Written By: Greg Johnson
BLOOMFIELD HILLS – Oakland Hills Country Club’s North Course will host the 15th Senior/Mid-Am Team Championship Finals presented by Shanty Creek Resort on Thursday.
Eight teams from three qualifiers in May will compete to determine the championship team. A field of 139 teams including 278 of the state’s top golfers, competed in the opening segment of the championship that features a Senior golfer (55-and-over) teamed up with a Mid-Amateur golfer (25-and-over).
Western Golf & Country Club in Redford hosted a qualifier on Monday, May 13, and Oakhurst Golf & Country Club in Clarkston and Grosse Ile Golf & Country Club each hosted on May 20. Champion and runner-up teams were determined out of the teams at each qualifier site, but because of ties for second place at two sites, eight teams qualified for the overall finals this Thursday.
While construction continues on the new Oakland Hills clubhouse to replace the historic building claimed by fire in February of 2022, it has not interfered with the club being a host for GAM tournaments, including the 2023 Michigan Amateur Championship on the North Course, or the 2024 U.S. Junior Amateur earlier this year.
The North Course, the de facto other course at Oakland Hills in deference to the famous South Course that has hosted 11 USGA championships, has hosted the Michigan Amateur four times and it was used during stroke play rounds of the U.S. Junior.
Many of the players in Thursday’s finals have played the course in previous tournaments.
In 2013 the late Arthur Hills and Steve Forrest renovated 30 bunkers on the North, fixed drainage issues and added 300 yards. The North, like the South, has Donald Ross lineage in routing and design, and was also renovated by Robert Trent Jones (1961).
The North opened in 1924, six years after the South, and was presented for 35 years through the Great Depression and beyond as a public course (1932-1967). It has served the club’s membership as a private facility since.
Steve Brady is the head golf professional at Oakland Hills and Phil Cuffare is the director of agronomy.
The teams in the finals from the Western G&CC qualifier include Greg Davies of West Bloomfield and Anthony Sorentino of Rochester Hills and Chris Bailey of Rochester and Andrew Smith of Oakland Township.
The teams from the Grosse Ile G&CC qualifier are David Vaclav of Flat Rock and Matt Mahanic of Grosse Ile, and the two runner-up teams of Mike Anderson of Novi and Rick Herpich of Orchard Lake, and JJ Modell and Mitchell Wayne of Bloomfield Hills.
The teams from the Oakhurst G&CC qualifier include 2019 Senior/Mid-Am Team champions, Grant Bruce of Birmingham and Michael Coriasso of Royal Oak, and the two second-place teams of Jerry Dagenais and Michael Hohf of Oxford and Mike Zoerhoff and James Daniels of Caledonia.