By Terry Moore
Here’s a golf trivia question: Which celebrated state player won two of his three Michigan Amateurs by beating two future PGA Tour players in the finals? Drum roll, please.
It’s Jackson’s Steve Maddalena, who beat John Morse at Belvedere GC in 1980 and Tom Gillis at Meadowbrook CC in 1990. He won his third title at Red Run Golf Club in 1995, beating Chris Miles, later the founder of Ann Arbor’s Miles of Golf.
The consummate amateur, Maddalena continues to excel as a senior player. Now 66, he’s a dominant player on the Super Senior circuit, for players 65 and over, in Michigan and nationally. This past year he captured the GAM’s Super Senior Championship at Fox Hills along with Senior and Super Senior titles at the GAM Mid-Amateur at Boyne. High finishes in two other tournaments made Maddalena the runaway points leader as the GAM’s Super Senior Player of the Year.
Not surprisingly, his game has made a mark outside of Michigan. This summer Maddalena won the Golfweek U.S. Super Senior Championship in Georgia. Several seasons ago, he won the prestigious Crump Cup Senior trophy at iconic Pine Valley.
Yet the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame member admits his game has been a work in progress over the past 10-plus years. He credits Gary Robinson, a PGA teaching pro from Jackson, with revamping his swing and making it more repeatable and durable.
“Gary’s been so influential and helpful. He basically rebuilt my swing, altering my swing path and showing me how to take the left side of the course out of my game,” said Maddalena. “I’m very indebted to Gary. I only wish I'd met him earlier in my golf career.”
Looking back, Maddalena is also grateful for his golf roots and upbringing in his native Jackson. At age six, his dad first brought him to Arbor Hills CC, where he learned the basics of the game from his parents and head pros Brien Charter Sr. and Del Starks in group lessons. His golf game matured when he began working as a teenager at Cascades GC, which abutted his parents’ property.
“It was such a special time in my life,” remembered Maddalena. “I played golf with a group of older members in the morning and then went to work at 2:30 pm for the pro Ken Douglas until closing.” Speaking fondly of Douglas, he said he often played with the widely admired pro and became acquainted with some of his friends, including Dave Hill, Jackson’s legendary Tour player.
Earning a partial golf scholarship at the University of Michigan, Maddalena played all four years in Ann Arbor and notched All-Big Ten honors. After graduation, in a tough economy, he worked for a bank and later Alro Steel Company, where he learned invaluable life and business lessons. Eventually, he joined the family’s thriving flooring business. Twenty years ago, that business was sold, and Maddalena joined Kentwood Office Furniture, now Kore Commercial Environments, to head its Jackson branch and continues in that role today.
Married for 36 years to his beloved, Jayne, and the proud parent of adult sons Connor and Brian, Maddalena sees retirement on the horizon, more family time, and, naturally, more golf. As with his family, the game has meant so much to him.
"It's helped me become a better person. With golf, you want to act a certain way, conducting yourself with the same integrity the game demands."
Steve Maddalena: consummate golfer, champion, and gentleman.
