FARMINGTON HILLS — Achievements across a spectrum that covers the growing of grass on a golf course to the highest levels of play are represented via the fivesome joining the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame as 2006 inductees.
Raymond Bolo, a 37-year head club professional, Thomas Chisholm, a national leader in joining golf with the environment, John Grace, a decorated amateur golfer, John Morse, a PGA Tour winner, and Jeanne Myers, a pioneer rules official, will be inducted at Indianwood on May 21, the MGHF announced today.
Bolo, 73, was the head professional at Western Golf and Country Club in the Detroit area for 37 years, teaching the game, building it through junior golf and making time to play at a high level, too.
Bolo, retired and living in South Carolina, was a four-time Michigan PGA Seniors champion, scored an international senior professional division win in Scotland’s International Four Ball Tournament in 1983, and was also part of a winning pro-am team in the celebrated AT & T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in ’83.
Bloomfield’s Chisholm, the retired vice-president of Eaton Corp., served on the USGA’s Executive Committee from 1990 to ’96, was president of the Golf Association of Michigan in 1989-90 and has worked as a rules official in the Masters Tournament at Augusta National in Augusta, Ga.
In recent years, his many service projects in the game of golf have largely focused on promoting the research, education and improvement of playing conditions. He has worked in those areas with the USGA since 1990, and has worked with the GAM in similar capacities since 1975.
Grace, 57, made his mark in Michigan as one of the nation’s top amateur players when he made this state his home between 1960 and ’74. He was runner-up in the U.S. Amateur to Jerry Pate in ’74, won three GAM Championships between 1968 and ’73 and claimed the Michigan Amateur title in 1971.
A former Walker Cup team member, he has qualified for 35 USGA championships in his career, including 19 U.S. Amateur Championships. He resides in his native Texas, and won that state’s Amateur title in 1998, the same year he won the Texas Senior Open. He has played professional senior golf around the world in recent years.
Morse, a Marshall native, has traveled the world in professional golf, won the 1995 Hawaiian Open on the PGA Tour but perhaps made the most news back home in 1996 when he finished fourth and played among the leaders through the U.S. Open hosted by Oakland Hills Country Club. He eventually finished fourth in his role as a home-state favorite.
The 48-year-old former University of Michigan golf team captain, 1978 Michigan Amateur champion and 1980 Big Ten champion and All-America selection, played on the Florida Tour, the Australasian Tour, the European Tour and the Nike Tour before his PGA Tour career started in 1994.
Myers, 66 and a Farmington Hills resident, is currently the first woman president of the Golf Association of Michigan, and was that organization’s first woman Board of Governor in 1991. She is best known for laying down the rules on a national and state level, however.
The author of the USGA’s "Equitable Stroke Control" procedure, which went into effect in 1991 and is still in use, has worked as a rules official for 13 U.S. Women’s Opens and U.S. Women’s Amateurs, as well as three U.S. Opens (men) and several NCAA championships. She is also a leader in rules education. Recently, she was named the USA women’s team captain for the World Amateur Team Championships in October.
For more information, e-mail llarkin@michigan-golf-foundation.com or call (248) 719-0650.
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