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