Jackson’s Steve Maddalena Wins 35th GAM Senior Championship

By Tom Lang

ANN ARBOR – Jackson’s Steve Maddalena didn’t miss a green in regulation and held off his playing partners to win the 35th GAM Senior Championship at Barton Hills Country Club. 

“I played pretty solid except for two three-putt bogeys and felt really good with what I was doing tee to green,” he said after shooting a closing 3-under 68 for a 5-under 137 tournament total and three-shot win. “I love this golf course. I could play here every day and never get tired of it.” 

Mitch Wilson of Portage and fellow Michigan Golf Hall of Fame member Randy Lewis of Alma, who played in the same group with Maddalena, tied for second. Wilson shot 70 and Lewis 71 for 140. Leo Daigle of Wixom, and recent U.S. Senior Amateur runner-up Jerry Gunthorpe of Ovid, rounded out the top five at 141. 

It was the second GAM Senior Championship win for the 61-year-old Maddalena, who also won in 2019, and he was coming off a prestigious invitational win in the Senior Porter Cup at Niagara Falls Country Club near Buffalo, N.Y. It was his second big national win of the year. He also won the Trans-Mississippi Senior in May.