Brian Cairns represents Michigan at the 2012 PGA Championship this week

I feel for Brian Cairns.

Qualifying for the 2012 PGA Championship is pretty awesome, but having to play the Ocean course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort in tournament conditions will be pretty brutal.

Cairns, a teaching pro at Fox Hills Golf & Banquet Center in Plymouth, Mich., is playing in his second straight PGA Championship. Pretty heading stuff for any club pro.

The New York Times wrote a great piece at last year's PGA Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club that featured Cairns. It reads:

Then there was the scene on the practice putting green when Brian Cairns, a teaching pro from the Fox Hills Golf and Banquet Center in Plymouth, Mich., badly misjudged the ultra-speedy green at the Atlanta Athletic Club and knocked his first putt way past the hole. The ball rolled and rolled until it was close to where Phil Mickelson was practicing.As Cairns sheepishly retrieved his wayward ball, Mickelson turned and said, “Club pro, right?”But Mickelson also offered his hand to shake.“He congratulated me for getting into the tournament and talked with me for a while,” said Cairns, who is 47. “That was really flattering. I think the tour pros welcome us. They know we are part of the event.”

That story kind of sums up what the event means to Cairns and the other 19 club pros teeing it up. They'll enjoy the experience, but they're not really expected to make the cut, let alone contend. Cairns will have Jordan Young, a fellow teacher at Fox Hills, on the bag. They'll cherish the journey together, even if the fierce winds whip up off the South Carolina coast.

Jackson's Ron Beurmann wins dramatic Michigan PGA Championship

EAST LANSING - The island green at the Eagle Eye Golf Club claimed another victim and yet again had a hand in the Michigan PGA Professional Championship.

Ron Beurmann of Jackson came from four strokes behind with two holes to play to win the 89th Michigan PGA Professional Championship in a playoff Aug. 25. The 50-year old Director of Golf at The Country Club of Jackson was two strokes behind entering the final round and won the tournament on the second hole of a three-man playoff.

“It’s a miracle, it’s a miracle,” he said. “The key for me winning this week is the fact I only missed two five-foot putts.”

John Seltzer of Ann Arbor held a two-stroke lead entering the final round and looked in control until his one-stroke lead vanished with a wet tee shot on the 142-yard 17th hole, which mimics the island green at the TPC of Sawgrass.

Sean Winters of Bloomfield Hills Country Club started the final round five shots behind Seltzer but got hot in the middle of the round with an eagle on 14 and a birdie on 15 before driving his tee shot into the water on the par five 18th hole. He ended with a double bogey. On the final hole, Seltzer’s layup shot found the edge of a railroad tie, leading to a double bogey. Beurmann birdied the hole as all three players finshed regulation at 10-under par.

Winters was eliminated on the first playoff hole when he again hit his tee shot into the water and ended with double bogey. Seltzer bogeyed the second hole of the playoff and Beurmann’s par was good enough to win the $7,000 first place prize and shake a 12-year draught of winning a major.

“I never gave up but it’s amazing how many times I’ve walked away from a tournament and said this is it because of my putting,” he said. “I’ve seen some crazy stuff over the years but never for me and it’s great to win in front of my friends and peers."

Four-time defending champion Scott Hebert of Grand Traverse Resort & Spa, fresh off an appearance in the PGA Championship, tied for fourth, six strokes back.

Top 10 finishers

*1, Ron Beurmann Country Club of Jackson 206 $7000.00
2, Sean Winters Bloomfield Hills Country Club 206 $3250.00
2, John Seltzer The Polo Fields in Ann Arbor 206 $3250.00
4, Scott Hebert Grand Traverse Resort Spa 212 $1800.00
4, Lee Houtteman Grand Traverse Resort Spa 212 $1800.00
6, Ian Ziska Manistee National Golf Resort 213 $1300.00
7, Eric Dovre Detroit Golf Club 214 $1100.00
8, Brian Cairns Fox Hills Golf & Banquet Center 215 $906.67
8, Christopher Johnson Thousand Oaks Golf Club 215 $906.67
8, Frank McAuliffe Ann Arbor Country Club 215 $906.67

Fox Hills Golf and Banquet Center features something for everyone

The Fox Hills Golf & Banquet Center has always been southeast Michigan’s most unique public facility. The story lines are almost endless.

• First and foremost, with 63 holes, it is the largest golf facility in metro Detroit.
• The course is owned and operated by two sisters, Kathy Dul Aznavorian and Sandy Dul Mily. They are a formidable duo in an industry dominated by white males.
• The Golden Fox, the signature track by Arthur Hills, was one of the region’s first “country club for a day” experiences built for public players, opening in 1989, the same time as Pine Trace Golf Club in Rochester. The success of the pair spearheaded the state’s building boom.
• The construction of the par-3 Strategic Fox, a new breed of executive courses created to help grow the game among juniors and women, helped Fox Hills win National Golf Course of the Year honors in 2002 from the National Golf Course Owners Association and the state’s course of the year in 2001 and 2002 from the Michigan Golf Course Owners Association.
• Fox Hills’ commitment to the environment earned the prestigious “Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary” by the International Audubon Program in 1996, becoming among the first 40 in America (and third in Michigan) to achieve this award. The Audubon status continues today with a review done every two years.

But what struck me during my first visit in years last week was its versatility. I've written about this before, but it was great to see the facility come to life before my own eyes. I saw the stereotypical country club types – guys with the logo shirts carrying big-headed drivers – enjoying the Golden Fox during an outing. I witnessed women and seniors tackling the easier, but no less fun, Strategic Fox and finishing all 18 holes in less than three hours. What a cool concept!

And then, on the 27 holes of the classic Fox with 18 holes that date to 1921, there were golfers of all shapes and abilities and attire. And that’s the ultimate storyline of Fox Hills. There’s something for everyone.

The junior program is thriving with 700 children taking advantage of the Strategic Fox and its separate clubhouse and driving range that encompasses the golf school, staffed by a number of excellent teachers. People like Brian Cairns, Jordan Young, Joal Harding, Top50JuniorTour founder Dan Thomas and Eastern Michigan University men’s golf coach Bruce Cunningham make it hum. Aznavorian says the junior program explodes once school gets out in June, so be sure to sign your future Phil Mickelson up early. Programs range from individual lessons to day and weeklong camps.

I’ve never played any of the holes on the Classic Fox, but the Golden Fox is a solid test. The signature hole (and most talked about) is the 396-yard 15th hole, featuring a blind green hidden behind a giant mound.

Playing the Strategic Fox can be fun for all ages. Envision a foursome of buddies reveling in a par-3 shootout for some cash or a family of four enjoying a day of bonding on the course without the stresses of high scores.

Architect Ray Hearn designed big greens, so beginners can experience that “rush of accomplishment” when they hit them in regulation. Seasoned players should hit every green on the front nine – the longest hole is 163 yards – but the course toughens up on the back with two 195-yard and two 171-yard shots.

Hearn says he gets satisfaction every time he sees pictures of the range of customers using his unique creation. “I’m not here to say it is the total answer (for growing the game), but it is part of the answer,” he says. “We get more requests for (building) these kind of facilities (than full courses).”