Schlicher wins 29th Gam Senior Championship

Lewiston’s Lori Schlicher wins 29th Gam Ladies Senior Championship

Petoskey-Lori Schlicher from Lewiston had a head start of great enough that she could survive what she called a Goof-Around Double-Bogey at no. 18 after a bogey at the age of 17 and still wins.

With a closure of 79 for 156, Schlicher won the 29th Gam Women’s Senior Championship presented by Golf Digest Tuesday at Petoskey-Bay View Country Club.

Cathy-Netter van Monroe shot a last 77 for 157 and second place, and two-time former former former champion Julie Massa van Pentwater shot 80 for 160 and third place.

Another two -time past champion, Donna Benford van Linden, shot 84 before 163 and Donna Tepper from Grosse Pointe Park shot 79 for 165 to complete the top five.

“I thought I was in good condition,” she said about playing the lead during the day. “I didn’t know someone came from behind. I got a little at the age of 18 and I was lucky that I wasn’t caught. Happiness helps.”

Successive birdies on holes 11 and 12 closed the round for Schlicher.

“At 11 I made a three or four-footer and on 12 over a seven-footer, so they really brought me back after a kind of round start,” she said.

The Gam Senior Women’s Player of the Year last year will defend her Michigan Ladies Senior Amateur title on 8-9 September in Sugar Springs in Gladwin, and then the next week, September 13-18, in the US Senior ladies amateur in the Omni Resort in Hot Springs, VA.

“I played really well during qualifying (American senior ladies amateur), and I slide a little,” she said. “I hope to get it back before I arrived at the amateur. I want to have my game brought in.”

Schlicher, 63, said that Tuesday’s victory was fun, partly because she played with Benford and Massa.

“It’s always fun to play with those girls,” she said. “We all play a bit similar, and some of them have skills I wanted me to have and then I probably have a number of skills they want.”