Maccabi Games 2008
Record Round
Detroit Maccabi golfer blows away the field.
Matt Felsenfeld of West Bloomfield shot one under par for 36 holes at Knollwood and Tam.
Steve Stein
Special to The Jewish News
M
att Lester thought he'd seen
it all in his 20 or so years of
coaching the Detroit Maccabi
golf team and running the golf competi-
tion at JCC Maccabi Games across the
country.
That is, until this year.
Matt Felsenfeld of Detroit shot 1-
under par 71-71-142 at Tam O'Shanter
and Knollwood country clubs in West
Bloomfield last week, easily winning the
Detroit Games gold medal. The 16-year-
old from West Bloomfield was 1-under at
Tam O'Shanter and even par at Knollwood.
Lester, the golf chair for the Detroit
Games, is 100 percent certain that no
Maccabi golfer has ever finished with an
under-par score.
"I've seen a lot of great players, and the
competition has improved tremendously
through the years, but nobody has ever
done what Matt did;' Lester said.
Felsenfeld is one of the country's top
junior golfers. He's in his second year of
attending the prestigious David Leadbetter
Junior Golf Academy in Bradenton, Fla., a
A20 August 28 • 2008
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school that offers full-time boarding and
an academic program in addition to rigor-
ous golf instruction.
Mike Zausmer of West Bloomfield
(son of Detroit Maccabi golf coach Mark
Zausmer) became good friends with
Felsenfeld this summer after making
contact with him via FaceBook when he
found out Felsenfeld was going to be on
the Detroit Maccabi golf team.
They played several rounds together
and worked on their short games in the
pitching area in the back of the Zausmer
home.
"Matt is my role model when it comes
to golf;' Zausmer said. "His short game is
amazing. Every time he's near the green,
he gets up and down!'
Zausmer, 15, isn't too shabby a golfer
himself. One of the top players on the
Detroit Country Day School boys golf
team, he earned a silver medal at the
Maccabi Games. And he raved about his
first Maccabi experience.
"I couldn't think of a better way to
spend a week or end the summer," he said.
"I met so many people from other states,
even other countries. One of the kids I met
is from Orange County [California]. I may
go out to his house next February and play
some golf there!"
Normally upbeat, Zausmer admitted he
felt a touch of sadness when the Maccabi
Games ended. "The week went by so
quickly' he said. "It feels like I was just at
my computer, telling everyone how excited I
was that the Maccabi Games were starting!'
Forty-eight teens participated in the
Detroit Games golf competition, which
wrapped up with a scramble round at
Franklin Hills Country Club. Golfers were
paired with players from other cities in the
just-for-fun Wednesday event.
Zausmer (80-74-154) and Baltimore's
Sam Oshrine, age 16 (78-76-154) tied
for the silver medal. "Those would have
been gold medal scores in any other year:'
Lester said.
Jay Sapperstein, 16, from Baltimore
won the bronze medal with 81-75-156.
Silver For Soccer
The Detroit 15-16 boys soccer team won
just three of seven games, but it earned a
silver medal at the JCC Maccabi Games.
Venezuela beat Detroit 6-3 in the gold
medal game for the Blue Division, essen-
tially a "B" division based on the results of
preliminary games in the 19-team field.
Detroit fell 4-2 to Orange County, 10-
1 to Toronto and 6-1 to Manhattan in
addition to defeating Providence 3-1 in
prelims.
A 7-3 victory over Delaware/Detroit/
Albany-Schenectady/Youngstown/Virginia
Beach sent Detroit into the Blue Division
medal round.
Detroit beat Providence 2-1 to set up the
gold medal game against Venezuela.
"We'd have preferred to play for the gold
in the White rAl Division, but we ran into
some quality teams in the prelims;' said
Detroit assistant coach Bryant Frank "The
Maccabi Games were a great experience
for the players and coaches on our team,
and I can't say enough about our coach
[Scott Kirsch]!'
There weren't enough players for Detroit
to field two 15-16 boys teams, so three boys
joined the hyphenated squad with players
from four other delegations. There were two
Detroit 13-14 boys soccer teams. El
Maccabi coaches have been asked to submit
their results to sports@thejewishnews.com .
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