Partnering golf courses welcome regional qualifiers this past weekend during the 2018 state championship in central Michigan.
Bucks Run Golf Club and PohlCat Golf Course in Mount Pleasant, Michigan have given golfers great reasons to head to central Lower Peninsula, and most recently the two destinations teamed up to host the 7th annual GAM Scramble State Championship Sept. 16, 2018 through Sept. 17, 2018.
The 2018 GAM Scramble State Championship is the culmination of five regional championships that have taken place throughout the course of the summer, beginning on June 25, 2018 at Oak Point Country Club in Brighton, Michigan and ending on Aug. 20, 2018 at the Muskegon Country Club.
The four-person team finalists qualified during the five regional events and played 18 holes on each of the two popular courses meant to determine the 2018 championship teams in both net and gross scoring. For the GAM Scramble State Championship, the four-person team scramble is a step aside format, which means the player whose shot is selected off of the tee on each hole will not play the next shot.
Qualifying teams from the Oak Pointe event comprised three teams each based on gross scoring and net scoring; four teams each based on gross and net scoring from the TPC Michigan event; three teams each for gross scoring and net scoring from the Wabeek Country Club qualifier; one team for gross scoring and one team for net scoring from Treetops’ event; and one team each for gross and net scoring from the Muskegon Country Club qualifier.
The first round of the 7th GAM Scramble State Championship was to be played on The PohlCat designed by Michigan Golf Hall of Fame Member and Former PGA Tour standout Dan Pohl; while the second round was to take place just down the road at Bucks Run, which is an award-winning design by noted Michigan Designer Jerry Matthews.
Pohlcat is played over and around the scenic 100-foot wide Chippewa River, and Pohl, the designer and a Mount Pleasant native, has returned as part of the ownership group and directs instruction at the course. He built what he describes as a tough, but fair course that opened in 1992. The design combines beautiful Michigan scenery with some links-style looks.
Pohl said he wanted a golf course he would enjoy and find challenging, but that would not overwhelm any golfer.
“It’s for everybody, but not just anybody can tee it up and think it will be easy,” Pohl said.
Bucks Run offers a premier destination resort golf experience without being at a resort. Its Matthews design is carved into nearly 290 acres through wetlands, along the river, and is picturesque at seemingly every turn. It is specifically designed with multiple tee locations to welcome golfers of all ability levels and yet challenge even the elite player. The Putting Island, an 18-hole real-grass putting course, is on an island in the middle of the man-made lake and has also won awards as a unique and fun amenity.
“We are a destination course and I always tell people we are a resort, just without the lodging option on site,” said Jon Conklin, the general manager at Bucks Run. “We take pride in our conditioning, and market to that golfer who travels and wants to play something special.”
