"Not earning an invitation sparked a little fire in me to want to make it to the event this year," said Jackman, who admitted his resume in 2022 really wasn't strong enough to merit being included.
"I reset over lunch and asked God in prayer for guidance and strength in the afternoon round," said Jackman.
Sure enough, Jackman fired a 65 that easily made the cut. But it still left him far behind Miller, who followed his 61 with a solid second round of 2-under 66 to stand at 9-under with 36 holes to play.
But Jackman wasn't done chasing the cup -- he fired 63 in the third round to move within four shots of Miller. Following that up with another 63 on Saturday while Miller slid back to a 2-over 70 allowed Jackman to produce the biggest win of Jackman's young career.
Jackman's last win came at the 2022 Michigan Community College Athletic Association (MCCAA) Championships.
At that time, that was a reasonably impressive accomplishment, given the fact that he didn't start playing golf tournaments until age 16, and was attempting to work his way up to a bigger college golf program via the community college experience..
Next year, the native of Caledonia, Mich. won't have to request in invitation to the Michigan Medal Play Championship.
However, in 2020, Smith's name was removed from the state's most prestigious event due to his staunch support of whites-only membership while PGA president in the 1950s. This coincided with the PGA of America's removal of his name from their annual award given to a PGA member for outstanding contributions to professional education. In 2020, the PGA renamed it as the PGA Professional Development Award. The organization had a whites-only clause from 1934 through 1961.
The invitational is held each spring and has taken place at Detroit Golf Club every year since 1964, the year after Smith died.
