Pietila Hannah, 17, practices a shot before she tees off on Thursday on the 12th hole for the 35th Michigan Girls Junior State Amateur at Forest Akers West Course. Hannah will attend the University of Tennessee in the fall with a golf scholarship. Weston Brooks/The State News
The 35th Golf Association of Michigan, or GAM, Girls Junior State Amateur Tournament was held at West Forest Akers Golf Course and Steve Ruthenburg, general manager and director of golf, said he was happy to have hosted the tournament.
“We’ve held it two of the last three years,” Ruthenburg said. “These are the top girls in the state in their age group, 96 of them started playing on Monday and after 2 days the low 16 qualified for match play.”
The tournament, held for girls aged 12-18, sees competition from the top female amateur golfers in the state.
On the final day of the tournament, held June 24-27, two girls remained; but the trophy was captured by Hannah Pietila, a 2013 graduate of Brighton High School.
Pietila said she has been playing in the tournament ever since her father first signed her up four years ago.
“This is my first time taking home the trophy,” Pietila said. “I haven’t won anything yet… so it feels good.”
On the concluding day of the tournament, Pietila faced off against Kelsey Murphy, who graduated from Plymouth High School this past spring.
Both girls attained a birdie in at the 7th hole. Pietila pulled one par ahead of Murphy at the 8th hole.
At the 10th hole Pietila gained another par over Murphy and did so again at the 14th. Too far out of Murphy’s reach, Pietila won the tournament up three with two holes remaining in the match play.
GAM Junior chairman Tom Bollinger has been involved with the tournament for the past 10 years and said the tournament has grown and became more successful.
“Girls golf is just exploding,” Bollinger said. “Five years ago we had like 45 girls, this year we had 96 and we had to cut off the entries because we couldn’t take any more than that.”
Bollinger said he has watched the girls who return grow and improve over the past few years but one thing that hasn’t changed is their approach to golf.
“They’re a great bunch of people to deal with because they’re always so jovial,” said Bollinger. “It’s really a great tournament to be involved in.”
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