GAM Net and Gross Championships
Brothers Rix and Anthony Naimi Win GAM Net Team Finals
By Greg Johnson
Anthony Naimi said he and his brother, Rix, came close the last time they made the finals in the GAM Net Team Championship, and they have been thinking about coming back and winning it ever since.
The West Bloomfield pair made it happen, shooting a net 4-under 67 in foursomes to win the 35th GAM Net Team Championship Finals at Plum Hollow Country Club.
Their 4-under best-ball total was enough to win by one shot over the 68-shooting team of Bill Wittenberg of Clinton Township and Mike Newell of Shelby Township.
Plum Hollow hosted eight two-person teams who were the top finishing teams from a field of 80 teams that played in the first day of the championship at Clio Country Club in July.
Anthony, 28, said they the win was for their older brother Danny, too.
“He showed us the game,” he said. “We play a lot together and we worked well together out there today.”
Jeff Champine and John Leach Win Gross Title:
Don and Anthony Provenzola Win Net at GAM Two-Person Scramble
Jeff Champine of Rochester Hills and John Leach of Macomb rolled to the Gross Division win, and the father-son team of Don Provenzola of Brighton and Anthony Provenzola of Ypsilanti won the Net Division in a playoff in the 5th GAM Net Two Person Scramble Championship for the second time in five years.
“We’ve played golf together for 30 years and it’s the best putting I’ve ever seen from him,” Leach said of Champine after they combined for a 12-under 60. “I mean, he made everything, and not short ones. A lot of them were 10 to 15-foot range putts.”
The duo made 13 birdies, including the last seven holes on the back nine and the last six holes on the front nine, and overcame a bogey on the par 4 No. 11 hole.
The Provenzola’s shot 13-under 59 playing at scratch because Anthony has a plus-handicap index and were tied at the end of regulation with 59-shooting Justin Scollin of Royal Oak and Robert Strace of Shelby Township.
Gary Yee, Bill Dietz Win GAM Net Chapman Championship in Playoff
Gary Yee of Farmington Hills and Bill Dietz of Livonia had the best three-hole net aggregate score in a three-team playoff to win the 11th GAM Net Chapman Championship at Washtenaw Golf Club.
The duo shot net 66 in regulation play and were tied with the team of Jason Carpenter of Howell and Mike Kidder of Ann Arbor, and the team of Brendan Wexler of Royal Oak and Sanford Wexler of Novi.
Carpenter and Kidder ended up second in the playoff scoring to earn runner-up honors.
For both members of the winning team the win was the second in net competition. Yee won the GAM Net Match Play Championship earlier this summer, and Dietz won the Net Chapman for the second time.
The Chapman format has each player hitting from the teeing ground and then plays the partner’s ball for the second shot. Then the partners select the ball with which they wish to score and play that ball alternately to complete the hole.
