Big Break X Michigan features team format

ORLANDO, Fla. ' ‘Big Break X: Michigan’ will feature a Big Break series-first team format in its 10th season that will test each duos game as much as their relationship.

GOLF CHANNELs 11-week series promises new excitement as eight two-person teams comprised of a male and female will face some of the most grueling competition in series history, in which they could win a lifelong dream at the risk of losing a lifelong friendship.

Scheduled to premiere Oct. 7, ‘Big Break X: Michigan’ will feature new skills challenges to test every phase of the competitors game. Teams will be comprised of individuals boasting amateur and professional tour accolades, and whose connections range from married or dating to friends or ex-significant others. The winning pair will earn a PGA TOUR tournament exemption for the male and an LPGA tournament exemption for the female.

The eight teams competing in ‘Big Break X: Michigan’ are:

Haymes Snedeker (Fairhope, Ala.) and Bernadette Bernie Luse (Naples, Fla.): Snedeker, whose brother Brandt was the 2007 PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year, and Luse, a former LPGA player, met at the University of Mississippi when he was an assistant coach and she was a player on the womens team. Snedeker is a judge in Alabama and competes in amateur events while Luse looks to ‘Big Break X: Michigan’ as a return to competitive golf.

James Vargas (Miami) and Andrea VanderLende (Longwood, Fla.): ‘Big Break X: Michigan’ is going to put relationships to the test and one that could produce fireworks is Hooters Tour member Vargas and Duramed FUTURES Tour player VanderLende. The two former University of Florida golfers dated as teens and have since developed a brother/sister relationship that, like siblings, is sometimes volatile but always caring.

Sally Dee (Tampa, Fla.) and David Mobley (Huntersville, N.C..): Its bombs away when Dee and Mobley get to the tee box. The two met on the Long Drive circuit in 2003 when she was just starting out and he had already established himself on the circuit. Mobley saw that Dee, a former LPGA player, had an actual golf swing and liked that he had that in common with her. A year later, each won their respective divisions in the Re/Max Long Drive Championship.

Amber Prange (Noblesville, Ind.) and Robby Shaw (Louisville, Ky.): Prange, a current Duramed FUTURES Tour player, and Shaw look more like models on the cover of a golf fashion magazine than serious and talented golfers. Their smiles, though, hide past hardships of death and misconceptions that made each question if they wanted to play golf anymore. Now, with the passion refueled, together ‘Big Break X: Michigan’ gives them the opportunity to grow both their relationship and careers.

Hugo Leon (Jupiter, Fla.) and Camila Mori (Miami): Leon and Mori have come a long way to find their Big Break. Both were born and raised in Santiago, Chile, where they started playing golf at the age of 10. At 12, they joined the national junior golf team and began competing all over the world. Throughout their amateur careers they became best friends, and planned to attend the same college in America. While the plan didnt work out that way, still they both went to school and graduated ' Leon in 2007 from Southwestern Louisiana University and Mori earlier this year from the University of South Carolina ' and are starting their journey in professional golf together.

Casey and Rachel Lubahn (Lansing Mich.): ‘Big Break X: Michigan’ is a home game of sorts for Casey and Rachel Lubahn. The only married couple on the series, they each played golf at Michigan State University, where he is currently the assistant golf coach. She also has pursued a career in golf and is now a teaching professional at Forrest Akers Golf Club, as well as the Program Director for First Tee of Mid-Michigan.

Sherri McDonald (Lambertville, N.J.) and Michael Michaelides (East Elmhurst, N.Y.): McDonald and Michaelides relationship can best be described as one part allies, one part rivals, but always great friends. Coaching at competing schools, the two have very strong personalities and feed off of each others enthusiasm and love for the game. Each played on professional tours until losing their sponsorship due to economic downturn following the terrorist attacks on 9/11.

Rachel Melendez (Atlanta) and Otis Smith (Stone Mountain, Ga.): Rachel Melendez and Otis Smith are co-workers at the Charlie Yates Golf Course, located at the legendary East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, where Melendez is an instructor for the First Tee program and Smith serves as a PGA Professional. Both love teaching and call the students our kids, but are looking to ‘Big Break X: Michigan’ as a springboard to playing professionally.

For its 10th season anniversary, ‘Big Break X: Michigan’ returns to the destination where it all began ' northern Michigan. Known as Americas Summer Golf Capital, some of the nations most distinguished golf courses exist in this region and incorporate unique features like dense forests, shifting sand dunes and the longest fresh-water coastline in North America.

‘Big Break X: Michigan’ was shot at Boyne Highlands Resort, a member of the Boyne Resorts family of resorts and attractions, located in Harbor Springs. The resort lures golfers with 72 holes of championship golf led by the classic Heather golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. and rivaled by the modern classic Arthur Hills, as well as The Moor, and Donald Ross Memorial.