GAM Tournament Results in Fall
GAM NET TEAM WINNERS: Yvette Johnson and Sean Gouda
All stories by Greg Jonson
Yvette Johnson of Farmington Hills and Sean Gouda of West Bloomfield have worked together at DTE for several years and have been golf partners for a long time, too.
They team up often and this time they teamed up to win the 33rd GAM Net Team Championship Finals at Meadowbrook Country Club.
“It feels great,” said Johnson, who is 61. “We kind of ham and egged it. When I needed to make a putt I made it and when we needed him to make one, he made it. It was really a really good day for us.”
Gouda, 41, made a final tap-in par for a net birdie on the 18th hole to give the duo their winning margin and a closing four-ball net 7-under 65. Mike Coles of Sterling Heights and Brian Maltese of Shelby Township shot a net 66 for second, and brothers Rix and Anthony Naimi of West Bloomfield finished third with a 68.
Eight Teams played in the finals, including a team featuring sponsor Bill Hobson of Michigan Golf Live. The eight duos emerged from 80 teams that played for a coveted spot in the finals earlier this year at Flint Golf Club.
Tom Gieselman, Scott Strickland Win Third Senior/Mid-Am Team Title
Tom Gieselman of Commerce Township and Scott Strickland of Bloomfield Hills executed an alternate shot birdie to perfection on the final hole and won the 14th GAM Senior/Mid-Amateur Team Championship at Barton Hills Country Club.
The closing birdie earned the longtime friends a third victory in the finals of the popular championship that features a Senior golfer (age 55-and-over) teamed up with a Mid-Amateur golfer (25-and-over).
Six teams that won or finished second in the trio of first-day sectional competitions hosted earlier in the season competed for a final 18 holes. They played four-ball, also known as best-ball, for nine holes and foursomes, also known as alternate shot, for nine holes. A field of 124 teams, or 248 of Michigan’s top golfers, played in the opening segment.
The final birdie by Gieselman and Strickland gave them a 5-under 65, which was just enough to clip the runner-up team of David LeVan of Ann Arbor and Andrew Tindall of Chelsea. LeVan and Tindall also birdied 18 for a final 66.
GAM TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS
Peter Farner of Twin Beach Country Club in Commerce Township and Chelsea Collura of West Shore Golf & Country Club in Grosse Ile closed out the tournament season with wins in the GAM Tournament of Champions presented by BOYNE Golf, at Oakhurst Golf & Country Club.
Champions, male and female, eligible for having won a GAM member club championship or a GAM title this season, played a final 18-hole stroke play tournament.
Farner, 37 and the owner of On Track Garage Door Services in Commerce Township, shot a 2-under 70 to take the men’s title by one shot and win his first GAM tournament.
Collura, 30 and owner of Nuggett Leasing in Flat Rock, won the Tournament of Champions for the second time in the last three years. She shot 2-under 70 and won by three shots. Collura qualified for and then played in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship earlier in the year.
GAM SENIOR TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS
Tom Gieselman of Oakland University Golf & Learning Center and Donna Tepper of the Country Club of Detroit, very good Golf Association of Michigan (GAM) players for several years, finally went home with championship trophies Monday.
They each won their first GAM titles by topping the field in the GAM Senior Tournament of Champions presented by BOYNE Golf at Oakhurst Golf & Country Club.
Gieselman, 61 and a national regional manager for Adrian Steel, birdied the last five holes, Nos. 14 through 18, and shot a 5-under 67 to win by three shots.
“It feels great to finally get a GAM trophy,” he said. “I’ve made the final four twice in the Michigan Amateur, I’ve qualified for 13 USGA championships … so I’ve won some things and been close a lot of times.”
Tepper, 52 and the Chief of Plastic Surgery at Henry Ford Hospital, shot a 3-over 75 to top the women’s field. Julie Massa was runner up, and defending champion Joan Garety of Egypt Valley Country Club in Ada was third. Tepper overcame a double-bogey followed by a bogey on holes 10-11 with the help of three birdies.
