Minneapolis/St.
Paul Tour: July 16th, The Wilds
The
Minneapolis/St. Paul Golfweek Amateur tour held its fifth tournament, which
also happened to be the first Major of the season, Saturday, July 16th
at The Wilds in Prior Lake, MN.
Mother Nature continues her need to be mentioned on this tour. Temperatures were in the mid 90’s along with
humidity levels in the 70’s. Ironically,
the humidity levels were higher than the actual temperature of the warmest
tournament on the Minneapolis
tour this season. What is not right
about that?
The Championship flight pitted tour veteran Jason Rhoades against JB
Lundeen returning to play in only his second event of the season. The heat and humidity added a third opponent
that seemed to taunt both players throughout the round. JB jumped out to a two stroke lead on the
front and played steady golf shooting an impressive even par on the front nine.
The back nine hit JB a little harder but
he was able to hold on for his second win of the season shooting a very
impressive three over 75.
“A” flight matched multi event winner Dean Sengstock against Doug
Bird who was returning from the Regional Event in Chicago. The match went back and forth on the front
nine with Dean holding a one stroke lead at the turn. Birdies on the 10th and 13th
hole by Dean was a little too much for Doug to make up giving Dean yet another
trophy to add to his collection winning his fourth event of the season.
“B” flight yet
again brought the largest field to the event including Greg Wheeler from the
Louisiana South tour taking advantage of the National membership reciprocity. The heat seemed to really take its toll on the
players with giving the field a thirteen stroke spread after just nine
holes. The back nine proved to be a
different story with half of the players improving their scores while the other
half shot worse bringing the field closer together. Larry
Caldwell was able to capitalize on his three birdies on the front nine to
shoot a very impressive 84 and take home his first win of the season with Chris McArthur keeping up his steady
play taking home second place.
“C” flight welcomed
back Jeremy Host after a short break along with Victor Lucio returning for his
second event and tour veteran Bill Mlodgenski. The match was close with just three shots
separating the players at the turn. As
with the other flights, the back nine proved to be the deciding factor. Jeremy host was able to hold steady shooting
matching his front and back nine scores of 46 to shoot a 92 and take home his
second trophy of the season. Bill
bettered his front nine score by 5 strokes making the match close and taking 2nd
place by just one stroke shooting a 93.
A special thank you to The Wilds Golf Course for hosting our first
major of the year as well as event sponsor, tour supporter, Eric Holen of
Holen1 Golf, LLC for going above and beyond by doubling the contest prizes
(www.holen1golf.com).
Our
next event is at the Refuge GC (www.refugegolfclub.com), Saturday, July 30th. Deadline to register is Thursday, July
21st. We are still early in the season and
there are plenty of events left to qualify for the National Championship!
Register now for this or any of the upcoming events at www.amateurgolftour.net!