CANTON – Eric Wohlfield of Grand Haven, a 45-year-old former professional golfer who was reinstated as an amateur, held off college player Jack Julian of South Lyon and 15-year-old Nemo Tsai of Ann Arbor to win the Michigan Publinx Golf Association Medal Play Championship at Pheasant Run Golf Club Sunday.
Wohlfield, who currently assembles custom putters for a start-up company and no longer works as a teaching professional, had a hot putter in shooting a 4-under 212 total for the 54-hole event played over two days at 27-hole Pheasant Run.
“I made everything today with the putter,” he said. “I didn’t expect to do this. I haven’t putted this well in quite some time.”
His 4-under 32 on the North nine and 3-under 33 on the West keyed a 6-under final day.
Julian, who is a redshirt freshman for the Wayne State University golf team and won the prestigious Michigan Medal Play title last week at Detroit Golf Club, was 2-under for his 27 holes Sunday for a 213 total.
He was one shot off Wohlfield’s lead and tied for second with Tsai, a 15-year-old Ann Arbor Skyline student and American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) standout, who led the field after Saturday’s play but was 1-over on Sunday.
Justin Sui of Lake Orion was next at 215, and John Quigley, the 2024 GAM Mid-Amateur Champion, and Bhavneet Sohal, an Oakland University golfer from Australia, tied for fifth at 217.
Defending champion, Jerred Barley of Tecumseh, also a former professional, shot 219 and tied for seventh.
A Senior and a Super Senior champion were also crowned.
Tim Coffey of Midland won the Senior title with an 8-over 224 total. The 11-time Midland City champion bested Frank Comito of Macomb (225) by one shot.
Andrew Smith of Troy, Brad Byrd of Taylor and Stan Jordan of Canton rounded out the top five tied at 227.
It took a one-hole playoff, or 28 holes, for Tim Birk of Ann Arbor to win the Super Senior title.
He was tied after regulation play with Ray Emsley of Davisburg at 12-over 228 but made a par on the first extra hole to win in sudden-death. Mike Raymond of Jackson shot 232 for third place.
Wohlfield said he stopped playing competitive golf for about 18 months, which helped lead to the switch from being a professional back to amateur golf.
“I wasn’t working or teaching as a professional and I just kind of lost the drive to compete and a lot of it was issues off the tee, basically the yips with my driver,” he said. “I was spraying it everywhere and that makes you not want to go out and play.”
Wohlfield, who was runner-up to current PGA Tour player Ryan Brehm in the 2010 Michigan Open Championship, said he started figuring out the driver problem last year and over the winter put in work on it.
“I’m hitting it in the right direction again, but it is still a little squirrely and I’m still losing a lot of yards to the young guys,” he said. “I’m helping my buddy with his putter company. I do his custom assemblies, and they are amazing. I also listen to him and his great knowledge on putting and I have one of his putters and it certainly worked for me this weekend.”
Wohlfield, a Brighton native and former Hope College golfer who most recently worked as a professional at Macatawa Legends Golf Club, declined to name his putter-creating friend.
“He guards his privacy right now,” he said. “All I know is he knows more about putting and the engineering and concepts than anybody I’ve ever met.”
Wohlfield said he has entered qualifiers this spring for the Hall Financial Michigan Open and the Michigan Amateur Championship.
“I want to compete again, especially with how I’ve played the last few weeks,” he said. “I can’t say I miss working as a professional golfer. I’m enjoying what I’m doing now. I’m in between my house in Grand Haven and helping my mother with her house in Brighton.”
