teeing ground and then plays the teammate or partner’s ball for the second shot. After the second shot, the partners select the ball with which they wish to score and play that ball alternately to complete the hole.
