Mid Season Major at The Wilds
Posted: 7/19/2011 2:33:32 AM

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 21stWe 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!