For nearly 19 holes in the Lincoln Golf Club’s Match Play final on Sunday, Jeff Petroski was playing to win. He wanted nothing more than to conquer the championship.
It didn’t matter that the opponent was his firstborn son.
“It was unnerving, but I don’t know – we weren’t talking as much as I thought, because we both had trolleys in the cart with us, so we were just trying to get out and play,” said Zach Petroski, 19.
Paternal love and pride entered just before Zach Petroski buried a 20-foot putt birdie in the first playoff hole to beat his father for the title. At that moment, Jeff Petroski became his son’s biggest fan.
Jeff Petroski, 44, grew up playing Lincoln. The sons Zach and Cody followed in his footsteps. Everyone knows the course as the backs of their hands. In fact, Zach worked there and Cody works there now.
The Petroski may also own Lincoln Sunday. Earlier in the day, 18-year-old Cody Petroski took the title in the men’s high school division. He had completed his 4 and 3 wins over Andrew Taylor when his father and brother were taking turns in their game. They had quite the following.
“We probably had about 40 wagons behind the green on 18 and I’d say I had a 4 foot par to force him to playoff holes. That was the scariest putt I’ve ever had, but I made it, “said Zach Petroski.
“We went to the (n.) Tee box of 1 and my father hit his drive a little to the left of the fairway, but he had a blow to the pin. The pin was hidden just behind the bunker. I hit the worst disc I could do and I was in the hardpan on the right, so I was at the short side of the pin – I had 80 yards and I got a little aggressive with it, I put a bit of spin on it and I flew it right on the pin and he checked and I left 20 feet back in the birdie hole. My dad missed it and I stepped up and made it. “
Zeth Petroski of Reeths-Puffer kneels before putting hole 12 during the 2019 GMAA tournament at the Stonegate Golf Club, in Twin Lake, Michigan on May 3, 2019. Kayla Renie | MLive.com
Zach Petroski, who is entering his second year at Muskegon Community College, where he competes on the golf team, has had a familiar face that has helped him. Chris Carter, the Petroski brothers’ golf coach at Reeths-Puffer and a close friend of Jeff Petroski, chose the caddy for Zach. “It was a no-brainer – Jeff got help, he was fine,” said Carter.
Cody Petroski was not taking sides. He said he just wanted to watch good golf.
“I don’t know, it was difficult. I mean, obviously I’m a competitive guy – we’re a competitive family. I wouldn’t let him win, that’s for sure. He earned it. It was fun, ”said Jeff Petroski, a 1993 Reeths-Puffer student, employed as a commercial estimator for heating, cooling and refrigerating Northside.
“It was fun to watch it. He played really well. … It was a real fun. We had fun. Many people have come to see. There must have been 50, 60 people watching the whole game. It was fun. “
Two years ago, Cody and Zach Petroski brought Carter’s Reeths-Puffer golf team to the Greater Muskegon Athletic Association tournament championship. Cody Petroski, who is left-handed unlike his brother and father, earned the medal that day with a 1-under 71 at the Stonegate Golf Club.
Cody Petroski of Reeths-Puffer launches his second shot on hole 12 during the GMAA 2019 tournament at the Stonegate Golf Club in Twin Lake, Michigan on May 3, 2019. Kayla Renie | MLive.com
Cody Petroski has seen his junior golf season blown away this spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He is entering his final year in RP and hopes for a final season with the Rockets. His goal is to play collegiate golf just like his brother, who is a Reeths-Puffer 2019 graduate.
Sunday was the first time that Jeff Petroski faced his son in a formal and competitive round. Cody Petroski hoped to compete against them in Lincoln Match Play, but had to play again in the junior division. North Muskegon’s Georgie Kersman won the girls’ high school division of the tournament.
“It was fun; surely unexpected, especially the fact that I had to beat Nigel Hawryliw in my second game. He is one of the best players in the county,” said Zach Petroski, who saw a 2 advantage over Hawryliw fading away on numbers 16 and 17 before killing the number 18 to close it.
Not that his father made it easier for him in the final.
“He wanted to win for sure,” said Zach Petroski, “but he liked that to win too.”
Read more:
10 golf courses in the Muskegon area to play in July
Spring Lake’s Anna Kramer wins the Michigan Amateur Women’s Golf Championship
The golfer sinks two aces in seven days and more hole heroism in one
Living “True Adult Life”, Kalamazoo Hackett’s Alum Wins Another KCC Inviting Golf Title
