SPORTS
G
olf is important to J.J.
Modell.
“I enjoy the compe-
tition. It keeps me sharp in life,”
he said.
Golf will take Modell to Israel
this summer.
The 50-year-old Bloomfield
Hills resident and investment
advisor will compete in golf in
the men’s masters division (age 50
and older) for Team USA at the
21st Maccabiah Games.
“Playing golf in the Maccabiah
Games is something I’ve always
wanted to do. It’s been a goal of
my golf career. I’m looking for-
ward to it,
” Modell said.
“My whole family is going to
Israel with me. We’ve never been
to Israel as a family. I went there
many years ago, but not for golf.
”
Modell’s family includes his
wife Liz and four children ages
16-23.
While the Maccabiah Games
will run from July 12-26, the
men’s masters golf portion will
be played July 17-20 on a course
in Caesarea, a town on Israel’s
Mediterranean coast.
There will be team and indi-
vidual competitions in Caesarea.
The other four members of the
U.S. team in the men’s masters
age group are from Atlanta, Boca
Raton, Florida, New York City
and Virginia Beach, Virginia.
“The five of us have been
talking with each other through
Zoom to get prepared,
” Modell
said.
Modell qualified for the
Maccabiah Games during a
whirlwind stretch of golf and
travel last August.
After playing two qualifica-
tion rounds for Franklin Hills
Country Club’s club champion-
ship tournament Aug. 7-8 and
shooting 74-72--146 on the par-
71 course in Farmington Hills
to earn a berth in MATCH play,
Modell headed right to Florida.
The Maccabiah Games qual-
ifier was Aug. 9-11 at the pres-
tigious PGA National course in
Palm Beach Gardens, site of last
week’s Honda Classic on the PGA
Tour.
“I had played the PGA
National course casually years
earlier, so I knew a little about it,
”
Modell said. “But I didn’t have
time to get in a practice round
there before the Maccabiah
Games qualifier. I went in blind.
”
Playing in 90-degree heat on
a tough par-72 course “that has
an extreme amount of water,
”
according to Modell, he shot
75-77-82--234 at PGA National
and finished in third place among
about 30 golfers competing for
five men’s masters spots.
“I was fried by the time I got
to the last round down there,”
Modell said with a laugh.
It was back to Michigan on
Aug. 11 for more golf, and
Modell didn’t have much left in
the tank.
He lost Aug. 14 in the
Franklin Hills club champion-
ship match play quarterfinals.
Losing in that tournament
doesn’t happen often to Modell.
He’s a nine-time Franklin Hills
club champion, winning in the
1990s, 2000s and 2010s, the last
time in 2016.
Modell’s impressive golf
resume also includes being the
captain of the Brown University
team, earning All-Ivy League and
Academic All-Ivy League honors
while at Brown, and making the
Michigan Amateur tournament
quarterfinals in 2003.
He’s qualified to compete in
the Michigan Amateur and Golf
Association of Michigan tourna-
ments multiple times.
Modell has been in charge
of the golf portion of the JCC
Maccabi Games in Detroit twice,
including in 2019, the last time
the Maccabi Games was held
before it was shut down for two
years by the COVID-19 pan-
demic.
A member of the Michigan
Jewish Sports Foundation’s board
of directors, Modell has been a
co-chair of the foundation’s annu-
al Hank Greenberg Memorial
Golf & Tennis Invitational several
times.
The Maccabiah Games, held
every four years in Israel, is often
called “the Jewish Olympics.
” It’s
the world’s largest Jewish athletic
competition.
At least one other Detroit ath-
lete has qualified to compete in
the 2022 Maccabiah Games.
Hockey player Ryan Berke of
Farmington Hills will play on
Team USA
’s open division (ages
19-40) team.
He’ll be the youngest, if not
one of the youngest, members of
the team.
Berke, 19, is playing junior
hockey for the New Jersey-based
Jersey Hitmen in the U.S. Premier
Hockey League.
Junior hockey is a training
ground for players who want to
play college hockey.
Berke was a member of the
first three Detroit teams to play
hockey at the Maccabi Games,
playing in Stamford, Connecticut,
Miami and Orange County,
California, from 2016-18.
Detroit won a bronze medal in
Miami.
Please send sports news to
stevestein502004@yahoo.com.
Golfer J.J. Modell will be on Team USA
this summer at the Maccabiah Games.
Master of
the Links
STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
34 | MARCH 3 • 2022
J.J. Modell at
Cypress Point Golf
Course in Pebble
Beach, California
NEIL WEISSMAN