Fall Kickoff at The Medalist

The Michigan Amateur Players Tour opened its 2027 season on Saturday, October 10, 2026 at The Medalist in Marshall, Michigan, one of the first Michigan amateur golf tournaments on the new calendar. A field of 21 players competed across five divisions, with a Mid-Am Net game running alongside the gross contests, as the chapter started its points year in Calhoun County with players making the drive in from Metro Detroit, Southeast Michigan and points west.

The Medalist gave the chapter a proper test to open on. The par-72 layout in Marshall has hosted the Epson Tour’s Firekeepers Casino Championship, and it carried the same demands for an amateur field, asking for position off the tee and precision into the greens rather than rewarding anyone who simply took aim and swung hard. The scoring bore that out across all 18: the par-4 11th was the single toughest hole on the property, playing better than two strokes over par for the day and surrendering exactly one birdie to the entire field. At the other end of the card, the par-3 3rd was the one genuine breather, giving up seven pars and playing less than a stroke over par — and even that hole yielded only a single birdie.

In Division 1, Ryan Schoch of Lambertville, Michigan put together the low round of the day and never gave the rest of the division a look at him. Schoch signed for a 14-over 86, the only score in the division in the 80s, and claimed a seven-shot win to open his season in the Winners Circle. Brad Watson of Battle Creek took runner-up honors, with a pair of players sharing the next spot on the board at 94. For a division where no one else broke 90, Schoch’s number stood on its own, and it stood at the top of the whole scoreboard as well — his 86 was the lowest round anyone posted at The Medalist on the day, gross, across all five divisions.

Division 2 belonged to Steven Bach of Plymouth, Michigan, who turned in an 18-over 90 and controlled the contest from start to finish. Bach’s winning margin of 13 strokes was the largest of any division on the day, and his round was one of only six scores in the entire field to come in at 90 or better. Justin Shivak, who made the trip up from Toledo, Ohio, finished second. Bach walks away with the opening points of the season and a start that will be hard for the rest of the division to answer when the chapter reconvenes.

Division 3 was decided by the second-lowest round of the day. Daniel Wiig of Oak Park, Michigan posted a 16-over 88, a number bettered by nobody in the field except Schoch, and he won the division by seven. Mike Kendall of Brooklyn, Michigan claimed runner-up honors, with two more players bunched together at 97 and the division’s congestion sitting entirely behind the leader. Wiig’s 88 did double duty before the afternoon was over, as he would turn the same round into a second trophy in the Mid-Am Net game.

Division 4 produced the most interesting back nine of the day. Brandon Bley, who traveled in from Avilla, Indiana, opened with a 12-over 48 on the front and then flipped the switch coming home, playing the inward nine in 5-over 41 to close out a 17-over 89 and a seven-shot victory. Bley’s two birdies both came on the second nine, and the first of them was the most valuable single hole anyone played all day — he was the only player in the field to make 3 at the brutal par-4 11th. He added a second birdie at the par-4 16th and played the closing three holes in 2-over to protect the lead, finishing as the third-lowest round in the field. Brayden Powell of Clarkston, Michigan finished second, and six players filled out the division from 89 all the way back, with the scoring spread as wide as any contest on the board.

Division 5 was the tightest race of the day and the only one decided by fewer than seven shots. Jack Huminsky of South Haven, Michigan won it by two with a 21-over 93 built on the steadiest pair of nines anyone turned in — an 11-over 47 going out and a 10-over 46 coming home, with four pars scattered through the round and nothing resembling a stretch that got away from him. Lee Fuller of Olivet, Michigan gave chase and fell two short, signing for a 23-over 95. Fuller actually had the better of the opening nine, making the turn in 10-over 46 with six pars on his card for the round, but Huminsky’s 46 on the inward half answered where it mattered most and settled the division. Two players finished within two shots of the lead here, the only division on the day where the margin stayed inside a stroke-and-a-half of the winner.

The Mid-Am Net game went to Daniel Wiig, who completed the double-dip after his Division 3 title by posting a net 5-over 77 — the lowest net number returned at The Medalist and a seven-stroke win in the net contest to go with his seven-stroke win in the gross. That made Wiig the only player in the chapter to leave Marshall with two titles. Caden Bowling of Vicksburg, Michigan finished second in the Mid-Am Net, with the third net score just a shot further back, making the race for the places behind Wiig a good deal closer than the race for the top of it.

Taken together, the chapter’s opening stop produced three rounds in the 80s from three different divisions — Schoch’s 86, Wiig’s 88 and Bley’s 89 — and a leaderboard where four of the five gross divisions were decided by seven strokes or more. The Medalist did not give much away, and the players who managed their misses on the inward half were the ones who signed for the numbers that held up.

That is the 2027 season underway for the Michigan chapter of the Amateur Players Tour, with the first points of the year on the board and the Player of the Year race open for business. Schoch, Bach, Wiig, Bley and Huminsky all start the season with a division title in hand, and Wiig starts it with two. There is a long way to go across the chapter — from Grand Rapids and West Michigan to Lansing, Ann Arbor and Oakland County — and every player who tees it up from here is measured against a field of their own standard, flighted by APT Tournament Index. The next stop will be announced in due course; for now, the chapter’s 2027 season has its first champions.