Golf
Michigan Golf HOFer Jim Briegel, who shot better than his age for decades, dies at 98
Ann Arbor golfer Jim Briegel still playing at 97
‘I’ve been active my entire life.’ 97-year-old Ann Arbor golfer talks about life and shooting a 72 recently in Florida
David Guralnick, The Detroit News
Earlier this week, when he was riding back home to Ann Arbor from the golf course — where else? — Jim Briegel said to best friend Bill Green that he wanted to go to the University of Michigan Golf Course on Friday.
“That’s where he hit his first golf shot,” Green said. “That’s where he wanted to hit his last one.”
Briegel, who won his first golf trophy in 1944, was the only man to ever win the Ann Arbor junior, men’s and senior championships, and was inducted into the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame in 2011, died Wednesday morning at his home, Green said. He was 98, and had been battling cancer in recent months.
Briegel died just two weeks after his last round of golf, at Kensington in Brighton, and a little more than a year after he shot a round of golf at par-72, at the age of 96 — a feat that made headlines, including in The Detroit News. A year earlier, he shot 71, at the age of 95.
He had been routinely shooting his age or better since he was in his late 70s and early 80s, carried a 10 handicap as of last summer, and was still driving the ball well over 200 yards well into his 90s.
“If I ever shoot my age,” Briegel told The News last June, repeating his longtime motto, “I’m quitting.”
Briegel never did quit, until Monday night, when his daughter dropped him off at Farmington Hills Golf Club, not to play, but to spend time with the boys in the clubhouse after their round. When Green finished his round, he saw Briegel’s clubs in the parking lot, and found Briegel waiting at a table in the clubhouse.
Green asked Briegel what his clubs were doing outside.
Briegel responded: “He goes, ‘They’re yours now.’ I started bawling. He was such a great a guy, a wonderful man.”
Briegel grew up near UM Golf Course, and got into the game caddying for quarters for the Michigan golf team. He got to study some legendary swings, of the likes of Chuck Kocsis, John “Woody” Malloy and Ben Smith — three men who preceded Briegel into the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame. As recently as May, Briegel still was working at the golf course on Sundays and Mondays, for little pay, but a lot of free golf. Even better.
In between, he lived a heck of a life, most happy on the golf course, playing in four U.S. Amateur Public Links Championships, two U.S. Senior Amateurs and one U.S. Senior Open. At the 1996, British Senior Open-Amateur, he won the 70-plus division, and won three Michigan Publinx Seniors Golf Association Open-Amateur Championships. Briegel co-founded the MPGSGA, and served as president for four years. The tour’s trophy is the Briegel Cup.
Interestingly, he also rarely practiced, especially in his later years. In the later years, he needed four putts on the practice green, and he was ready for the first tee.
“I refuse to punish myself,” he told The News, with a laugh, last June, taking a break from yardwork.
More than his golf game, Briegel was known for his kindness. He was a friend to almost everyone he came across, no more so than with Green, Briegel’s best friend for the past 15 years.
The two started traveling the country, for golf trips, after the death of Briegel’s wife of 71 years, Gerry, in 2016. They were three weeks shy of 72 years. They met when she was at Ann Arbor High (now Pioneer).
“I lost count at 50″ trips,” said Green, 65. “And that was four or five years ago. Every trip we went on, we went on together. Because I love the guy.
“He tried to tell people all the time that it was because of our friendship and my connections, he had this whole new lease on life. But he meant more to me than he’ll ever know.”
“I always tell people that not only was he such a great golfer. He was such a great person.”
Green, a 5 handicap himself, and Briegel had some great banter on the golf course, but there was never much at stake. Maybe a buck. Maybe two. Maybe it was a glass of chardonnay, which Briegel enjoyed after a round of golf, or after some yardwork, or after just about anything.
Briegel spent 40-plus years working his way up the ladder at book printer Braun-Brumfield, before he retired in 1992. He stayed fully retired until 1995, when he found himself never leaving the couch during the months-long O.J. Simpson trial. He decided that was enough, and when longtime UM Golf Course manager Charlie Green called and asked if he wanted a job as a ranger, he eventually took it.
Andrew Romig, general manager at UM Golf Course, loved his spring sitdowns with Briegel, who would recount his trips to Florida, where he would usually play golf 28 out of 30 days, sometimes 36 holes a day, well into his 90s. Early in Romig’s time at the golf course, he remembers Briegel taking him on a tour of the course, and reciting the history of the grounds. This tee used to be here, this tree used to be there, and on and on. He was sharp.
“His memory was incredible,” Romig said. “Just a fantastic guy. One of the most genuine, nice people you’d ever meet. He knew everything about golf, he knew everything about this golf course.
“Just a super guy, and obviously a heck of a golfer till he was 98, playing better golf than I’ll probably ever play.
“He’s been a staple here every Sunday morning, every Monday morning.
“He’s going to be really missed by the staff, and by the customers.”
A few years back, UM Golf Course began handing out the Jim Briegel Dedicated Service Award, to an employee who goes above and beyond. It’s not given out every year, but when it’s merited.
Briegel was in remarkably good health, with just a bad back and a heart valve replacement surgery a few years back, until recent months. He battled some hearing loss, but still saw well enough to see that 72 on his scoreboard in February 2023. He didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, but he did finally admit he would keep the card.
Briegel and his wife had five children; two have died. He lived with his two daughters, and a son lives in the area. He also is survived by numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
“Monday, when I dropped him off, I stayed at the house for quite a while and we had such a great final goodbye. It was really touching. It was perfect,” said Green, of White Lake.
“He didn’t have an enemy. He was just a fantastic person.
“And, one hell of a golfer.”
tpaul@detroitnews.com
@tonypaul1984
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