Choe's Birdie Barrage Eliminates Heinen (Nick) at Resorters

ALEXANDRIA -- As Nick Heinen described it afterwards, Brian Choe did to him what Heinen had been doing to his opponents for two years at The Resorters. Which is to say that Choe buried him under a bunch of birdies. 

Choe, a Kansas State University recruit from Coppell, Texas, was 6 under par (six birdies, no bogeys) for 15 holes at Alexandria Country Club on Thursday, and the result was a 4&3 victory over Heinen, the two-time defending champion.

Heinen, who plays for Oklahoma State, won the Junior Division at The Resorters twice, then lost in the finals twice before winning his first Men's Championship Division title in 2015. On his way to that title, and again last year, he was routinely 4 or 5 under par, and he rarely had to play more than 15 or 16 holes in his matches. Last year, former champ Jim Lehman was the only opponent to take Heinen as far as the 17th tee. He lost 2&1.

But Choe was the one making most of the birdies on Thursday, beginning with a long putt at the par-4 first hole. He went 2 up with a birdie at the par-5 sixth, before Heinen got on the board with a birdie at the par-3 seventh. Undaunted, Choe came right back with another birdie of his own at the eighth.

Essentially, the match was decided at the beginning of the back nine. Heinen birdied the 10th, 11th and 12th holes -- and gained no ground. Choe matched him by chipping in at the 10th (par 4), and did the same thing at the 11th (par 4), and the two players halved the par-5 12th with two more birdies. Having given Choe the best he had to give without gaining a thing, Heinen made a couple of mistakes and bogeyed the 13th and 14th holes. 

"Those two chip-ins gave me momentum," Choe said later. 

The two players halved the 15th with pars, and Choe was on to the quarterfinals.

This is Choe's second try at the Resorters. Last year, he missed the cut in the Championship Division, but on the Second Flight. 

As for Heinen, he was philosophical. 

"I probably would have done fine, if I would have played anybody else," he mused. "I've done what he did to me to other people before. I just happened to run into a guy who played really well." 

Choe will play the only University of Minnesota golfer remaining in the Championship Division -- Grady Meyer -- in the quarters. Meyer advanced  with a 5&4 victory over Lukas Bigger, thanks mainly to a fast start. He won five of the first seven holes, losing only the sixth to Bigger's birdie.

The other quarterfinal match in the same half of the draw will pit Jacques Wilson, the 2014 Resorters champ (he beat Heinen in the final) against Thomas Strandemo.

Wilson, who will be a senior at Charleston Southern in a few weeks, advanced with a 3&2 victory over Dawson Willis. Wilson was 2 up after eight holes, but Willis won the ninth hole with a par and the 11th and 12th with birdies to pull ahead. A birdie by Wilson at the 13th squared the match once again, and he eventually closed Willis out with a birdie at the par-4 16th.

Standemo is a former Minnesota State Junior champion who capped off his senior at Louisiana-Lafayette by being named an All-American Scholar (for the second time). He was 1 down after 10 holes, but came back impressively, with a birdie at the 11th, another at the 14th and an eagle at the 16th, where he holed his second shot from the fairway. 

There were a lot of people calling Andrew Israelson's 3&1 triumph over Andrew Lindberg an upset, because Lindberg was the No. 2 seed and Israelson No. 18. But Israelson came into The Resorters having just won his second championship at the Birchmont on Saturday. His victory in the final was his 10th in a row at Bemidji's Town & Country Club; so it's a little bit difficult to think of the soon-to-be sophomore at North Dakota State as all that much of an underdog.

Besides which, he was spectacular down the stretch against Lindberg, who was 1 up through 13. Israelson then proceeded to win the next four holes in a row (14, 15, 16, 17) -- all with birdies to close out the match. 

He will now play Scott Fudenberg, a sophomore-to-be at South Dakota. Fudenberg, who finished second to Ben Sigel in the Class AAA portion of the 2016 state high school tournament, also wrapped up his match in impressive fashion. He chipped in for a birdie at the par-4 18th hole to defeat Danny Lensing, soon to be a junior at Bradley, 1 up.

Paul Stankey will be on his way to Yale for his freshman year in a week or two, but the 2017 Providence Academy graduate still has some unfinished business at Alexandria CC. He made 25-foot putt for birdie at the 17th to get his nose in front of Lincoln Johnson, last year's runner-up, and then dodged a 10-foot birdie attempt by Johnson at the 18th to advance 1 up. 

So Stankey will now play the other Heinen -- Alec -- in the semis. Alec is Nick's older brother, and he is still alive, after a 2&1 victory over Michael Schmitz. That match, too, was decided on the 17th hole, which Heinen won with a par.       


AMATEUR GOLF

The Resorters

At Alexandria Country Club

Par 72

Round of 16

Brian Choe, Coppell, Texas, def. Nick Heinen, Edmond, Okla. 4&3

Grady Meyer, Fargo, def. Lukas Bigger, Alexandria 5&4

Jacques Wilson, Minnetonka, def. Dawson Willis, Chaska 3&2

Thomas Strandemo, Delano, def. David Schneider 2&1

Andrew Israelson, Staples, def. Andrew Lindberg, Coppell, Texas 3&1

Scott Fudenberg, Hastings, def. Danny Lensing, Orono 1 up

Paul Stankey, Eden Prairie, def. Lincoln Johnson, Chaska 1 up

Alec Heinen, Edmond, Okla., def. Michael Schmitz, Bloomington 2&1