MICHIGAN AMATEUR: August Meekhof Wins
By Tom Lang and Greg Johnson
August Meekhof knocked on the door of the Michigan Amateur champions’ title in 2020 and again last year but was stopped short in the semifinals both times.
This time he quietly kicked the door in to win the top amateur tournament in the Great Lakes State, the 112th Michigan Amateur. All totaled it takes two rounds of stroke play, and six rounds of match play to earn such golf nobility, and Meekhof pulled it off with a 2-and-1 win over Will Anderson of Portage.
“It feels really good,” Meekhof said. “This field is one of the greatest fields we play against and obviously match play is really hard and it’s a long week for sure. This is something that I have wanted to win for a while now. I’ve been close the past couple of years, but never got it. It feels good to finally be the Michigan Amateur champion.
“It’s starting to sink in that my name is going on there,” he said about the legendary names already on the Staghorn Trophy as the Michigan Am champ. “Being part of that elite group is special to me.”
Meekhof is a Michigan State University golfer from Eastmanville near Grand Rapids, while Anderson is a University of Michigan golfer. Both have one year of college eligibility remaining.
Meekhof had a 2-up lead through 12 holes but lost the par 3 No. 13 hole to a flop shot birdie chip-in by Anderson from behind the green. He went back to 2-up on 14 though when Anderson three-putted for bogey, but Anderson was not done yet. He rolled in an eight-foot birdie putt on 16 to close the gap. That sent the duo up the 17th hole, where Meekhof rolled in a six-foot birdie putt to win.
Meekhof said the pair acknowledged the MSU vs. U-M rivalry with some talk before the final match, but they said they talked more about knowing each other since age eight and competing with and against each other.
“It was a little bittersweet beating a friend,” Meekhof said. “You want your friends to do well, but then when you’re playing them, you want to beat them.”
Anderson said he was talking a lot of positives from the long week and being runner-up.
“Knowing that I can hang with the best players when I don’t have my best game, that I can just battle and see where it puts me at the end of the day,” he said. “I lost to a great player and a good friend. We were laughing about playing all those statewide Meijer Junior Tour events when were like eight. It was a little strange walking down the fairway in the championship match with him, but not really a surprise. We both wanted to be there and win. Battling with him, that’s a positive I can build on.”
Mike Ignasiak Wins GAM Senior Match Play Championship
Novi’s John Morgan Tops Super Senior Division
Mike Ignasiak of Saline called it a grind, especially after the heat of the final two days of the early June Senior tournament in Flint, and then having to play Michigan Golf Hall of Fame member Greg Davies of West Bloomfield in the championship match.
“Those last eight guys in the bracket, any one of them can win this tournament easily,” he said. “Then to go up against Greg in the final – he’s a Hall of Famer who never gives up. He’s never out of a hole. I don’t care where he hits it. He always seems to chip in or make a long putt. He does things that are kind of ‘hey, don’t forget about me. I’m still here.’”
Following a critical par save on hole 16 to keep a 1-up lead Ignasiak won the 17th hole with a par to hold off Davies 2 and 1 in the title match of the 15th GAM Senior Match Play Championship at Flint Golf Club.
“I was playing so good coming in and I was feeling really confident because this course suits me,” said Ignasiak, a 57-year-old former Major League Baseball pitcher who as an amateur golfer is a former GAM Mid-Amateur champion (2007) and runner-up to Andrew Chapman in the Michigan Amateur Championship (2013).
