Two Michiganders Shine at PGA Senior Stroke Play

From Craig Dolch

    On the mid-January day he was named the 2025 Senior PGA Professional Player of the Year, Michigan native Justin Hicks showed why. The now-Florida resident and former Wayne Co. native who played golf at U-M, won twice on the Korn Ferry Tour and won almost $3 million on the PGA Tour, Hicks fired a 5-under 66 on the Ryder Course to cruise to a 4-shot victory in the 50-59 division of the PGA Senior Stroke Play Championship at PGA Golf Club.

    Talk about validation.

    “You hope that it works out that way, but there's really nothing in this game that you deserve,” said Hicks, a PGA Teaching Professional at Stonebridge Country Club in Boca Raton. “You just go out there and play your best and add it up at the end. Soon as you start thinking you deserve something, you probably end up coming on the short side of the stick.”

    Hicks instead finished on the top side of the leaderboard. He started the final round with a one-shot lead and ended it with a four-shot advantage over Omar Uresti (69) of Austin, Texas, at 13-under 201. They were the only two players to shoot in the 60s all three days. Hicks and Uresti were tied after 13 holes, before Hicks added birdies at the 15th and 18th holes to finish off the win.

    At the same tournament but in the 60-and-older division, Milford, Michigan’s Brian Cairns of Fox Hills Performance Center in Plymouth and Dunham Hills in Hartland, finished runner up to Gary Robison of Port St. Lucie, Fla. who carded a 4-under 68 on the Wanamaker Course to defend his title by one stroke. They came to the final green tied and Robinson prevailed. 

    Cairns, age 61, finished T3 in the Quarter Century Championship just prior to the Senior Stroke Play Championship.

    “I’m probably trying too hard down the stretch to get my name on the wall (at PGA Golf Club),” Cairns said. “I missed that putt on 18 today, but I missed a lot more putts before that. I couldn’t get the ball to the hole.”