EDINA, Minn. (Oct. 15, 2010) – The Minnesota Golf Association’s 110th Annual Meeting and Awards Dinner will be held on Monday, November 1, at the Midland Hills Country Club in St. Paul. The evening’s many highlights include recognition of the MGA Players of the Year (in six categories: men’s and women’s, junior boys’ and girls’, and senior men’s and women’s); the Fritz Corrigan Evans Scholar of the Year; the MGA Volunteer of the Year, and the MGA Club of the Year. In addition, the 2010 MGA-PGA Minnesota Golf Hall of Fame inductees, Jan Calin, Ken Gorg and David Tallman, will be honored.
“The MGA Annual meeting is a celebration of amateur golf in Minnesota. It is our opportunity to recognize individual achievements in performance and sportsmanship and the contributions of those who have enhanced the game of golf in Minnesota,” says Rob Tennant, MGA president.
Also, in this biennial year, the MGA introduces a new slate of officers, led by Jim Lehman, of Windsong Farm, the incoming president. Lehman, 52, of Plymouth, is an accomplished player, having won the 2003 MGA Mid-Amateur Championship and represented Minnesota in the 2005 and 2007 USGA Men’s State Team championships. Ken Gerzsenyi, 53, an executive with IBM company in Rochester, assumes the duties of vice president, and Kip Colwell, 53, CEO of Advanced Web Co., becomes secretary/treasurer and is responsible for supervising the financial state of the golf association.
MGA Players of the Year
Junior Boys’ Player of the Year McCabe Buege, 17, of Rogers, Minn., and a member of Fox Hollow Golf Club, St. Michael, Minn., (155 points). Buege finished in 4th place at the AAA Minnesota State High School Tournament and took 2nd at the MPGA Combination championship. He qualified for match play at the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, and was a sectional qualifier at the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship. This, Buege’s first player of the year title, came by virtue of a one-point advantage over last year’s boys’ player of the year, Kyle Beversdorf.
Men’s Player of the Year Donald Constable, 21, of Wayzata, Minn., is a member of Spring Hill Golf Club, (480 points). Constable started his golf season with a tie for third at the Minnesota Golf Champions. He continued to play well, with runner-up finishes at the MGA Players’ (match-play championship), and the MGA Amateur (stroke-play championship). Constable won the prestigious North and South Amateur, at Pinehurst No. 2, he finished first at the storied Resorters’ tournament, and he qualified for the U.S. Amateur. This is Constable’s first player of the year title.
Senior Women’s Player of the Year Leigh Klasse, 51, of St. Anthony and a member of Meadowbrook Golf Club, (737.50 points). 2010 was a year of wins and near misses for Klasse. She took first place at the Minnesota Women’s Senior Amateur and the MWPGA Senior Publinks. Klasse finished second, tied for second or runner-up four times: at the Women’s Mid-Amateur, MWGA Senior Four-Ball, MWPGA Four-Ball and the MWPGA Match Play. She earned top-five spots at the MGA Mixed Amateur (4th, partnered with JT Johnson), the Minnesota Women’s State Amateur (T4th), and the MWPGA Publinks (5th). Klasse was a quarterfinalist at the MWGA Match Play, she qualified for the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links, and she made match play at both the U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur and USGA Senior Women's Amateur championships. This is her fourth player of the year honor, her first as senior women’s player of the year.
Women’s Player of the Year Olivia Lansing, 22, of Dellwood, Minn., is a member of Dellwood Hills Golf Club and White Bear Yacht Club, (775 points). No one dominated the amateur golf scene this year quite like Lansing did. She captured all four of the biggest prizes in women’s golf: the State Publinks Match Play and Stroke Play championships, and the Minnesota Women’s Match Play and State Amateur (stroke play) championships. She partnered with Ben Freeman to win the MGA Mixed Team Championship, and she finished in 4th place at the Women’s State Open. Lansing also qualified for the U.S. Women's Amateur. Beyond U.S. borders, Lansing was a quarterfinalist at the Women's British Amateur, and tied for 18th at the Canadian Women's Amateur. This is her first player of the year title.
Junior Girls’ Player of the Year Maggie Leland, age 18, of Alexandria, and playing out of Alexandria Golf Club, (252.50 points). Leland won the AAA Minnesota State High School Tournament and tied for 2nd at the Minnesota Women’s State Amateur. This is Leland’s first player of the year title.
Senior Men’s Player of the Year Steve Whittaker, 57, of Becker, Minn., and a member of Pebble Creek Golf Club, (325.84 points). Whittaker won twice this season, at the Minnesota Senior Open and the Twin Cities Senior Championship. He took second at the MPGA State Senior Publinks, and tied for runner-up at the MGA Senior Four-Ball with partner, Ray Sauer. Whittaker enjoyed two top-five finishes at the MPGA Four-Ball (T4th) and the MPGA State Publinks (T5th), and he tied for 7th and 10th places, respectively, at the MPGA Mid-Amateur and the MGA Senior Amateur championships. He also qualified for the USGA Senior Amateur. This is Whittaker’s first player of the year title.
A complete list of player points can be found at http://www.mngolf.org/player_points.html.
MGA-PGA Minnesota Golf Hall of Fame Inductees
Jan Calin
Calin, a life-time amateur from Saint Paul, won several State championships throughout her career, while challenging for many more. She was a two-time champion and twice runner-up of the Minnesota Women’s State Match Play Championship, as well as a runner-up in the Minnesota Women’s State Amateur Championship. As a senior golfer, Calin captured four Minnesota Women’s Senior Amateur titles and finished runner-up once. She also played in several USGA Women’s Senior Amateur Championships and finished in the top 20 four times.
Ken Gorg
A PGA Member for 50 years Gorg dedicated himself to the profession and to growing the game. Gorg, the PGA Professional at Faribault Golf and Country Club from 1961-1999, was instrumental to the Minnesota Section PGA’s leadership, serving as Section president, from 1975-76, and on the PGA of America Board of Directors, from 1979-81. Gorg was also named the Minnesota Section’s Professional of the Year, in 1971 and 1975, and the Horton Smith Award winner for education, in 1982 and 1985.
Proficient in the rules of golf, Gorg has been an official at three PGA Championships, one Ryder Cup, and locally at the Tapemark Charity Pro-Am for more than thirty years. Gorg has also volunteered teaching the game of golf to Special Olympics Youth, students at the School of Deaf in Faribault, and three different school districts in southern Minnesota.
David Tallman
After a successful career in business, Tallman took up the game of golf in 1922 at age of 50 and quickly became one of the most decorated golfers in Minnesota. He won his first Minnesota Senior Amateur title in 1926 and went on to win the event three more times. On a national level, he won five Trans-Mississippi National Senior titles and competed in the 1927 USGA Amateur Championship. Tallman went on to win several other state and national titles and it was said that by 1936 he had won more than 140 trophies. Tallman also served as the president of the Minnesota Golf Association from 1925-1930.
The awards program begins at 5:30 p.m. For more information, please contact Anne Colehour at the MGA office 952-345-3969.
Additional Award Winners
Established in 1901, with the formation by seven golf clubs to organize the state’s most prestigious and storied golf championship, the MGA Amateur Championship, the Minnesota Golf Association is today the governing body over amateur golf in the state, responsible for administering the Rules of Golf, and committed to upholding and promoting the game of golf and its values for all golfers in Minnesota.
The MGA conducts 16 major amateur championships and nine USGA qualifying events each year. Thanks to the support of its member clubs and associate members, and the efforts of its volunteers and staff, the MGA provides a variety of services such as handicapping, course rating and measuring, an online golf news and information resource, www.mngolf.org, and an official publication, Minnesota Golfer magazine, which benefit all golfers throughout Minnesota.
PHOTO OPPORTUNITY
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