Tom Werkmeister, Christine Meier, Randy Lewis and Julie Massa
By Greg Johnson
Tom Werkmeister of Grand Rapids and Christine Meier of Rochester Hills dominated as amateurs during the last decade – and then they turned professional. They have been named the Golf Association of Michigan (GAM) Players of the Decade.
Randy Lewis of Alma and Julie Massa of Holt demonstrated as seniors that golf is the game of a lifetime, and that elite play can remain a part of it. They have been named the GAM Senior Players of the Decade.
“We charted the GAM Honor Roll numbers for the decade in determining this,” Ken Hartmann, the GAM senior director of competitions said. “The cream rises to the top. All of them are exceptional golfers and people.”
Werkmeister, a metro Detroit native, has been a five-time GAM Player of the Year and in the last decade won the 2017 Michigan Amateur Championship (his second), the 2016 GAM Championship, led GAM’s Michigan team to the 2016 USGA State Team Championship as national co-medalist, won four of his record six GAM Mid-Amateur Championships and in 2013 was the first amateur to win the Michigan Open Championship in 38 years.
He turned professional in 2018 at the age of 50 to pursue a PGA Tour Champions career.
“Trust me, this was a goal and I’m very excited and very honored to win,” he said. “The GAM has been great for me and my golf career. I’m a professional now and I miss the people I played against and the tournaments I got to play in as an amateur. I have great memories though and this adds to them.”
Meier, a Rochester Hills native who in 2020 will be an assistant professional at Bloomfield Hills Country Club, won the 2011 and 2013 Michigan Women’s Amateur Championship to highlight the last decade, but as an amateur also qualified for the 2012 U.S. Women’s Open Championship and in 2013 made it to match play in the U.S. Women’s Amateur.
She turned professional after playing for Michigan State University and played primarily on the LPGA’s Symetra Tour until the summer of 2019. She said she was completely surprised to be named the Player of the Decade.
“The GAM was a huge part of my amateur career and winning the two amateurs is really special,” Meier said. “I’m really very proud of what I’ve done in golf. Professional golf is a tough thing because sometimes you lose sight of everything else you’ve accomplished. Half of one percent of golfers have not done the things I’ve done, so looking back on it, it’s really cool that this has happened.”
Lewis, 62, didn’t start earning Honor Roll points as a senior (age 55 for male amateurs) until 2012 but achieved remarkably in 2011 when he won U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship at the age of 54, the oldest to ever achieve the feat. It earned him an invitation to the 2012 Masters Tournament. In the decade he was a four-time Senior Player of the Year, Lewis won the 2014 and 2017 Senior Match Play Championships and in 2017 won the senior division of the GAM Mid-Amateur.
The GAM Player of the Decade for the 1990s, Lewis has won two Michigan Amateur Championships, a GAM Championship and a GAM Mid-Amateur title among other titles. He has also competed in 26 USGA national championships.
For the last five years of the decade, essentially since she turned age 50 and became a senior woman golfer, Massa has been the GAM Women’s Senior Player of the Year.
In the decade she won the 2013 GAM Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, the 2017 GAM Women’s Senior Championship, the 2017 and 2018 Michigan Women’s Senior Amateur Championships and in 2019 won both the GAM Tournament of Champions and the GAM Senior Tournament of Champions.
A former Oregon Women’s Amateur Champion, the 56-year-old Massa has won 14 times in GAM championships in her career and played in 20 USGA national championships. She said she had not thought about being Player of the Decade and is greatly surprised. MGJ
