Ferris State Dominates State
By Tom Lang
Ferris State University golfers had a fabulous few weeks in June.
Bulldog graduate Eric Lilleboe, age 36 of Okemos, won the 107th Michigan Open while on break from the PGA Tour Americas where he often plays – and not long after, current Bulldog sophomore McCoy Biagioli took home the 113th Michigan Amateur title played at Boyne Highlands.
One year ago, Biagioli was playing golf for White Lake-Lakeland and finished a respectable T5 at the high school state finals. Now reaching Michigan Amateur champ; that’s a major improvement over 12 months, one Biagioli said came from focusing on his short game.
“I’ve really been working on my short game and having a caddie (former high school teammate Marcus Kainhofer) helping read the putts definitely helps,” Biagioli said after the final round besting of Jimmy Dales of Northville, 3 and 1. “But I struggled all fall during college season with chipping, and today I got up and down four times the last match, so that was big.”
Lilleboe kept his lead through the final three rounds and won the Michigan Open Championship played at Oakland University Golf & Learning Center.
It was the second time Lilliboe won the coveted state professional title. He also won in 2019 and will have his name inscribed on the James D. Standish Trophy for the second time. He did it by shooting a closing 1-over 72 in wind-whipped conditions on the Katke-Cousins course and finished with a 6-under 278 total, four shots clear of the field to earn the $15,000 first-place check.
“It’s very nice,” he said of winning for the second time and taking the winners’ walk up the final hole with a significant lead. “That course was a bear today, really firm greens, really tough to play in the wind, and I was very happy obviously to be where I was.”
Lilleboe’s lead was trimmed to two strokes a few times during the final round, but even after he made a double-bogey to start the back nine, he still managed to have a three-shot lead as the others chasing him had issues with the whipping winds and fast greens, too.
“After making the double-bogey, I just told myself to keep going because I figured that hole was playing over-par for the day into the wind,” he said. “I was looking (at the leaderboard) more today because you just don’t know if someone’s playing well and is maybe 5-under or something. So yes, I was looking, and I saw a lot of bogeys being made. So, I was hanging on and trying to hit good shots, get on the green in regulation and have putts at it.”
Biagioli’s Michigan Am win earned the almost 19-year-old a trip to the U.S. Amateur in mid-August. It’s the first year the USGA added several state champions to their qualifying list.
The Michigan Amateur tournament is two days of stroke play and six rounds of match play to determine the winner. This was the first year Biagioli has made it to the 64-man match play field after two prior attempts.
“Our motto this week was all gas, no brakes,” he said. “We just kept the peddle down and kept going.”
