Crandall wins the second consecutive Gam Senior Championship

Rick Crandall from Fenton wins the second consecutive Gam Senior Championship

JACKSON – Rick Crandall from Fenton said that winning a second consecutive Gam Senior Championship was a bit of a shock.

“Golf has been a struggle for most of this summer and really just started to make ends meet,” he said. “So, I think, perfect timing.”

Crandall shot a final round 4-under 68 and won the 39th edition of the championship presented by Golf Digest on Tuesday in Jackson’s Country Club.

Chris Bailey van Rochester and Steve Nichols van East Lansing each Scot 72 for 142 to share second place, and three golfers, Mike Raymond van Jackson, who shot 71, Mike Igignasia of Saline, who were 71, and David Levan of Ann Arbor, those 72 shots were the following.

It was Raymond, a Country Club by Jackson member, who received the Super Senior Championship Trophy for players in the field 65-over.

Two -time former champion Ian Harris van Bloomfield, who shot 75, and Tom Senkowski from Rochester Hills, who shot 76, shared second among the super senior players.

All 150 golfers played from the same set of T pieces and were eligible to win the overall title.

It was Crandall, a 58-year-old senior designer at Strattec, an automotive security company, who made it happen to what he called a great pit day.

“I had four or five puts of about five feet for par, all really critical at the time, and I made them,” he said. “Two of them were in the round early. They were huge. They gave me a chance to win. The greens here are so difficult and so challenging.”

Crandall said that winning felt great for the second time.

“I love gam tournaments and look forward to it every year,” he said. “And to actually win one is something special, and then two to win. It’s really great.”

Raymond, 71 and a member at CC van Jackson for 41 years, was especially happy to win in his home club. He played an important role in convincing the club to organize the championship, and he said there were two reasons why he made the effort. He thought that the club should show its recent renovation work to some of the top players of the state, and he thought that a championship could also be part of the farewell of the 35-year-old director of Golf Ron Beurmann.

“I am a few roads with Ron playing with him in all kinds of pro-AM and tournaments,” he said. “I really wanted to make a memory and win one for him.”

He said there is extra pressure to play at his home course, but he said it helped him to win on Tuesday.

“Fortunately the boys were challenged by the Greens and to be honest, I probably made two or three puts today that might only make a member,” he said. “There is something to know what a putt does, because then it’s just a matter of just beating correctly. If you are on someone else’s course, you don’t always know for sure.”

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