Ann Arbor's Tyler Copp carries three-shot lead into GAM Championship final round

Ann Arbor’s Tyler Copp shot consecutive rounds of 4-under 66 Monday on a par-adjusted Western Golf & Country Club course to take a three-shot lead at the 99th Golf Association of Michigan Championship.

Copp, who won the Michigan Amateur Championship earlier this summer, will go for the elusive state amateur golf title double when the 54-hole tournament concludes Tuesday in Redford.

“You’re here, so you might as well try and win it,” said Copp, who is a golfer at Mercer University in Georgia. “I still feel like I have something to prove. You know, there’s people out there saying that maybe it was a little bit of a fluke at the (Amateur). I don’t really know if they are, but thinking there might be is all the motivation I need to go out and try to keep it going.”

Coincidentally, his three-shot lead was on James Piot of Canton, whom he defeated 2 and 1 in the title match of the Amateur earlier this summer on The Heather course at Boyne Highlands Resort in Harbor Springs.

Piot, a Michigan State standout, and the 2018 GAM Champion shot 68 and 67 for 135 Monday on the Donald Ross-designed course that was played at par 70.

Heavy rain over the weekend caused some routing changes and the par 4 No. 13 hole to be played as a par 3 from a dry spot in the fairway, and the No. 8 hole, a par 5 for members, was set up as a par 4 for the GAM’s top golfers.

Jimmy Chestnut of Royal Oak was the last golfer to pull off the two major Michigan wins in the same season in 2008, and keeping with the irony theme, it is Chestnut who 12 years later will join Copp and Piot in the final threesome Tuesday.

Chestnut, a 38-year-old attorney, shot rounds of 67 and 69 for 136, four shots off Copp’s lead.

Also checking in at 136 were Andrew Walker of Battle Creek, a Michigan State teammate of Piot, who shot 67-69, and Wayne State University golfer Matthew Pelak of Mattawan, who shot a pair of 68s.

Another Wayne State golfer, Grant Haefner of Bloomfield Hills, shot 70-67 for 137 and was tied with Michael Coriasso of White Lake, last year’s GAM Mid-Amateur Champion who shot 68-69.

Defending champion Mitchell White of Muskegon, a two-time winner of the GAM, made the cut on 3-over-143 line for the low 30 scorers for the final round. He shot rounds of 72 and 71.