Caleb Bond of Williamston is Player of the Year

    By Greg Johnson

    Caleb Bond said he learned in his first year at Michigan State University in 2024 that when he played his best golf he could compete with the best amateur golfers in the country.

    Then he proved it in the summer of 2025. He won the Michigan Amateur Championship at historic Belvedere Golf Club in Charlevoix by fighting off University of Oklahoma standout PJ Maybank of Cheboygan, 1-up, in the final match.

    That earned him an exemption into the U.S. Amateur at the Olympic Club in San Francisco where he emerged from a playoff to get into match play and made a run to the round of 16. He lost to the eventual runner-up, Jackson Herrington of Tennessee, but not before taking him to 20 holes.

    Those two performances powered Bond to the top of the Golf Association of Michigan Points List, and he has been named the 2025 GAM Men’s Player of the Year.

    Bond, 21 and a senior at Michigan State, called being Player of the Year a great honor.

    “To be on the list with all the great players who have shared that honor is a big accomplishment,” he said. “I’ve always played in GAM tournaments to get great competition and to get better at my game, so this is pretty awesome. It was a great summer, winning the Amateur, making a run in the U.S. Amateur, and having my family there and my sister (Cara) caddie for me. I learned a lot that I can use going forward.”

    Bond amassed 1,035 points to top the GAM Player of the Year Points List, well ahead of Justin Sui of Lake Orion, who had 570 points and was the highlight GAM Championship winner with his record round of 60 at Radrick Farms Golf Club in Ann Arbor.

  Lorenzo Pinili of Rochester, and Bond’s MSU teammate, finished third with 410 points. His highlight was a historic course and tournament record 63 in stroke play at Belvedere in the Michigan Amateur.