BY WENDI REARDON
Clarkston News Sports Writer

Brothers Alex and Brady Dice didn’t finish at the Michigan Open Championship at Prestwick Village Golf Club last week but they were both excited to qualify and play against each other.
“It is sweet,” Brady shared about qualifying with his older brother. “Now that he is at Saginaw Valley State University we don’t really play each other in tournaments anymore like we did in high school. Now we get to go against each other again. It will be fun.”
“It going to be a really cool experience,” Alex shared. “I know it is going to be cool because we are some of the youngest in the field. We will be playing against a lot of older guys who are experienced. It will be fun because I will be playing against some of the best players in the state.”
Brady, an incoming Clarkston High School senior playing for their varsity golf team, shot a 68 (14) and tied for fourth at the SharfCourse at Oakland University.
“Going into the qualifier I didn’t really have any expectations to make it,” he said. “I just thought of it as another tournament round and hoped for the best. On the back nine is when I started to play well. After I made my fifth birdie I thought I had a chance to do it. I just waited around for the scores at the end and my score was good enough to make it.”
He called his dad after he walked off the 18th hole, before he went back to the clubhouse and signed my scorecard.
“It was my lowest tournament round and my lowest round ever. I wanted to call him first,” he said. “I knew he would be the most excited for me. Going back to the clubhouse I had a pretty good idea I made it because of the score. When everyone came in and found out I made it was beyond real.”
Alex, a 2015 Clarkston High School graduate and currently plays for SVSU, shot a 72, an even par, to tie for third place at Fortress Golf Course in Frankenmuth.
Alex admitted he had an interesting start to his day.
“It was a pretty intense day for me,” he said. “My second shot I was trying to go for a par 5 and ended up hitting it into the heather and couldn’t find my golf ball. I had to go back and hit my shot again. I ended up hitting my fifth shot for par from 50 yards. It triggered my day mentally because my goal into the heather was try to make bogey and move on to the next hole. I ended up getting a par it really changed my whole mojo for the day.”
He admitted he was speechless when he found out he qualified for the Michigan Open Championship.

“I have tried for this tournament before and I haven’t had the success as a qualifier. This time I finally put a round together I was happy with,” Alex said. “Everything just seemed to click for me . I was one of the first groups in. After I posted my score I was very confident I would get in because I knew with the conditions getting harder and harder scores would continue to get higher. I finished in the morning and the last groups had to deal with the wind.”
He added when Brady qualified the previous day it motivated him more to qualify.
“Since my younger brother got in I really wanted to make sure I got into the tournament, too.”
Parents, Brian and Amy Dice, added they are proud both of them qualified.
“We are proud of how hard they work on their games and certainly it is gratifying for them to be rewarded to play in one of Michigan’s major events,” Brian said.
Brian, who is also the Head Pro at Orchard Lake Country Club and has played in 16 Michigan Open Championships, qualified for his first Michigan Open when he was 21-years-old.
“Brady is 17 and Alex is 20 – they beat me there,” he said.
Alex will spend the rest of the summer preparing for his fall golf season with SVSU. Brady has summer tournaments throughout Michigan he will be competing in.

  Dice, Golf