Drive Chip and Putt:
Graham Hammer of Traverse City won the Boys 12-13 division of the recent Drive, Chip and Putt regionals at Crooked Stick to advance to the National Finals, in April at Augusta National. He finished first in driving and chipping with 55-point efforts in each skill then ended with 50 points in putting for a dominant 160 total.
He will be the first kid in three years or more to represent the Great Lakes State after a multiple-year dry spell for Michigan.
“Graham is a great kid with a bunch of talent,” his junior coach Scott Wilson said. “He has knocked on the door in regional Drive, Chips and Putt the last couple of years and was finally able to break through at Crooked Stick. His other love is hockey, but he decided after last winter to put more time in effort into his golf game and his performance has definitely taken a step up since then.”
Former Michigander Grabbing Trophies in Wisconsin
Grand Rapids native and former Michigan State University player Sam Weatherhead recently won the Wisconsin PGA Professional Championship, just about two weeks after earning his Class A PGA of America membership.
He also won the 2025 Wisconsin State Open.
Weatherhead, who works at a family-owned bar-restaurant-golf facility in Oconomowoc called Links & Drinks Indoor Golf Bar, said he had set a goal earlier this summer to finish the PGA of America’s Professional Golf Management program in time to play this particular event.
He is also a former winner of the 2017 Michigan Amateur when it was played at Eagle Eye his senior year at MSU.
“Golf is a hard game, and you don’t win very often,” he said. “So to be able to finish my book-work, pass the (PGA) exam and then two weeks later win this … it’s everything I was hoping for.”
His wife, Kristyn Weatherhead, has been a PGA member since 2019, and he has caddied for her on several occasions.
TEAM MICHIGAN: Coaches Selected for Junior Golf Development Teams
By Greg Johnson
FARMINGTON HILLS – Michigan PGA Professionals Patrick Wilkes-Krier of Kendall Academy in Ypsilanti and Jimmy Wisinski of Kent Country Club in Grand Rapids have been selected as co-head coaches for Team Michigan, which will feature the state’s top junior boy and girl golfers as part of the U.S. National Development Program (USNDP) initiative created by the United States Golf Association (USGA).
The team, ages 13-18, (of eight boys and a team of eight girls will be selected) will be announced at the close of the current golf season and will represent the state in the program that is designed to expand the pipeline for elite local golfers into the USNDP.
The USGA is asking the state programs (the USGA’s goal is to establish a team in every state by 2033) to focus on creating a developmentally appropriate, aspirational pathway for athletes within each state to compete at higher levels of the game.
Scott Hebert Wins Fourth Michigan PGA Match Play Title
BATH – Scott Hebert won the Michigan PGA Match Play Championship for the fourth time and proved at age 57 he can still compete with and beat the best PGA golf professionals in the state.
And he did it with dramatic flair at Eagle Eye Golf Club.
The Traverse City Golf & Country Club pro who is already in the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame made a hole-in-one on the island hole No. 17 to close out a 2 and 1 morning semifinal win over fellow hall of famer Brian Cairns of Fox Hills Golf & Learning Center.
Then he turned back Ryan Lenahan of Walnut Creek Country Club in the final match, 4 and 2, by taking an early 2-up lead after an eagle-2 on the short par 4 No. 3 hole. He hit his tee shot with a driver to the green to about 12-feet behind the hole and made the resulting putt. He led by at least that 2-up score through the rest of the match.
