Written By: Greg Johnson
JACKSON – Pierce Morrissey said he figured why not round out the summer golf season family style, so he asked his older brother Tait to play with him in the 10th GAM Four-Ball Championship presented by BOYNE Golf Monday at Country Club of Jackson.
“Why not play with someone that I feel comfortable with, that I’ve grown up with and played golf with my entire life,” he said. “I figured this would be a special event to win that way.”
The Morrissey brothers, 22-year-old Pierce who is a senior and golf team member at Michigan State University, and Tait, 24, a Northville resident, put together a 9-under 63 on the Marsh and Pines nines to win both the afternoon wave and the overall championship.
A field of 70-two-golfer teams was split between morning and afternoon waves.
The Morrissey brothers put together nine birdies and edged Andrew Tindall of Chelsea and Nick Jallos of Plymouth, who each made four birdies to shoot 8-under 64.
Gary Owen of Ann Arbor and Ronald Owen of Dexter, who teamed up for a 7-under 65, finished third in the afternoon wave.
The morning wave champions were David LeVan and Scott Oudsema of Ann Arbor. They won a three-team playoff among teams at 5-under with a par on the second hole of sudden death.
Brian King of Commerce Township and Dieter Schulz of Fort Gratiot finished second in the playoff with a team bogey on the final playoff hole (No. 9 Pines).
Ron Bonatz and Matt Lewicki of Northville finished third dropping out of the mix at 5-under on the first playoff hole with a bogey (No. 1 Pines).
Bonatz, however, had the shot of the day on his first shot of the day. He made a hole-in-one hitting a 9-iron 145 yards into the hole on his first swing (par 3 No. 6 Pines). Their group started the round on that hole in the shotgun-start format.
Pierce Morrissey said thank you to Country Club of Jackson and the GAM for the fun tournament, and then said he and his brother ham-and-egged it around the course.
“I kept the putter going all day, and Tait made some clutch putts coming down the stretch,” he said. “We had a couple of birdie strings in the middle of each nine. We played the round like a family. We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and we picked each other up when one of us got down. We stayed positive all day and made a lot of putts.”
