Class of 2014 Named to the Minnesota Golf Hall of Fame

Hall of Fame

EDINA, Minn. – The Minnesota Golf Hall of Fame has announced the 2014 Class of Hall of Fame inductees: Fred Boos, Bill Brask, Leigh Klasse, Betty Swanson, Craig Waryan, and Lynn Esau Zmistowski.  Members of the group will be inducted into the Minnesota Golf Hall of Fame at various allied golf association events throughout the year. 

Located in Coon Rapids, Minn., the Minnesota Golf Hall of Fame was established in 1987 jointly by the MGA and MN PGA to recognize Minnesotans for their outstanding contributions to the game.  

Fred Boos
As an avid golfer and the General Manager of Grand View Lodge, Boos had a dream to bring championship golf to the Brainerd Lakes area of Minnesota. That vision came true in 1990, when The Pines at Grand View Lodge opened for play. It’s safe to say that the golf tourism explosion that followed in northern Minnesota would not have happened without Boos’ dream becoming a reality. Since 1990, Minnesota’s golf tourism spending has increased ten-fold to more than $350 million annually, and The Pines and many of the other championship resort courses that followed are now nationally ranked and recognized as leading golf destinations in the United States. 

A supporter of golf championships, The Pines and The Preserve courses at Grand View Lodge have hosted several state championships including the Minnesota Section PGA Championship, Minnesota Golf Association Net Team  and Senior Players’ championships, as well as several other high school, junior and senior events.

Bill Brask
A native of San Diego, Calif., Brask attended the University of Minnesota to play golf and capped off a great collegiate career with a Big Ten Championship in 1968 and All-American honors in both 1967 and 1968. Brask turned professional and spent several years on the Asian Tour, winning the 1978 Indian Open and 1984 Hong Kong Open.  

Returning to Minnesota, Brask became the Head Golf Professional at Olympic Hills Golf Club and during his 17-year tenure went on to win three Minnesota Section PGA Championships and two Minnesota Golf Champions titles.  In 2000 Brask qualified for the Senior PGA Tour, spending three years on the Tour making eighty starts where his best finish was a tie for 2nd at the 2000 Bank One Senior Championship.

Leigh Klasse
One of the most decorated amateur women golfers in Minnesota history, Klasse has accumulated twenty-three State golf championships, including ten senior titles. Klasse has won four MWPGA Public Links Championships, three MWPGA Match Play titles, six MGA Mid-Amateur Championships, four MWGA Senior Amateur titles, four MWPGA Senior Public Links titles and two MWGA Senior Match Play Championships.  

Klasse has been named MGA Women’s Player of the Year four times and MGA Senior Women’s Player of the Year four times, has qualified for ten USGA Women’s Mid-Amateur Championships and three USGA Senior Women’s Amateur Championships, and has represented Minnesota eight times in the USGA State Team Championship.  

Betty Swanson
Born and raised in Saint Paul, Minn., Betty Swanson grew up on the east side, where she started playing golf at Keller Golf Course. Swanson was a professional career woman, which limited her play in State golf championships, but she made the most of it during the 1960’s winning the Minnesota Women’s Amateur Championship three times and finishing runner-up four other times. Swanson also won the 1979 Minnesota Senior Women’s State Amateur.

Craig Waryan
Following in the footsteps of his father Bill and Uncle Don, Craig Waryan has dedicated his golf career to the betterment of the game and the PGA. Waryan, a thirty-five year member of the PGA, dedicated himself to the PGA, serving on several Minnesota Section Boards and Committees, including a term as President of the Section in 1984-85. Waryan has won several awards from the Minnesota Section including being named Golf Professional of the Year in 1986 and 1992. Waryan has been the Golf Professional at several facilities within the Section including Elk River Country Club, Edinburgh USA and Troy Burne Golf Club.

Waryan is also an accomplished instructor and player, coaching more than twenty students who have won state golf championships and is consistently ranked among Minnesota’s  top instructors  by Golf Digest magazine. As a player, Waryan has won two Minnesota Section Senior Match Play titles and finished runner-up three times.

Lynn Esau Zmistowski
Born and raised in Rochester, Minn., Lynn Esau Zmistowski won seven state titles in a span of nine years before she relocated to Colorado.  Esau Zmistowski won two Minnesota Junior State Championships, two MWPGA Public Links Championships, and three Minnesota Women’s Amateur Championships (one match play and two stroke-play titles). 

Continuing her fine play in Colorado, Zmistowski won two Colorado State Amateur Championships and two Colorado Senior Stroke Play Championships. Zmistowski is also a member of the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame and Rochester, Minn., Sports Hall of Fame and received the USGA Ike Granger Award for volunteer service.


About the MGA-PGA Minnesota Golf Hall of Fame
The MGA-PGA Minnesota Golf Hall of Fame was established in 1987 to recognize Minnesotans for their outstanding contributions to the game of golf. A task force meets annually to determine nominations. The MGA-PGA Minnesota Golf Hall of Fame is housed at Bunker Hills Golf Club in Coon Rapids and is operated and supported by the Minnesota Golf Association and the Minnesota Section of the Professional Golfers’ Association of America. For more information, contact MGA Executive Director, Tom Ryan at 952-345-3971 or Minnesota Section PGA Executive Director, Jon Tollette at 763-754-0820.

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