Written By: Greg Johnson

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP – The Orchards Golf Club will welcome many of the top golfers in the state for the 11th GAM Four-Ball Championship presented by BOYNE Golf on Tuesday, Oct. 1.

A field of 60 two-golfer teams with combined GAM/USGA Handicap Indexes under 10.8 will compete in the 18-hole best-ball competition.

The Orchards course is the cornerstone of a 525-acre residential and golf community. It is regarded as one of the top daily fee public golf venues in the state, and features rolling terrain, natural grass areas and 88 sand bunkers designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr., who like his legendary father has worked on some of the top golf courses in the world.

When The Orchards was founded in 1993, the ownership and Jones said they wanted the course to look and play like the private club experience of the 1920s and serve each public golfer as a member for the day. It plays to a maximum of 7,036 yards with multiple tee positions, and a large practice facility with split level tees and a 27,000 square foot practice green for pitching, putting and bunker shot practice, also serves golfers.

The Orchards has hosted some significant golf tournaments, including several GAM tournaments and qualifiers over the years. The U.S. Public Links Championship was contested on the course in 2002, won by future PGA Tour standout Ryan Moore, and the course hosted the Michigan Open Championship in 2011, ’12 and ’13 with champions Randy Hutchison, Barrett Kelpin and Tom Werkmeister.

The 60 teams will be split between a morning wave of tee times and an afternoon wave of tee times. Winners and runners-up are determined in each wave, and a card playoff will decide any ties between the waves in determining an overall winner for the championship.

Last year at Country Club of Jackson, former Michigan State University golfer Pierce Morrissey and his brother Tait Morrissey from Northville won the afternoon wave and the overall championship. The Morrissey brothers have entered and plan to defend their title.