Wilkes-Krier wins Michigan PGA Professional Championship

Patrick Wilkes-Krier Birdies Final Hole, Michigan PGA Professional Championship wins in Walnut Creek Country Club

South Lyon-Patrick Wilkes-Krier, the owner of Kendall Golf Academy in Ypsilanti, Birdied de Par 5 Final Hole with a 76-Yard Pitch Shot approach and two foot tap-in and won the 104th Michigan PGA professional hip in Walnut Club on Wednesday.

It was the first major state-professional title of the 41-year-old educational professional after a series of near-missers, and he walked past title defender Ben Cook van Caledonia with one shot with a last Even-PAR 72 and a 4-year 212 tournament total.

Cook, who has left the golf occupation and has opened a financial planning company near Grand Rapids, shot a last 70 to 213.

Adam Schumacher from Point O’Woods Golf & Country Club in Benton Harbor, who shot 70, and Tim Pearce from Birmingham Country Club, who shot 72, bound at 214.

And Ryan Lenehan, the director of the instruction in Walnut Creek, who shot 68, and Matt Thompson, a Hillsdale education professional who took 69, bonded 215, while eight times champion Scott Hebert Hebert Hebert Hebert Hebert Golf & Country Club 71 for 216 shoots.

It was the first individual professional victory for Wilkes-Krier, a resident of Ann Arbor, since 2012 during his eight years of mini-tour golf after university wave at Ball State University in Indiana.

He took the first place of $ 7,500 home and added his name to the historic Gilbert A. Currie Trophy. In addition, he will receive an exemption from the Rocket Classic of the PGA Tour in Detroit Golf Club next summer, and he has a place in the PGA Professional National Championship in Bandon Dunes Resort in Oregon in Oregon next spring.

“There are so many levels for this,” he said in response to his victory. “I am so excited to play at Bandon Dunes – that’s the most important goal when you come here, just to get a chance. I want to play so much in that PGA Professional Championship and that location will be so great.”

He said he did not know that the Rocket Classic exemption came up with it until Lenehan told him shortly after his victory.

“I really wanted to play in that tournament that it will also feel like a major,” he said. “These opportunities to play against such great players, they are just decades and decades that I wanted to do those things. It is so great that the Michigan PGA sets up these events and gives us these opportunities.”

Wilkes-Krier started the final round with a three-shot lead and maintained it until a double-bogey at no. 10 followed by a bogey at 11. That opened the by for other players, including cook and schumacher, but he birddied four of his final seven holes, including no. 18, a par 5 That the Club Plays As No. 9 On the West Nine.

“There was some scar fabric with situations like this in the past,” he said. “I felt pretty comfortable and then it all got undone after I made the turn. My driver was so bad all week, and it didn’t change today, but I was also in that position earlier, where I lost the lead and I couldn’t realize that I was still in the mix, I was quite a bit there

Wilkes-Krier, a GAM championship winner and the second place of Michigan Amateur before he became a professional, became emotional when he was asked to take over the Kendall Golf Academy from the founder, Michigan Golf Hall by Famer Dave Kendall, who is fighting Vechtterminalkanker. Wilkeskrier went for lessons at the academy that he now runs at the age of 13 and has been teaching there since his Tour Days.

“I think of Dave every day,” he said. “I used a Kendall Academy Ball Marker, and I put it up with that K every time. A large part of me wanted to come on the right of this tournament for Dave, give him something to feel good. He is my mentor and my inspiration and my inspiration, and to be honest, I am one of many to get away with a trophy.

And while Wilkeskrier had his dramatic ending, more drama was to hand when eight more places in the PGA Professional National Championship 2026.

The low nine eligible golfers at the end of the professional championship of Michigan PGA, exclusive Hebert, Jeff Roth van Boyne Golf Academy and Lenahan, who are already exempt, deserve places at Bandon Dunes. The low 20 finishers of that championship continue with the best players in the world at the 106th PGA championship.

Those headed to Bandon Dunes with Wilkes-Krier, Hebert, Roth and Lenahan based on finish are Schumacher, Pearce, Thompson, Michigan Golf Hall of Famer Brian Cairns of Fox Hills in Plymouth, two-time former champion Kyle Martin of Lochmoor Club in Grosse Point Woods, Josh Fryer of Franklin Hills Country Club, Kosta Ramirez of the Mines in Grand Rapids, and Scott Brotebeck, the main professional at Walnut Creek. Brotebeck was the survivor of a four-clock player for ninth place on 5-over 221. He made par on the third play-off hole to earn the place.

Sponsors: This year’s presenting sponsors are club car, Corebridge Financial and Rolex. Supporting partners are Gallagher, The Golf Channel and the PGA Tour. Supporting sponsors are Titleist/Footjoy, Callaway Golf, Nike and Taylormade.