EAST LANSING – Forest Akers West, home to the successful Michigan State University golf teams, is hosting the top junior boy and girl golfers in the state for the 8th GAM Junior Invitational Championship on Saturday and Sunday.
The field of 102 golfers will play 36 holes of stroke play over the two days to determine a boy and girl overall champion as well as winners in the 15-and-under division. The players were invited by the GAM based on performances in a variety of state and national competitions in 2020.
Forest Akers has two golf courses, East and West, and both were redesigned by Michigan State alumnus and highly regarded golf course designer Arthur Hills in 1992. The West plays from 5,278 yards to 7,013 yards with five tee positions and hosts the Big Ten home competition for the Spartans. Learn more at golf.msu.edu.
The players in the field are familiar with the Forest Akers properties, which have hosted several GAM junior events as well as high school state championship tournaments over the years. Earlier this summer the West course hosted the Michigan Women’s Amateur Championship.
Last year’s Invitational champions Justin Sui of Lake Orion and Sophie Stevens of Novi are returning to defend their titles and will head the field.
Stevens, now 14, and Sui, 15 opted out of the 15-and-under group a year ago and topped the older golfers in the championship that was also played at Forest Akers West.
In the 15-and-under age division, Ryan O’Rourke of West Bloomfield and Lauren Timpf of Macomb won the titles. They are back in the field, though O’Rourke has moved into the older age division.
Timpf has won five GAM titles in a row since last year’s tournament. She swept through this summer winning the GAM Junior Stroke Play, the GAM 14-and-under Match Play, the 15-and-under title in the Michigan Junior Girls State Amateur, and the 15-and-under title in the GAM Junior Kickoff.
P.J. Maybank III of Cheboygan, the GAM Junior Kickoff overall champion and the winner of the Michigan Junior State Amateur Championship is in the field, as are Ieuan Jones of Ann Arbor, the GAM Junior Stroke Play champion, Will Preston of Grand Rapids, the GAM 14-and-under Match Play winner, Griffin Mawson of Traverse City, the boy’s 15-and-under winner in the GAM Junior Kickoff, and Robert Burns of Grand Blanc, the 15-under winner in the Michigan Junior State Amateur.
