Anderson and Schlicher win 2025 Tournament of Champions Titles

Mike Anderson, Lori Schlicher win season-ending tournament of Champions titles

Commerce Township – Mike Anderson, a member of Meadowbrook Country Club of Novi, and Lori Schlicher, a member of Garland Lodge & Golf Resort of Lewiston, ended the golf season with wins.

Anderson won the men’s title and Schlicher the women’s title in the season-ending 2025 Gam Senior Tournament of Champions presented by Boyne Golf Tuesday at Edgewood Country Club.

Anderson, who reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Senior Amateur Championship earlier this season, won in a sudden one-hole playoff with Tom Gieselman of Commerce Township and the Oakland University Golf and Learning Center.

They each shot 5-under 66 rounds in regulation play, with Anderson winning on the No. 1 hole of the playoff with a par.

David Levan of Ann Arbor and Barton Hills Country Club shot 70 for third place. Greg Zeller of Jackson and the Michigan Publinx Golf Association and Rick Crandall of Fenton and the Flint Elks Golf Club each shot even-par 71.

Schlicher, the Michigan women’s senior amateur winner and gam women’s senior champion this summer, birdied the 18th hole to shoot 75 and it provided the margin for her one-shot victory over Donna Tepper of Grosse Pointe Park and the Country Club of Detroit, who shot 76.

Julie Massa of Pentwater and Lincoln Hills Golf Club shot 79 for third place, and Shelly Weiss of Southfield and Plum Hollow Country Club and Colleen Degaynor of Bloomfield Hills and Oakland Hills Country Club each shot 81 to tie for fourth place.

Anderson, 56 and the director of investments at Stifel Financial, played in the same group as Gieselman and they were in the half of the field that moved away at No. 10 and played back first. He said it was nice to see Gieselman shoot a 5-under 31 on that end to load into the lead.

“I hit it well enough, just had to see some putts fall and that’s what happened,” Anderson said of the turn to their back nine, the club’s front nine.

“I birdied 18, then I made two long putts for Birdie on 1 and 2 and then birdied 3, too,” he said. “So I birdied four in a row and then we fought back and forth the rest of the way.”

Anderson said the birdie putt on No. 1 was from 25 feet, and the birdie putt on No. 2 was from 20 feet. He made bogey on hole 4 after the streak, then birdied hole 5 and golden a bunker shot for birdie at 6 and shot 31 on the front.

“You know we played against each other for so many years, we had a great group with (David Vaclav), so it was fun,” he said. “We were all pulling for each other. Watching him get going was fun, but I just kept plugging away, got a little lucky, one thing led to another on the back nine, and I snuck into the play-off.”

Schlicher, 64, said it was nice to end the season with another win. It is the second consecutive year she has won the Senior Tournament of Champions title.

“Donna gave it a try so that Birdie I had at 18 was big,” she said. “I didn’t hit it that great, had a few mishaps, but I found ways to get it on the green, got lucky here and there and it was good enough today.”

She said the birdie at 18, one of two birdies on the day, was produced via a wedge shot to eight feet.

“It came at a good time,” she said. “I was wet and tired, and I missed big putts on 15 and 16 and needed one to go in.”

Results: on the Golf Genius app or on gam.org

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