liceing Out

Two Jewish co-captains helped Andover High to a state golf title.

JEFF LESSON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

Jason Levin and Caig Colton hold the Class B trophy.

n 1991, the Bloomfield
Hills Andover varsity
golf team finished a
solid, yet disappoint-
ing third in the state
tournament. After
that, and an equally
crushing one-stroke
defeat to arch rival
Troy in the South-east
Michigan Association
championship, Jason
Levin and Craig
Colton turned their
thoughts toward 1992.
Colton and Levin
made a pact, dedicat-
ing themselves to win-
ning the 1992 state
and league titles. Just over a
year later, both goals were re-
alized.
Though neither of the 17-
year-old senior co-captains had
his best individual season,
their commitment proved crit-
ical to the team's success.
"Winning the Class B state
championship was the high-
light of my year," says Colton.
Out of 100 Class B golf teams
in Michigan, Levin adds, "it
was great to qualify for the
State again, and then finish
tops among the 30 teams that
competed."
At the state championship,
played at Forest Akers in East
Lansing, Colton had a rough
first day, before finishing with
a solid round of nine-over-par
81. "Our whole goal was the
team. Individual accomplish-
ments were secondary."
Levin fared extremely well
at the state championship, fir-
ing rounds of 81 and 84 on the
par 72 course, and finishing
12th out of 150 golfers. He
trailed the individual leader
by just 3 strokes after the first
round, but "became nervous
due to a lack of tournament
experience."
Senior Justin Cohn was the
third Jewish member of the
Andover team.
Levin's best performance

this past season came in the
fall's first meet, also at Forest
Akers. He posted scores of 73
and 78 in a medal-winning
performance.
Both Colton and Levin were
exposed to golf at an early age.
Colton began hitting balls with
his father at Knollwood Coun-
try Club at age 7. One year lat-
er, he had his first hole-in-one,
on a 110-yard hole in Florida
"It was a three wood that I hit
from the ladies' tees," Colton
says, and Golf Digest and the
Miami Herald took note.
Levin was 12 when his fa-
ther and older brother first
took him to play at Tam
O'Shanter Country Club. He
became engaged in several
"competitive" battles with his
brother, Derrin, which in-
creased his interest in the
game. "It became a family
event. Either I golfed or stayed
home while the rest of my fam-
ily was on the golf course."
The two Andover seniors
have known each other since
the fifth grade and remain
good friends both on and off
the course. They developed
much of their games at a golf
camp when they were each 13.
Today, they are both about a
six handicap, meaning they
shoot an average of six over
par per round.
They both attended class-
es at UCLA last summer and
were unable to prepare for the
'92 season as they would have
liked. According to Colton, "we
only played twice the entire
summer, and lost some of our
competitive edge by not play-
ing tournaments during that
time." Neither would regret it.
"The difference between a
lot of other guys on the team
and Jason and I is everyone
else takes it so seriously hop-
ing to get college scholarships
and play tournaments all the
time," Colton says. 'The two of
us play golf for fun and don't

ACEING OUT page 46

