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Michigan Golf Hall of Fame Welcomes Janke, Leeke, Morgan and Salutes the
Buick Open
A full spectrum of golf in Michigan will be honored May 18 at Indianwood
Golf & Country Club in Lake Orion when Ken Janke, Meriam Bailey Leeke
and John Morgan will be inducted into the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame and the
Buick Open will be given a special award as it celebrates its 50th
anniversary as the state’s long-running PGA Tour event.
Janke
and Leeke have had multi-faceted careers and the self-taught Morgan compiled
a strong playing record which led to his being named Golf Association of
Michigan’s Player of the Decade for the 1980s, a period in which he won
the Michigan Amateur, won three GAM Championships and two of his three
Michigan Mid-Amateur Championships. Morgan qualified and played in three
United States Amateur Championships and four Mid-Amateurs. Playing first as
a member of the Michigan Publinx Golf Association and making its Honor Roll
in 1981 and 1982, Morgan made the GAM Honor Roll 11 times in a span of
1983-95 during which he was an Oakland Hills member and now at Detroit Golf
Club. “I joke that I got my competitive
nature from my Dad but not his golf swing,” said the 6-foot-1 Morgan whose
golf swing has the easy grace of Tom Weiskopf. Morgan
thought he was headed for a Division II school in
Pennsylvania
after two years at
Oakland
Community College
on a team that went to the national finals but five hours at the Michigan
Amateur changed that. “I was on the
range and hitting next to Jim Lipe who was the Assistant Coach at the
University
of
Michigan
. I’d lost to Bud Stevens in 19 holes and Lipe said, ‘We want you at
Michigan
.’”
Meriam
Bailey Leeke also is a Big Ten product but when she played at
Northwestern
University
, women’s golf wasn’t recognized as a varsity sport. Leeke was inducted
into the Northwestern Athletic Hall of Fame in 1992 although the school
didn’t hand out varsity letters to all the past women athletes until a
special ceremony at halftime of a football game in 2002. Leeke’s
father, who played football at
Illinois
with Red Grange, introduced her to golf and she broke 80 by the time she was
12. She began playing national events at 13, played high school golf in
Evanston
and in 1956 won the Chicago District Golf Association Match and Stroke Play
titles and the Illinois Women’s Amateur. In 1957 she won the National
Intercollegiate and the Women’s Western Amateur and in 1958 was named to
the U.S. Curtis Cup team. Although she
played in a number of women’s professional tournaments, the purses
averaged only $2,000 and Leeke decided against turning pro. She and her
husband, Lyle, took over the family course, Old Channel Trail in Montague
(MI) in 1966. It was a nine hole course by Robert Bruce Harris on 90 acres
and in the years since nine holes designed by W. Bruce Matthews and nine
more by his son, Jerry were added. Meriam has been on boards of banks,
charities, two colleges and currently is director and treasurer of the
National Golf Course Owners Association.
Ken
Janke got an early start in golf, caddying at Plum Hollow Golf Club when he
was nine years old. While always a strong player – he captained his
Dearborn
High School
team for two years of unbeaten match play events and won the 1957 U.S. Army
Military Championship in
Chantilly
,
France
-- Janke is better known for his contributions to the game. Establishing
the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame was Janke’s idea in 1982. Janke also was
the father of major charity golf events beginning in 1967 when he and former
Detroit Lions All-Pro Ron Kramer founded the Walter Hagen Invitational to
benefit the American Cancer Society. That led to similar tournaments around
the country and Janke was awarded the Cancer Society’s Founder’s Award.
Janke also has organized the Babe Zaharias
Invitational, March of Dimes, Tournament, St. Jude Invitational tournaments
and B’nai Brith Championship. In 1979 he was instrumental in founding the
Detroit Lions Alumni Golf Outing to benefit the NFL Alumni Dire Need Fund
and the format has spread to 28 cities.
Janke also found time to build a comprehensive collection of golf
memorabilia and to write four books on the game’s quirks, laughs and
facts.
Since
its inception in 1958 with the then-unheard of purse of $52,000 with $9,000
of it going to the winner, Billy Casper, the Buick Open has brought big-time
golf to
Michigan
. The game’s greatest players have played in the Buick Open including
Casper
, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Julius Boros, Ben
Crenshaw, Hale Irwin, Tom Weiskopf, Fred Couples, Vijay Singh, Jim Furyk,
and Tiger Woods.
Warwick
Hills Golf & Country Club in Grand Blanc, its members and the thousands
of volunteers have made “Buick Open Week” one of summer’s major events
in
Michigan
and the tournament has raised $8.8 million dollars for southeast
Michigan
charities.
When
Buick introduced the tournament it was the first major corporate sponsor of
the PGA Tour and while sponsors have come and gone in other tournaments,
Buick and
Michigan
golf have enjoyed a long, fruitful relationship. In recognition of the Buick
Open’s great influence on the game in
Michigan
, the Michigan Golf Foundation will honor the tournament during the Hall of
Fame induction ceremony at Indianwood.
Golf on the Old Course at Indianwood will be at 1:00 with the
reception, dinner and induction ceremony immediately following golf.
Tickets for golf, reception, dinner and induction ceremony are $175
or $50 without golf.
For
more information, contact Loretta Larkin at llarkin@michigan-golf-foundation.com
or (248) 719-0650.
| Need
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| All the proceeds from
the sales of the book go to the Michigan Golf Foundation. Please
send a check for $25 payable to the Michigan Golf Foundation to:
Loretta Larkin,
6801 North Meadows Way
,
Dexter
,
MI
48130
. The fee is tax deductible and includes shipping. For more
information, call Loretta at (248)719-0650. |
Vsit Michigan Golfer TV 
View recorded interview of Sara Wold, Betty Richart and Thad Gutowski as they review the status of the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame
___________________________________________________
Michigan
Golf Foundation is A
non-profit 501( c ) (3) organization that owns and operates the
Michigan Golf Hall of Fame.
The Hall of Fame Committee is comprised of representatives from the major golf organizations in Michigan and the media.
The Committee calls for nominations from the members of the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame and the major golf organizations and utilizes a selection process that will induct deserving nominees on an annual basis.
The inductees will reflect all the areas of Michigan golf including performance records, service, leadership, teaching, promotion, or administration.
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