Helminen Jumps in Front With a 66 to Open Minnesota Golf Champions at Dellwood

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By Nick Hunter
nick@mngolf.org


  DELLWOOD, Minn. – Sinking four consecutive birdies to open his round Friday, Ryan Helminen carded a 6-under par 66 at Dellwood Country Club in search of his second consecutive Minnesota Golf Champions title.

Helped by six birdies on his front nine, Helminen cooled slightly over the final nine by carding one birdie and one bogey and will take a three shot lead over Sammy Schmitz and Jeff Sorenson into Saturday’s second round.

“I was making birdies right out of the gate and it seemed pretty easy the first nine holes—I could do no wrong and then, obviously, reality on the back. I hit a couple squirrely shots and was grinding.

“The more and more under you get, the more you start thinking about it. I didn’t really know what to expect from hole to hole because I’ve never played the course. You don’t really plan and I just took each shot and maybe that helped me.”

Rolling in a 20-footer for birdie on the opening hole, Helminen started quickly and followed it by sticking his approach inside of five feet at the second. Helminen went to 3-under at the third after finding the cup from the sand, and after an easy tap-in at the fourth, he rolled in back-to-back birdies at the seventh and eighth holes to turn at 6-under.

Helminen, a professional from Menasha, Wis., kept the momentum up early on the back rolling in a monster 80-footer for birdie at the 11th, but dropped a stroke at the 13th with a bogey.

He fell to 4-under following his second bogey in three holes, but recovered at the 17th by converting his birdie opportunity and finished the day at 66.

“It’s a great golf course—I’d never seen it before but I got off to a great start and hit it close and made some nice putts early,” Helminen said. “It’s definitely a ball striker’s golf course and you’ve got to place your way around. To play the par-3’s on this course under par is key. I think a lot of guys are going to be over because they’re basically three and a halves.

“I took two and a half months off this winter and started back up in the middle of March. Now I’m starting to get into the rhythm—we just had [Wisconsin PGA Match Play Championship] so I played a bunch of rounds there and I’m starting to get some feel back.”

With four birdies and one bogey on his opening nine, Schmitz turned at 3-under before playing the final nine at even par with a pair of birdies offset with a pair of bogeys.

“I just started trying to get ready a week ago,” Schmitz said. “It was a nice day with no wind and the course is pretty straight forward. I’m sure there are going to be some good scores.

“I felt better on the front and had a couple bogeys on the back. Shooting 3-under for the first tournament round of the year for me is very good for me. This time of the year in this tournament I typically shoot in the upper 70’s.”

Schmitz, who used last winter to prepare for his 2016 Masters appearance, was equally as busy in recent months, starting a new business as well as welcoming his third child a month ago.

“We just had our third kid a month ago but it’s nice because I’m home a lot more with a new career and not travelling as much—a little more stability and I’m having fun with the kids.”

Sorenson, the 2016 Minnesota Section PGA Player of the Year, got off to a slow start with a double-bogey at the second, but bounced back quickly by rolling in eagle at the fifth to draw even. He dipped below par briefly by converting birdie at the par-3 sixth, but turned at 1-over following bogeys at the seventh and ninth holes.

“I had three three-putts on the front and shot 37, but I felt like I was playing pretty good, just misread two short ones,” Sorenson said following his round Friday. “A little up-and-down but get rid of those three-putts and it would’ve been really good." 

A big shift in momentum for Sorenson came at the 11th where he rolled in a 25-foot putt for par and he would finish by making four birdies over his final seven holes. A tap-in birdie at the 13th put him at even for the day before another short birdie at the 15th.

Reaching the par-5 17th in two, Sorenson lipped his eagle putt from 35 feet, leading to another tap-in and he finished his round by rolling in birdie from six feet on the final hole to card 69 and into a tie for second with 36 holes to play.

“I’m hitting the ball good and putted well overall, I was just off on the speed. [The greens] are a little faster than you think but I figured that out towards the end. I could probably improve a touch on my chipping—I need to get that cleaned up.”

Donald Constable, winner in 2014 at Golden Valley Golf and Country Club, and defending Minnesota State Open champion, Ben Greve, will begin the second round tied for fourth after carding rounds of 2-under par 70 Friday.

The second round of the 2017 Minnesota Golf Champions is scheduled to get underway at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Dellwood Country Club.


For complete tournament results go to: https://mnpga.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/mnpga17/event/mnpga176/contest/1/leaderboard.htm