MSU Golfer Caleb Bond Wins 114th Michigan Amateur Championship
By Greg Johnson
A stunning, seeing-eye 60-foot birdie putt on No. 16 tied the match, and a two-putt par from 20 feet wrapped it up on No. 18 for Caleb Bond, a Michigan State University golfer from Williamston.
With the win, Bond defeated PJ Maybank, a University of Oklahoma golfer from Cheboygan, 1-up, in tense and birdie-filled championship match at the 114th Michigan Amateur Championship at 100-year-old Belvedere Golf Club.
“As much as you can wish to win every week, it’s really hard,” said Bond who with the victory will have his name inscribed on the historic Staghorn Trophy. He also earned a USGA exemption into the U.S. Amateur Championship in August.
“To win an event like this, especially with match play takes a lot of luck and a lot of help. I think that’s always the goal and I think having to give that speech with the trophy is something you play through your head ever since you were a kid. Winning is always the goal, and you just kind of keep your head down and hit one shot at a time out there.”
Bond earned his spot in the finals with a 4 and 2 semifinal win over Zach Koerner of Laingsburg, his former roommate at Ferris State University before Bond transferred a year ago to MSU.
Maybank, meanwhile, topped Adam Burghardt, a former Wayne State University golfer from Clinton Township, 1-up in another match that stretched for all 18 holes.
“It was an incredible week,” Bond said. “The kind you dream about, and it feels amazing to be going to the U.S. Amateur.”
Earlier in the week, Bond’s teammate at MSU, Lorenzo Pinili, set two scoring records at the event; the tournament’s stroke play scoring record at 67-63-130 and the Belvedere course record of 63 in the second round of stroke play.
The previous Michigan Amateur two-day scoring record was set at 131 by Andrew Walker of Battle Creek and also a former MSU golfer. Pinili’s 63 tops the course record 64 that Michigan golf legend Chuck Kocsis shot in 1962 during an October round at the club, and which was equaled by Ruthkoski in 2003 during the stroke play rounds of the Michigan Amateur.
