BATTLE CREEK – Andy Walker, the Eastern Michigan University men’s golf team coach, made a three-foot birdie putt on the second sudden-death playoff hole and won the Yamaha Golf Cars Senior Open Championship Wednesday at Bedford Valley Golf Club.
Walker, 51 and a resident of Royal Oak, bested Jay Jurecic of Crystal Falls, the 55-year-old 2021 Senior Open champion, in the playoff. Walker and Jurecic both shot final-round 5-under 67s for 6-under 138 totals to set the stage for the playoff.
“It feels great to be the Senior Open Champion of Michigan,” said Walker who has been the men’s coach at EMU for two seasons and was playing in his second Senior Open.
“It was really a couple days of attrition out there,” he said. “I didn’t hit it great early, and just kind of kept hanging in there. And my putter saved me the whole tournament. I made a lot of big six-footers for par when I needed to, and when I gave myself some birdie looks, I knocked them down. It was hot out there, but I’m from Arizona. It felt like home.”
Walker, who earned $2,000 for the win, made a 30-foot birdie putt on No. 18 in regulation play to get into the playoff, his fourth consecutive birdie to finish the late-round charge.
Both players made par on the first playoff hole, No. 18, and then went to hole 16, a par 5. Walker just missed reaching the green in two shots and pitched from the rough just in front of the green to three feet for the winning birdie putt. Jurecic reached the greenside bunker right of the green in two shots but missed a six-foot birdie putt.
Walker, who played on tours around the world for 11 years, including the Korn Ferry Tour and a few stops on the PGA Tour after being part of a college national championship team at Pepperdine University, went into coaching in 2013 and came to Eastern after three years at Virginia Commonwealth. He said he has played very little tournament golf since, and his last win was in 2010 on the Gateway Tour.
“I didn’t play a tournament from 2013 until really last year when I played a U.S. Senior Open qualifier and in this,” he said. “So, this is my major every year now and it’s so awesome to win it.”
Brian Cairns of Fox Hills Learning Center, a Michigan Golf Hall of Famer and the 2016 Senior Open champion, shot 69 to miss the playoff by one shot with a 139 total.
Chad Kurmel of Okemos, an assistant golf coach at Michigan State, shot 69 for 141, and Jim Deiters, the head pro at Midland Country Club, shot 70 for 141 to tied for fourth. Tom Gieselman of Commerce Township was the low amateur after shooting a final 69 for 142.
It also took a sudden-death playoff to determine the champion of the Super Senior Division for golfers age 65-plus, and Barry Redmond of Chelsea, who works part-time at the Polo Fields Golf & Country Club, was the survivor of a three-hole playoff.
The 66-year-old former Michigan Open and two-time Michigan PGA Professional champion dropped a 35-foot birdie putt on No. 10 in the playoff to secure his first Senior Open title.
He fended off 2020 Senior Open Champion Steve Maddalena of Jackson, the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame amateur who a week ago won the Golfweek U.S. Super Senior National Championship at The Golf Club of Georgia.
Redmond shot a second consecutive 70 to finish at 140, and Maddalena tied him with a 69. They traded pars on the first two playoff holes, and then Redmond rolled in the long putt to wrap things up on No. 10.
“It feels good to win after such a long time, and it feels good because I try to stay in good shape so I can have a chance to win,” he said. “I’ve always taken pride in that.”
It looked like Redmond would run away with the win on the front nine where through seven holes he was 5-under after making an eagle-3 on No. 7. But Maddalena kept moving up the leaderboard and with birdies at 12, 15 and 17 earned his spot in the playoff.
“The way I played on the front nine I didn’t think there would be a playoff, but Steve got it going pretty good on the back nine and he’s such a good player,” Redmond said. “I three-putted on 18 (in regulation) and that was frustrating, but it was fun to go in the playoff, just to be in that situation again, get the goosebumps and all that. It felt good.”
Grand Blanc amateur Charles Pattan shot 68 for 141 and just missed the playoff. Mitch Wilson of Portage, another amateur, shot 60 for 143, and Kerry Buettner of Grandville, yet another amateur, shot 70 for 144 to round out the top five.
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