Mark Brettingen, 1954-2022

April 8, 2022 | 0 min.
By Warren P Ryan

Long-time photographer for the Minnesota Golf Association, Mark Brettingen, 67, of Eagan, passed away unexpectedly April 4 after a brief illness. Brettingen covered the local amateur and professional golf scene on behalf of the association website and magazine, Minnesota Golfer, for more than three decades. He was an essential player in the association's golf editorial coverage, where his photojournalist skills were mainly focused on shooting the majority of the MGA’s major men’s, women’s and junior amateur championships and local USGA qualifiers, but he would also make time to cover many allied golf association state tournaments including the annual high school state tournaments and the State Open.

In addition, Brettingen was credentialed to cover a slew of major national and international golf events which visited Minnesota, including the 1991 U.S. Open, the 1999 Samsung Women’s World Championship, the 2002 Solheim Cup, the 2002 and 2009 PGA Championships, the 2006 U.S. Amateur, the 2008 U.S. Women’s Open, the 2016 Ryder Cup, the 2017 U.S. Senior Amateur, and the 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, not to mention nearly all of the PGA Tour events hosted by Bunker Hills and the TPC Twin Cities golf clubs. However, one of his fondest memories was traveling to Pittsburgh to cover the 1994 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club, where the King, Arnold Palmer, made his last open appearance and Ernie Els defeated Loren Roberts and Colin Montgomerie after an 18-hole playoff turned to sudden death.

He loved the work and it showed: one of Brettingen's signature shots was the greenside bunker blast. Once he was aware of the player's ball coming to rest in a sand bunker, he considered it a personal and professional challenge to get into position and frame the shot before the player blasted from the bunker. What usually followed was an explosion of sand and golf ball and the subject's face dramatically lit by the sand below (Cameron Champ, pictured at right during the third round of the 2021 3M Open at the TPC Twin Cities, is a typical example of Brettingen's shooting style).  

When Brettingen wasn’t covering golf, he also covered the Minnesota Vikings for the NFL throughout the 1990s and 2000s. He retired from the United States Postal Service after a 32-year career, where he met his wife Linda. He was a member of the Hiawatha Golf Club, where he was a competitive single-digit handicap golfer, and participated in the MGA Senior Tour for many years. Among his other passions were baseball, bowling, and reading. He is survived by his wife, mother Delores, brothers Tom (Ann), Pat (Sue), nephews Kris (Paige), Benjamin, Nick, and Tim, great-niece Elsie, great-nephews Brice and Miles, honorary stepsons Michael, William and honorary grandson Ezra (best buddy).
 

He loved the work and it showed: one of Brettingen's signature shots was the greenside bunker blast... he considered it a personal and professional challenge to get into position and frame the shot before the player blasted from the bunker.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, April 23 at 10:30 a.m., at the St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church, 100 Oxford Street North in St. Paul. Visitation will begin 9:30 a.m. at the church. Entombment will be at Resurrection Cemetery Mendota Heights at 1 p.m. and a reception at the church will follow. 

This notice was updated April 9 at 7:26 a.m.

Warren P Ryan

W.P. Ryan is the MGA’s communications director and editor of Minnesota Golfer magazine. Prior to his communications career, he has worked at several golf clubs in Florida, Maryland and Minnesota "guarding the Titleists" and teaching the game to junior golfers. 

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