Flanagan Sets 1 Record with 61, Ties Another with 197 in Tapemark Victory

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WEST ST. PAUL -- On Saturday afternoon, Angus Flanagan came off the course at Southview Country Club thoroughly frustrated by his putting. He hit 14 of the first 16 greens in regulation during the second round of the Tapemark Minnesota PGA Pro-Am -- and didn't make a single birdie, just 16 pars. Then, finally, he hit the greens in two on the two par-5's at the end of the course, the 490-yard 17th and the 485-yard 18th holes, and two-putted them both for his only birdies of the round. 

What should have been a score in the mid-60's had been transformed by a balky putter into a 69, and Flanagan, the defending champion, would end the day in a five-way tie for fifth place at 136, six shots behind the leader, Trey Fessler. 

Somebody in the room where the scoring was being done suggested to Flanagan that his fortunes might change Sunday, and maybe his putter would start producing some better results. 

That, as it turned out, was exactly what happened. 

Starting on the back nine, Flanagan two-putted the green at the par-3 10th for a par -- and then his putter went to work.

"I made everything," he said afterward.

He made a 20-footer for birdie on the 11th hole, then an 18-footer at the 12th. In a kind of weird statistical oddity, Flanagan didn't birdie the 10th or either of the other two par-3's on Southview's back nine, the 13th and the 15th -- but he birdied everything else. The 22-year-old former University of Minnesota All-American made 3's on all of the back-side par-4's, the 11th, 12th, 14th and 16th. And just as he had the day before, he hit the 17th and 18th greens in two and two-putted them both for birdies.

That capped off a back-nine 29 (6 under) -- and suddenly, he was tied with Fessler for the lead. 

Fessler, who was playing with his pro-am partners in a foursome right behind Flanagan, bombed a nearly 400-yard drive that left him only 95 yards from the green at the 18th. He hit a wedge close and made the putt for eagle, which put him back in front by two strokes. 

But Flanagan continued his assault on par with three birdies and an eagle on the first seven holes of the front nine. He birdied No. 1, his fourth birdie in row, and on No. 4, a 475-yard par 5, he hit a 7-iron second shot to 18 feet, and made the putt for an eagle. Another 7-iron, this one to 15 feet at the 480-yard, par-5 sixth, led to a birdie, and then he made a 12-footer for his ninth birdie of the day at the par-4 seventh.

That got him to 11 under for the round. But he pulled his drive into the trees at the eighth hole (362 yards, par 4), and that led to his only bogey of the day. 

Last year, when he made his professional debut at the Tapemark and won the tournament by 10 shots, Flanagan launched a monster 285-yard 3-iron shot off the ninth tee that ended up pin high, 30 feet from the cup, and he two-putted for a closing birdie. This year, the wind was about 10 or 12 miles per hour, and it was in his face at the ninth. A 3-iron wasn't going to be enough this time. It would have to be at least a 3-wood, or probably a driver.

"I thought about it (going for the green), and trying for an eagle -- and a 59," he said later. "But I didn't know exactly how I stood, and even if I had known I was three ahead, I probably would have laid up. At that point, the only way I could lose would have been to hit one out of bounds, or into the water."

So he settled for a routine par at the ninth hole, which was still good enough for a course- and tournament-record score of 61 -- and a three-shot victory. The old record of 62 had stood for 37 years, since Mike Zinni shot it in 1985. Craig Brischke equaled in in 2012. Both of them, like Flanagan, won the tournament. 

Flanagan's 54-hole tab of 197 tied the Tapemark tournament record for lowest total, which was set by Jeff Sorenson in 2009 and tied by Don Berry in 2014, and the victory was worth $5,000.

Fessler, who shot 65 each of the first two days, could do no better than a 70 on Sunday, and ended up at 200. He made $3,000.

Nearly all of the high finishers took advantage of Southview's relatively short par-5's all weekend. Alex Gaugert, on the other hand, played them in a modest 1 under Sunday, yet he still managed to shoot the second-lowest score of the day, a 63. That vaulted him up the leaderboard, from a tie for 14th at the start of the day to solo third, at 201, by the time all the scores were in. 

Just as Flanagan had birdied all of the par-4's on the back nine (the Tapemark leaders always start the final round on the back), Gaugert birdied all of the 4's on the front side -- Nos. 1, 3, 7, 8 and 9. But the only par-5 he birdied Sunday was No. 17. 

Justin Doeden, who had the week off from the Canadian Tour, shot 69 and finished fourth at 202. He hit what was probably the shot of the day. After switching from a 3-wood to a driver on the ninth tee, he hit a gorgeous shot that landed on the right side of the green, started sliding to the left -- and nearly hit the flag. He deserved an eagle for that tee shot, but missed the putt and had to settle for a birdie.

Matching Doeden's total was Gophers head coach Justin Smith, who closed with a 68 and won the Amateur Division by six over Scott Fenwick. Smith's 202 aggregate broke Fenwick's record for the lowest total by an Amateur winner by four strokes.

The 2020 Tapemark winner, Chris Meyer, lit up the back nine with a 5-under 30, but was even on the front. The resultiing 66 put him at 203, which was good for fifth in the Professional Division. 

Berry, the seven-time Tapemark champion and seven-time Minnesota State Senior Open champ, birdied his last four holes in a row (6 through 9) to concluded a 66, and he tied this year's State Senior Open winner, Derek Stendahl for sixth among the pros at 204. Stendahl shot 67. 

Andrew Israelson, who opened the tournament with a 63 to take the first-round lead, knocked his approach shots over the green six times on Saturday and dropped back with a 73 into a tie for fifth. He shot 69 on Sunday and tied Josh Whalen (67) for eighth at 205. 

It should also be noted that there was a valedictory 67 shot by 67-year-old Mike Barge, who finished alone in 18th place at 210. 

In a lot of ways, the final day of this year's Tapemark was a remarkable display of golf. Southview is a short course (6,125 yards), but it isn't easy. The greens were firm and fast all weekend, and if a player got out of position, just making a par could be extremely difficult. In spite of that, and a fairly stiff breeze, the scoring was surprisingly good. But the thing that stood out was the power that was on display.

The first hole at Southview is a 355-yard dogleg to the right. If you want to go at the green, you have to hit your drive over a couple of large trees that are more than 225 yards from the tee. But that didn't seem to discourage the leaders. With the wind at their backs, nearly all of them took a rip at the green.

Justin Smith is a 40-something who played for the Minnesota team that won the NCAA championship in 2002 (he made the clinching putt), but he still has considerable pop in his driver, as he demonstrated on Sunday by knocking his tee shot onto the green at No. 1. Unfortunately, he three-putted for a par.

Flanagan put his tee shot in the greenside bunker, and hit his blast to 2 feet for a tap-in birdie. Fessler, like Smith, drove the first green and then three-putted it.

But the thing that really showed what a Brave New World golf is in was the sight of Fessler waiting on the third tee for the green to clear -- 370 yards away -- before hitting his drive. He was right to wait. His tee shot ended up no more than 10 or 15 feet short of pin high, but it was 15 yards to the right of the green, and from there he had no chance of getting his ball close to the cup. He wound up missing an 8-foot putt for par.

That bogey dropped him back into a tie with Flanagan, who pulled ahead by two when he made his eagle putt at the fourth a few minutes later. Fessler hit the green at the fourth in two, as well, but he three-putted from 35 feet for a par. Both Flanagan and Fessler made two-putt birdies at the sixth, but Flanagan increased his lead to three with his birdie at the seventh.   

As for his schedule the rest of the summer, Flanagan, who is from Woking, England, is going home this month and will try to qualify for the British Open. If he doesn't get in, he'll be back here for the State Open, which will be played July 5-7 at Bunker Hills GC. After that, he'll play in some Monday qualifiers for the Korn Ferry Tour, but mostly, he'll be trying to get ready for Korn Ferry Q-School in the fall.

Fessler, who finished second in the Class AAA portion of the state high school tournament as a junior at St. Michael-Albertville, and again as a senior, turned pro last July, a month after Flanagan, and he, like Flanagan, is focusing his attention on Korn Ferry Q-School.

"I wasn't ready last year," he says. "That's why I didn't try. But I'm ready now. I played really well this week, and I lost to a guy who shot 61. You can't feel too bad about that."    

Tapemark Minnesota PGA Pro-Am

At Southview Country Club 

Par 71, 6,125 yards

West St. Paul

Final results

Professional leaders

1. Angus Flanagan             $5,000       67-69-61--197 (-16)

2. Trey Fessler                   $3,000        65-65-70--200

3. Alex Gaugert                  $2,000        70-68-63--201

4. Justin Doeden                $1,750         66-67-69--202

5. Chris Meyer                     $1,500        67-70-66--203

T6. Don Berry                      $1,375        70-68-66--204

T6. Derek Stendahl              $1,375       70-67-67--204

T8. Josh Whalen                     $850        69-69-67--205

T8. Andrew Israelson               $850       63-73-69--205

T10. Michael Schmitz               $600       69-65-72--206

T10. Thomas Campbell            $600       70-65-71--206

T10. Jack Gustafson                $600       69-67-70--206

T13. Eric Rolland                      $462       70-67-70--207

T13. Brent Snyder                     $462       66-70-71--207

15. Andy Smith                          $425       68-71-69--208

T16. Jeff Sorenson                    $388       70-67-72--209

T16. Mike Flaherty                     $388       71-69-69--209

18. Mike Barge                              --          73-70-67--210

T19. Brian Hills                          $312         67-69-75--211

T19. Cameron White                  $312        67-73-71--211

Amateurs 

1. Justin Smith                      65-69-68--202

2. Scott Fenwick                   70-69-69--208

3. Sam Udovich                    67-75-68--210

T4. Jesse Larson                  67-73-71--211

T4. Andrew Boemer              68-74-69--211

6. Justin Burleson                 71-71-72--214

7. Eric Hayne                         73-72-72--217

8. Tyler Wood                        72-72--75--219

Teams

1. Berry/Irwin/Grausnick/Sullivan        124-121-118--363 (-63)

2. Stendahl/Gillespie/Okey/Wilson       122-121-122--365

3. Israelson/Grove/Anderson/Grove      120-122-128--370