Delcamp wins GAM Women’s Senior title in playoff
HARBOR SPRINGS >> Terry Delcamp of Grand Blanc made a sevenfoot par putt on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff with Shelly Weiss of Southfield and won her third GAM Women’s Senior Championship Monday at Birchwood Farms Golf & Country Club.
“I had the same putt in regulation play and missed it, but this time I knew it was straight in,” she said.
Delcamp, who won her first two Women’s Senior titles backto-back in 2014 and ’15, including the previous visit in 2015 to Birchwood Farms, shot a closing 78 (The Farms and The Birches nines) for 157 to get into the playoff. Weiss, the 2018 champion, shot 79 for her 157.
“I retired this year so I’ve played a little bit more golf and had expectations that I would play better,” Delcamp said after accepting the Sara Wold Trophy.
“That doesn’t always translate to how it turns out, but it worked out today and I had fun.”
Four golfers tied for third behind Delcamp and Weiss. Cathy Netter of Monroe, Susan Campbell of Kalamazoo, Barb Schmid of Grand Rapids and Pam Tyler of Grand Rapids all finished at 161 with defending champion Julie Massa checking in at 165.
Delcamp said the higher scores of the 36-hole championship can
be attributed in large part to the tricky greens at the 27-hole facility.
“A lot of times up here (Northern Michigan) there’s a mountain or like at Harbor Point everything goes to the water, but here you’re sort of lost in the woods and you can’t be sure,” she said. “I had a few three-putts and feel really fortunate that I got into the playoff. I three-putted 18 and it ticket me off because I really thought I let Shelly back in the door there.”
Weiss three-putted the playoff hole after reaching the front of the par 4 green in two, but her ball was about 60 feet from the hole. She rolled the first putt to about six feet, but then missed the par putt. Delcamp had drained her seven-footer for par after rolling a 30-foot downhill first putt past the hole just before Weiss made her attempt.
“Terry always makes the tough putt in the clutch,” Weiss said. “You know you have to put yourself in those positions and the more often you are there the better chance you have to make it. What the pros say is true. I just didn’t hit a strong enough putt to hold the line. Terry did.”
Delcamp, 59, wondered if the members think The Birches nine is the toughest of the three.
“It certainly is for me,” she said. “When I heard the playoff was on The Birches, I though oh for crying in buckets. That first hole is tough for me from the tee we were playing. I have to hit driver and try to draw it. It’s not what I prefer, but then I hit a really good drive, to it to stay left and that set up the chance to make a par.”
Weiss, 60, said she was pleased with the way she held her round together on a difficult course.
“I was nervous all day long,” she said. “I knew that I had a chance starting out and as the round progressed I knew I was in the lead and that Terry and I were flip-flopping the lead. I didn’t play the playoff hole very well, but otherwise I played good golf and I’m proud of the way I played.”
Winners were also identified in other flights and in net and gross scoring.