GAM Distinguished Service Award: Posthumously to Bob Buckley
Bob Buckley of Port Austin, a Golf Association of Michigan (GAM) Governor and Junior Golf Committee member, loved the game for all the right reasons, said David Devendorf of Port Huron, his friend in life and golf.
Buckley, who died of pulmonary fibrosis in September of 2023 at the age of 76, has been posthumously named the GAM Distinguished Service Award winner for 2024.
“My only regret in all of this is that I didn’t nominate him for this award sooner so he could receive it while he was alive,” Devendorf, a president emeritus and Executive Committee member of the GAM, said. “He would have been absolutely thrilled.”
In 1986 Buckley conducted a tournament for children of members at Verona Hills and over the next 37 years spearheaded an expansion of the junior tournament known in Michigan’s Thumb as the “Buckley Open” to a series of tournaments.
“I watched him get boys and girls enthused about the game of golf,” Devendorf said. “We all talked about growing the game but Bob put his money and his sweat equity where his mouth was and went out and did it.”
GAM Club Services Representative of the Year: Dennis “Marty” Joy
Belvedere Golf Club’s head golf professional, Dennis “Marty” Joy, 53, a professional at Belvedere since 1999 and the head golf professional since 2008, has been named the 2024 GAM Club Services Representative of the Year. The GAM annually presents the honor to a club representative who demonstrates outstanding service to golf in Michigan.
A group of four Belvedere and GAM members nominated Joy, including Tom Rex who said Joy is a friendly ambassador of Belvedere. Rex said Joy is also instrumental in junior golf in Charlevoix.
“We have 80 to 100 kids in the junior program and Marty goes out each year to play 100 holes of golf and with that raises 75 percent of our budget,” he said. “That’s just one of the things he does to keep golf growing. He’s always helping the high school kids, the Evans Scholars, all sorts of good things happen with Marty around.”
