Michigan Golf Journal June 2019

competing multiple times as an amateur in The Masters.   Golf legend Byron Nelson wrote in the forward to the book Forever Scratch by Vartan Kupelian that: “Kocsis in many ways, was the most remarkable golfer I’ve ever known.” 1940-1949: Belvedere Golf Club in Charlevoix, Favored Host of the Michigan Amateur Championship Blue water, blue skies, “Big Band” music and superb golf at Belvedere Golf Club were among the reasons the tiny Northern Michigan city of Charlevoix already enjoyed an international reputation as a summer resort area by 1940. The Belvedere course, designed by famed architect William Watson, had been around since 1925. Membership of the golf club, as it remains today, was almost completely summer visitors from southern states and big cities like St. Louis, Memphis, Nashville and Cincinnati. It remains today a lifetime favorite of Hall of Fame pro golfer Tom Watson, whose family would spend his childhood summers nearby. Belvedere became a regular home of the Michigan Amateur, hosting it 40 times, and will host it again in 2025 during the club’s centennial. 1950-1959: Glenn Johnson Provides Color for Michigan Golf History Glenn Johnson would roll into the Belvedere Golf Club parking lot in Charlevoix in his shiny Cadillac convertible, top down, of course.    It would be packed with golf clubs and enough clothing changes from all the choices in the rainbow to outfit himself anew for the each of the six rounds it would take to win another Michigan Amateur Championship.   The proud Grosse Ile Golf & Country Club member won the Michigan Amateur five times, second to the six for Kocsis. He won his first three consecutively in 1954, ’55 and ’56 all at Country Club of Jackson.   Johnson, who also won a GAM Championship and a GAM Senior Championship, kept steering his Cadillac to Belvedere. He made it to match play in 25 Amateurs, and in the ’50s won 23 consecutive matches before falling in the semifinals in 1957. By his count, he was 64- 20 in Amateur matches. Belvedere 1940s 37 June 2019 www.michigangolfjournal.com