Taylor Jackson and Andrew Thielk
(GAM Photo)
JACKSON, MI (September 20, 2016) -- Andrew Thielk and Taylor Jackson have been golf buddies since ninth grade, played on the same high school golf team at Ann Arbor Pioneer – even stood up at each other’s wedding – but have never played in a two-player tournament until the 3rd GAM Four-Ball Championship presented by McKenzie-Price at Country Club of Jackson.
“We’ve played a lot of golf together, but never as a team and this is my first GAM tournament,” said Thielk, who is 33 and works on the golf staff at Forest Lake Golf Club in Ann Arbor.
“We should have done it before,” quipped Jackson, also 33 and construction project manager for the University of Michigan. “I can’t believe we haven’t.”
The Ann Arbor residents combined for a 7-under best-ball 64 to top the 65-shooting defending champions, Canadians Wes Stewart of Windsor and Peter vanWezel of Lasalle Tuesday.
Thielk and Taylor played in the morning wave, and had to wait through the afternoon in case of a playoff. Stewart and vanWezel started slow however in the afternoon, and came up one shot short.
“We stayed ready,” Jackson said. “We knew we had a chance from what everybody said, but we were thinking somebody could get us or there would probably be a playoff.”
Five teams from the field of 58 teams finished two shots back with 67s. They included Curt Brown of Howell and Dean Shollack of Brighton, Greg Zeller and Matthew Farhat of Jackson, Dov Lustig of West Bloomfield and Anthony Sorentino of Shelby Township, Robb Zurawski of Niles and Bryan Lloyd of Buchanan, and Dustin Ferrell of Dexter and Michael Boldt of Jackson.
Jackson and Thielk have had a winning summer. Jackson recently won the Radrick Farms club championship for the fifth time, and Thielk won his golf league championship.
“We played great as a team,” Thielk said. “Every time I had a bad hole, Taylor picked us up and he made every little four-foot putt we needed.”
Jackson said they combined for seven birdies and no bogeys, and that Thielk provided a good start with an approach shot to two-feet on their first hole of the day (No. 12), and a chip-in birdie on their second-to-last hole (No. 10).
“The chip-in was the shot of the day,” he said. “He was just over the green on the back fringe. It was great. It was a great time out there, and fun to win with a friend.”
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ABOUT THE GAM Four-Ball
18-hole four-ball stroke play event with two shotgun
starts, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
Men, two-person teams with a maximum handicap
index of 10.8.
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