Mike Gianopoulos of Kent Country Club in Grand Rapids, Mich., recorded his first GCSAA Golf Championships triumph at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. Photos by Darren Carroll
Editor's note: Complete results from the 2025 GCSAA Golf Championships — from the Four-Ball Competition to individual fl ights and chapter team results — can be viewed online at https://www.golfgenius.com/pages/4841656.
You had to figure that somebody like Mike Gianopoulos, CGCS, would eventually come along.
After all, it had been 14 years since anyone like him would ascend to be the leader of the pack at the GCSAA National Championship. Yet there he was atop the throne on a Monday afternoon at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa’s North Course in Carlsbad, Calif. On the final day of the 75th GCSAA National Golf Championship with presenting partner The Toro Co., Gianopoulos had climbed to the par-5 18th. Needing a tap-in par, Gianopoulos finished the job with more than a tap. For him, it was a massive breakthrough and a job well done for his first GCSAA Championship after placing third in Arizona last year.
Give him extra credit for his California dreamin’ outcome, because this was no day at the beach. It was a challenge for him and the other competitors at a demanding and difficult layout that has quite a history on the West Coast. The North Course has hosted GCSAA National Championships and on numerous occasions was the site of PGA Tour and LPGA Tour tournaments. The PGA Tour first went there in 1969 for the Tournament of Champions. Notable winners of the event through the years included Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Gary Player. When it was later known as the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship from 1999-2006, Tiger Woods was among the winners. Plus, La Costa has hosted the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Championships since last year and will continue to do so through 2028.
Gianopoulos, from Kent Country Club in Grand Rapids, Mich., has his own Woods story (read about it later), but that final day at the North Course belonged to him.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy for everyone,” Gianopoulos says.
Really, it hasn’t been simple for anyone outside of the country’s warmer climates to triumph at the National Championship. Gianopoulos, who emerged as someone to watch last year, loosened a stranglehold of sorts in the event. Florida superintendents had won five straight championships, and 19 of the previous 20 champions had come from warm-weather states, such as Florida (9), Texas (6), California (2), and one apiece for Arizona and Alabama. His two-day total of 6-over-par 150 put Gianopoulos one ahead of Seth Strickland, which prevented the Floridian Strickland from back-to-back titles. And — for the first time since 2011, when cold-climed David Brown of Boulder, Colo., triumphed — Gianopoulos got it done.
“I actually did it. Big sense of relief. I wanted to be one of the northern guys to pull it off,” Gianopoulos says. “Once you do it, it feels surreal.”
Myriad events make up the GCSAA Championships. More than 600 golfers participated in 2025.
Who’s Mike?
He can play a mean guitar. He also can pull off pretty good golf when the moment calls for it.
And when inclement weather necessitates, Gianopoulos is resourceful.
Kent CC possesses two Trackman simulators. As early as November, Gianopoulos put them both to good use as he got busy in prep for the GCSAA Championships. “I got in early before work. Or, during my lunch break, I was hitting at them four or five days a week,” says the GCSAA Class A superintendent and 17-year association member.
A native of Newburgh, Ind., Gianopoulos was raised in climates in which teeing it up year-round can limit options. It didn’t, however, impede his industry growth once he determined it was right for him. Gianopoulos possessed that ear for music as a trombone player in high school that transferred to a love for the guitar. Still, he was tuned into golf. And, once during a high school conference tournament, Gianopoulos posted a sweet 32 on the back nine to propel his squad. Gianopoulos was taught the game by his father, John, who signed up his boy in junior league golf in Evansville, Ind. Gianopoulos also worked at Rolling Hills Country Club in Newburgh.
He went to Purdue University and initially pursued audio engineering. By the end of his first school year, Gianopoulos failed to see a future in it, but a friend suggested he stay on the West Lafayette, Ind., campus. “He was in turfgrass and said I should check it out,” Gianopoulos says.
He did more than that. With the guidance of those at Purdue such as Cale Bigelow, Ph.D., Gianopoulos was voracious in pursuit of quality internships, and he had an achiever mentality.
“I was aiming high,” says Gianopoulos, whose high-end internships featured one in his hometown: Victoria National Golf Club in Newburgh; Long Cove Club in Hilton Head Island, S.C.; and Fishers Island Club in Fishers Island, N.Y.
It is an internship that ultimately didn’t materialize, though, that, if it had panned out, may never have put Gianopoulos on course to be a GCSAA Championship winner. “I almost had one (internship) with the Philadelphia Phillies that could’ve taken my profession in a different direction,” he says.
The GCSAA Golf Championships represent opportunities to compete, network and enjoy.
All roads lead to golf
What a way to make your industry professional debut.
Gianopoulos made his post-Purdue start as an assistant superintendent at famed Olympia Fields Country Club’s North Course in Olympia Fields, Ill. He spent two years there and reveled in the opportunity. “High-end maintenance, high-end tournament maintenance,” he says.
That’s where the Woods mystique played a part in his time there. So many golfers through the years had to marvel over what Woods pulled off (see YouTube for details) during the 2003 U.S. Open at Olympia Fields at the 15th. After missing the fairway, Woods faced what appeared to be an impossible 247-yard shot with a tree in the way. No worries for the defending champion. Woods took a 3-wood and ignored the tree with of all things a slice and reached the green and set up an eagle. Woods flashed a smile. Gianopoulos, meanwhile, passed by the spot daily at work and even to this day says, “How did he hit it that close?”
And, of course, Gianopoulos tried to replicate Woods’ shot. “I don’t remember how many times I tried it, although I’m sure it was a lot,” he says. “What I remember is getting to maybe 60 yards short and still 20-plus yards left of the green. Tiger carried it 240-plus and sliced it probably 50 yards and landed it softly maybe 10 feet from the hole. It’s just one of those shots that when you stand in the same spot he was in, you can’t wrap your head around how anyone can even come close to pulling this shot off.”
Gianopoulos was closing in on his own shot at becoming a superintendent. He went to The Beverly Country Club in Chicago as an assistant managing daily operations of the grounds crew. Finally, in 2015, Gianopoulos was hired as superintendent at White Deer Run Golf Club in Vernon Hills, Ill. For nearly seven years and mentored by director of agronomy Kirk Spieth, Gianopoulos got what he hoped. “Great spot for my first superintendent job. High-end public course. I was able to get my feet under me, make mistakes and learn from them,” he says.
His efforts led to Gianopoulos’ home now. Kent CC fits what he desires, a high-end private facility. “I love the age of it, 1896. So unique being in downtown Grand Rapids. The only downtown course there. The topography doesn’t seem like you’re in a city,” he says. “Old-style greens, and the last three, four years, we’ve made some great improvements with selective tree removals, building alternative tees and hopefully a bunker restoration in the near future.”
This year marked the 75th GCSAA Championships, and it was the 31st year that The Toro Co. was the presenting partner of the tournaments.
Chasing a title
Trackman turned out to be a major ally leading up to his charge for a GCSAA Championship.
Gianopoulos did play once outside of Michigan when he wasn’t relegated to the Trackman. A round of golf during the winter in Pensacola, Fla., proved to be his lone outdoor golf experience as he flew to California perhaps facing the unknown about his game. Quickly, any trepidations were put to rest after he stepped onto Torrey Pines Golf Course to play the day before moving on to Omni La Costa, which is overseen by a team led by GCSAA Class A Director of Agronomy and 21-year association member David Smallwood and North Course superintendent and nine-year association member Jeff Wilson.
“I was feeling pretty good about my swing. The Trackman had been pretty accurate,” he says.
He sure looked sharp on Sunday at La Costa — and surfaced as the man to beat on the Pure Distinction bentgrass greens (average green size is 6,200 square feet), 419 bermudagrass fairways and rough and native Pacific fescue.
Gianopoulos in the opening round fired a second-nine 35 and stood at 1-over-par 73, giving him a 2-stroke advantage heading into the final round. He finished strong by recording three birdies in his last four holes, including the par-5 18th. Two players were tied behind him following their rounds of 75: Zak Harrington and Andrew Dunlop.
Defending champion Strickland — who was aiming at becoming the all-time holder in GCSAA Championship titles — was tied for fourth place following a 4-over-par 76. Strickland currently is tied for the record with Emil “Mashie” Masciocchi, each with six titles. Jordan Serratt was 5-over par 77, along with two others: Shawn Westacott, who is a past champion, and Damian Beasley. Another past champ, Michael Stieler, was at 6-over 78. Stieler entered as the last California superintendent to win the national title in the state, having achieved it in 2012 in Palm Springs, defeating Strickland by a stroke.
Being the front-runner was welcomed for Gianopoulos — though not necessarily anything to be overly confident over, he explained.
This year marked the 75th GCSAA Championships, GCSAA members mingle between events at the 2025 GCSAA Golf Championships.
The final push
If anything, it certainly got interesting, including down the stretch for Monday’s final and decisive round.
Although he recorded bogeys on the last three holes on the front nine, Gianopoulos still was able to extend his lead to three over Strickland headed to the turn. After posting a bogey on No. 13, Gianopoulos stumbled when he double-bogeyed by knocking it into the water at the par-4 15th. That placed him in a tie with Strickland at 6-over-par. Gianopoulos responded in a big way: He drained a birdie at the par-3 16th. “I knew where he (Strickland) was,” says Gianopoulos, who answered with nerves of steel to the moment, “and I knew a 9-iron was the club. I stuck it to 4 feet, and that helped me out there. I knew I had to do something. Not saying it won the tourney for me, but I needed that.”
His ability to pause and regroup when the lead briefly vanished after No. 15 would turn out to be a turning point. “Things that I learned over the last year or so, that if I hit a bad shot, no need to curse, take a deep breath, keep my pre-swing routine, and talk to myself like I’d talk to my 7-year-old son (John),” Gianopoulos says.
Although he took a step back by bogeying the par-4 No. 17, Gianopoulos regrouped and finished with a tap-in par at the par-5 18th.
Strickland — still one GCSAA National Championship away from setting the record of seven triumphs — had bogeyed the 17th, which Gianopoulos used in his favor. He credits his deft putting for carrying the day. A highlight was a nearly 18-foot par at the par-3 12th.
After hoisting the trophy to become the first GCSAA Championship winner at La Costa since it was last played there in 2019 and captured by Texas’ Steve Gilley, Gianopoulos was gratified. Tired. Thoughtful. Undoubtedly, his thought process front and center included his wife, Sally. She could not be there with him physically, but her spirit always is present. Two years ago, she was diagnosed with ALS. Life has changed quite a bit in the last two years, but his wife’s support of his golf passion has meant the world to him.
Gianopoulos chases more championships this year. He has won the last two Michigan GCSA tournaments and hopes to accomplish the elusive threepeat.
Maybe someday Gianopoulos will strum a tune on one of his acoustic or electric guitars about what this GCSAA Championship milestone means to him after years of trying. A big fan of John Mayer, surely this triumph for Gianopoulos matches the title of a Mayer song from a couple of decades ago.
“Clarity.”
Howard Richman (hrichman@gcsaa.org) is GCM’s associate editor.