Keith Blakely will have the opportunity to golf among the best of the best later this month.
Blakely, 47, a Groveland Township resident and a 12-year member of Atlas Valley Country Club in Atlas Township, is scheduled to participate in the Buick Open Pro-Am Golf Outing Wednesday, July 27 (the day before the actual Buick Open starts) at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club in Grand Blanc.
This is the first time Blakely has participated in any sort of pro-am tournament. He said he was able to get into the tournament through Dave Isbel with the Grand Blanc Motor Course, who took part in last year’s Buick Open Pro-Am and invited Blakely to apply for this year’s event.
Blakely may get to golf with one of the top players on the Professional Golf Association (PGA) Tour, such as Vijay Singh (last year’s Buick Open champion), John Daly, or Mark O’Meara, all of whom took part in last year’s Open.
He said he will find out Monday, July 18 at a pairings party whom he will be golfing with. Teams at the pro-am are comprised of four amateur golfers teaming up with a PGA Tour golfer.
‘Basically, what they do is a blind draw, where the team number goes into a hat,? Blakely said. ‘They’ll have all the pros eligible, except for Tiger Woods (who will be golfing with Buick executives in the pro-am), and everyone is in a pool. Whichever team gets drawn first will have the first choice of the field.?
He said the application process to play in the pro-am involves filling out forms from both the Buick Open and the PGA Tour. Applicants must have their handicaps verified by a club professional, and must have a minimum 20 handicap to be eligible for the pro-am, Blakely said.
Blakely is Vice President of Country Folk Art Craft Shows, Inc. in Groveland Township, and is married to wife Rhonda. The couple have four children: Heidi, 21, who is pursuing a film career in California after earning a degree from Full Sail Film School in Orlando; Ginny, 16, who will be a junior at Holly High School; John, 15, a sophomore at Holly High School; and Chase, a second grader at Patterson Elementary School in Holly.