Michigan Golf Journal June 2019

GAM, the First 40 Years The Golf Association of Michigan (GAM) is celebrating its Centennial Anniversary this year, highlighted by a huge celebration at Oakland Hills with special guest JACK NICKLAUS, June 17. These short pieces are a brief look at highlights of the first four decades of the GAM: 1919-1929: James D. Standish Jr., Century of Impact on Golf in Michigan James D. Standish, Jr. was 28 in 1919, a three- time Michigan Amateur champion, a North and South Amateur Champion and even a two-time amateur champion of Austria.   Standish became an immediate member of the Detroit District Golf Association (GAM’s predecessor), through his membership at Lochmoor Club and then Country Club of Detroit.     James would become p resident of CC of Detroit in t he 1930s, president of the Detroit District/GAM from 1937-47 and president of the USGA in 1950 and ‘51. He was also made a life member of the Royal & Ancient Club of St. Andrews in 1929. His son, James III served as the first executive director of the GAM for 14 years from 1966 to 1979.    “The game has been in our blood for a long, long time,” said his now 85-year-old son, John, the 1993-94 president of the GAM. “I never really thought about it before, but I guess at least one Standish has been an association member for 100 years.” 1930-1939: Chuck Kocsis Emerges as Michigan’s Greatest Amateur Golfer Chuck Kocsis, who admitted he didn’t care much for match play, said in an interview just a few years before he died in 2006, that sometimes when playing in that format he would hold back with his tee shots to make sure the other player hit it past him.   “I wanted to hit it on the green first and putt pressure on,” he said. “It worked a lot.”   Everything Kocsis tried on the golf course seemingly worked – a lot. GAM named him Michigan’s Golfer of the 20th Century, and he was certainly the top amateur golfer in Michigan in the 1930s and into the 1940s – Chuck Kocsis Michigan Golf Journal History of GAM