Too Good to Fail, Berry Wins 7th Tapemark Title

Minnesota

WEST ST. PAUL -- Ryan Helminen won the Tapemark Charity Pro-Am last year with a 54-hole total of 12-under-par 201 at Southview Country Club. On Sunday, he finished the 2014 Tapemark with a 67. That gave him a cumulative 200, 13 under, and even though this year's conditions at Southview were tougher than last year's -- he lost by three strokes to Don Berry.

After which, Helminen summed up the tournament this way: "I played well. Don played great. What else can you say."

Basically, Berry was unbeatable. He simply played too well to lose. Hitting virtually every green all three days, he didn't putt the lights out, but he putted pretty well, and on Sunday the result was a 7-under 64, which put his three-day aggregate at 197. In addition to tying the record of the lowest overall score in the 43-year history of the tournament (Jeff Sorenson set the record when he won in 2009), it earned Berry his seventh Tapemark title, which improved on another record that he already owned. 

It also earned him $6,000.  

Before Berry came along and started collecting Tapemark trophies -- he won his first in 1988 -- George Shortridge held the record with five titles, the last of those coming in 1983.

Helminen, a two-time Tapemark champ from Neenah, Wis., closed with a 67 on his way to 200, which was good for second place and $2,700. 

Chris Meyer, one year removed from the University of Wisconsin (he turned 24 on Friday), made two late bogeys (No. 5 and No. 7) that cost him a chance for a share of second, but he had the look of a rising star all weekend. Launching drives that carried 300 yards in the air (when he hit 3-wood for accuracy on some of the tighter holes, the ball stayed in the air about 270 yards, on average), he started with a 64 on Friday and added a 67 and a 70 to finish third at 201.

If not for Berry, Sunday might have looked like a Wisconsin vs. Minnesota Alumni Match. Helminen, like Meyer, is a Wisconsin alum, and so is John Carlson, another former two-time champ (2007, '08) who shot a final-round 68 and finished fourth, two behind Meyer at 203. But Carlson could also be considered eligible to play for the Gophers, because he's been the Minnesota men's head coach since 2010. 

Right behind him, with a 204, was Gopher alum Cameron White. He shot 69 to claim fifth place (and $1,125). Then came another ex-Badger, North Oaks assistant Chris Bailey, who shot 68 and posted a 205.

There were two more former Gophers -- Thomas Campbell and Derek Chang -- in a three-way tie for seventh at 208, along with Ryan Peterson, the former Minnesota State Open champ. Peterson was the other outlier among the top nine finishers besides Berry in that he went to Colorado State, not Minnesota or Wisconsin. 


The 26 years between his first championship in this tournament and the latest is yet another tribute to how well Berry has played for a long time. He won his first state-wide crown in 1982 in the Minnesota Public Links Championship at Hiawatha GC.

Now he's added two more major titles in the last week, because on Wednesday the 52-year-old head professional at Edinburgh USA won the State Senior Open at Hastings CC. It was the third time in the three years he's been eligible that Berry has come from behind on the final day to win the Senior Open.

All told, Berry has won a record 22 Minnesota professional majors (8 State PGA championships, 7 Tapemarks, 5 Minnesota Golf Champions, 2 State Opens), plus the State Publinx from his amateur days, and now the three State Senior Opens. That's 26 state titles in all. Another record.

And his game was as impressive as his resume over the weekend. On Saturday, playing in rain -- of the pouring variety at times -- for 15 holes, he shot 66, which equaled the low round of the day (Campbell also shot 66). On Sunday, he was even better. 

"He could have shot 60," suggested Bruce Haselrud, who was in Berry's foursome. "Every shot went where he wanted it to go. He made putts, but he also missed from inside 10 feet a few times, and he three-putted once from 15 feet. So his score could have easily been three or four strokes lower."

(In the team competition, Berry, Haselrud, Bob Kowalski and Wade Gorsett wound up 53 under par for the weekend. They tied for second place with the team of Helminen, Shawn Bohlsen, Michael Keehr and Rob Emerson, three behind the winners: Craig Brischke, Carl Horschl, Johnathan Dolphin and Jim Maltibano.)     

Berry started the final round on the back nine and made his first birdie at the 11th hole (389 yards, par 4), draining a 20-footer. He sank a 10-footer for another birdie at the 12th (330, par 4) and made it three in a row by hitting his tee shot to 3 feet at the par-3 13th (152 yards). Because of the rain on Saturday, the tees at the 16th hole, which is normally 456 yards, were moved up to 320 to avoid the parts of the fairway that were under water. The tees were still up on Sunday, and Berry took advantage of the shortened hole by hitting a wedge to 7 feet and collecting his fourth birdie of the round. 

He had a 31 (4 under) on the back nine, even though the didn't birdie either of the two par-5's, No. 17 (490 yards) or No. 18 (481). Actually, he was fortunate to make a par at the 17th.

"I made my only really bad swing of the day on the tee, and pulled it," Berry said. "It wound up in a bad spot, and I pulled the second shot slightly, and it hit a tree. I ended up getting it up and down for a par from 65 yards, which made it seem kind of like a birdie."

At the 18th, he missed an 8-foot putt for a birdie. 

No matter. Berry hit a wedge shot to 3 feet on the next hole, No. 1 (353, par 4) and converted that into his fifth birdie of the day.

If his putter had been really hot, he could have just about birdied every hole the rest of the way in, because he had it 8 feet at No. 2, 8 feet at No. 3, 8 feet at No. 4, 20 feet at No. 5 (210 yards, par 3), 25 feet for eagle at No. 6 (475, par 5), 10 feet at No. 7, 15 feet at No. 8 and 3 feet at No. 9. Of those he made only the 8-footer at the 374-yard, par-4 third, and the 3-footer at the 330-yard, par-4 ninth, and he three-putted from 15 feet at the eighth. ("That first putt was a lot faster than I thought, and I just dragged the other one to the left.")

He got his other birdie on the front nine by two-putting the sixth green, after a gorgeous, 220-yard 5-wood second shot. 

"This was fun," the 14-time Minnesota PGA Player of the Year said afterward. "It wasn't the best I've ever played, but it was the best I've played in a while." 

Helminen had a few misses of his own from close range. He made eight birdies over the final 36 holes, and seven of those were on par-5's, most of which he reached in two and two-putted.

Trailing by three with two holes to go, he still hoped to at least make things interesting for Berry, who was playing right behind him. Helminen nearly did. His second shot at No. 8 (363, par 4) looked as if it might go in for an eagle, as it nearly hit the flagstick. It ended up 6 feet below the hole, leaving him about as easy a putt as he could have hoped for. But he missed it. 

At No. 9, his ball made another pass within inches of the cup on his second shot, and once again ended up 6 feet from the cup. Once again, he missed the birdie putt.  

"I would have liked to make those putts and put a little pressure on Don," said Helminen, a 38-year-old former mini-tour pro who gave up the mini-tour grind seven years ago to become a teaching pro -- and has won the Wisconsin PGA Player of the Year Award six times since then. "But it didn't really matter, not the way he was playing." 

Meyer, who led at the start of the day, was still tied for the lead going into the final nine (he, like Berry and Helminen, started on the back nine, because his team made the cut). But after making at least three birdies on every nine up to that point, he could muster only one birdie the rest of the way. 

When he got to the tee at No. 4 (470 yards, par 5), he was two behind Berry. But Berry didn't birdie the hole; so this was a chance for Meyer to get back within one. The former State Public Links runner-up (he finished second to Sammy Schmitz in  2012 at Ridges @ Sand Creek) blasted a 335-yard drive at the fourth, but it went into the left rough, behind a tree, and he had to chip out. From there, he hit a lob wedge to 10 feet and burned the edge of the cup with his birdie putt. 

A wayward tee shot to the right cost Meyer a bogey at the par-3 fifth, but he got that stroke back with a 300-yard drive -- uphill -- at the par-5 sixth and a 185-yard 6-iron that carried right over the flag and left him with a two-putt for birdie from 20 feet. At that point, he was still in the hunt, and then he hit a lob wedge over the green from 80 yards at the seventh. His flop shot grazed the cup, but he missed his par putt, and that was that. He was now four behind with only two holes to go. 

"I left some out there," he conceded, "but I was happy with the way I played overall." 

Meyer qualified for the PGA Tour Latinoamerica earlier this year, and although he wasn't fully exempt to begin with, he is now. He plans to play in all of the remaining 10 tournaments in the fall, with the goal of finishing the year in the top five on the money list, which would make him fully exempt on the web.com Tour next year. He's currently No. 88 on the money list. 

While he's waiting for the Latin American tour to resume, he'll play in some Dakotas Tour events and work on his game.

The low amateur at this year's Tapemark was Scott Fenwick, a long-hitting Southview member who opened with a 72 and followed with a pair of 74's for a 220, two better than the second-place score of 222 by Matt Gorans of Eagle Creek.

In the Women's Division, Alexandria CC teaching pro Lisa Grimes played the front nine in 32 (4 under) on the way to a second-round 67, which gave her a winning total of 137. That was worth $1,000 to the three-time Minnesota Women's State Open champ. 

Karen Davies of Pinnacle Peak (Ariz.) shot 69 for a 36-hole tab of 139 and finished second. 
  
As for the amateurs, Taylor Drenttel was the winner. She matched her first-round 77, and the resulting 154 was good for a three-stroke victory over first-round leader Ede Rice (75-82--157). 

SORENSON MISSING FROM FIELD -- Jeff Sorenson, who won the Tapemark in 2009 and set the scoring record of 197 that Don Berry tied on Sunday, wasn't able to play this year because of a back injury that's similar to the one that will keep Tiger Woods out of the U.S. Open. Sorenson, a four-time Minnesota PGA Player of the Year, underwent surgery to fix the problem, but the recovery is expected to take most, or possibly all, of the rest of this area's 2014 golf season.   

MINNESOTA PROFESSIONAL GOLF

Tapemark Charity Pro-Am 

At Southview Country Club

Par 71, 6,100 yards

West St. Paul 

Final results

Professionals 

1. Don Berry, Edinburgh USA                      $6,000   67-66-64--197

2. Ryan Helminen, Ridgeway GC (Wis.)        $2,700  64-69-67--200

3. Chris Meyer, Braemar GC                        $1,585  64-67-71--202

4. John Carlson, Bolstad/University              $1,300  68-67-68--203

5. Cameron White, The Palms (Calif.)           $1,125  68-67-69--204

6. Chris Bailey, North Oaks                             $995  67-70-68--205

T7. Derek Chang, Brookhaven CC                    $755  69-69-70--208

T7. Thomas Campbell, Bolstad/University         $755  71-66-71--208

T7. Ryan Peterson, Interlachen CC                   $755  69-70-69--208 

T10. Craig Brischke, Tanners Brook GC            $472  70-69--71--210

T10. Derek Holmes, River Oaks GC                  $472  71-72-67--210

T10. Craig Howard, Medina CC                         $472  70-74-66--210

Amateurs

1. Scott Fenwick, Southview CC                72-74-74--220

2. Matt Gorens, Eagle Creek                      71-71-80--222

3. Colin Kinsel, Southview CC                    75-76-72--223

Women's Division

Professionals 

1. Lisa Grimes, Alexandria GC                      $1,000    70-67--137

2. Karen Davies, Pinnacle Peak (Ariz.)             $500    70-69--139

3. Rachael Schmidt, Oak Marsh GC                 $400    73-70--143

4. Karen Weiss, Midland Hills CC                     $300    69-76--145

T5. Julie Hennessy, Lewiston CC                     $200    77-77--154

T5. Martha Nause, Mendakota CC                    $200    79-75--154

7. Angela Ause, Oak Marsh GC                       $100    78-77--155

Amateurs 

1. Taylor Drenttel, Southview CC                       77-77--154

2. Ede Rice, Woodhill CC                                  75-82--157

3. Livia Lang, St. Cloud CC                               81-81--162