Lloyd Wins Krugel for the 5th Time

By Mike Fermoyle (mikefermoyle@gmail.com) 

MANKATO -- Mankato Golf Club has a different look this year. One green -- the 11th -- has been moved, and the bunkering all around the course has been completely redone.

The new look got rave reviews from pretty much the whole field over the weekend during the Krugel Invitational, but one thing that didn't look any different was the leaderboard at the end of the tournament.

J.B. Lloyd, who set a record two years ago by winning his fourth Krugel crown, claimed his fifth on Sunday with a final-round 69. That gave him a 45-hole total of 172 (5 under par) and a three-stroke victory over two familiar pursuers -- Josh Blackman and Geoff Klein.

Blackman, who has now been second four times, closed with a 71 on his way to 175. Klein, who seems to be in one of the last two groups on Sunday every year, shot 70.

There was a new name in fourth place. Ryan Gellert, who just joined MGC this year, shot his second 70 of the weekend -- he opened with a 70 on Saturday  -- to finish with a 176.  

Another two strokes back, tied for fifth place, were Rick Frieburg and Jeff Pint. Frieburg, a former Resorters and State Publinx Four-Ball champ, was the most consistent player in the field. He started off with an even-par 71 on Saturday, then shot a 1-over 36 on the back nine Sunday morning, and he came back Sunday afternoon with another 71.

Pint was another story altogether.

Having posted a 68 in the first round (he was tied with Curtis Mohr for the lead), Pint shot 35 on the back Sunday morning. So he was still tied for the lead, but now with Lloyd. Pint's afternoon score was a disappointing 75, but it was one of the most entertaining 4-over-par rounds ever shot at Mankato GC -- or anywhere else, for that matter.

"It was amazing," Lloyd said of Pint's afternoon adventure. "I told him he was the biggest crowd-pleaser I've ever seen. Some of the places he hit that dirver nobody had ever been before. There's no way. Did you see where he was on 17 (386 yards, par 4). I've never seen anyone coming sideways at that green before with their second shot. That tee shot carried over 300 yards, and then rolled another 40."

Pint saw only brief flashes of the fairway during his final round. But no one in the gallery cared about that.

After watching the display of prodigious -- if not deadly accurate -- driving that he put on, they had lots of bombs to talk about. For example, he hit a 310-yard drive into a 10- to 15-mph wind at the 483-yard, par-5 fourth (but after an errant 6-iron second shot and a less-than-stellar bunker shot, he wound up having to make a 10-foot putt for par).

At the 490-yard, par-5 seventh, which was also playing into the wind, he hit his tee shot 295 yards. He followed that one with 210-yard 6-iron that would have sailed over the green if it had been hit straight. Instead, it wound up 20 yards right and 20 yards long -- on the eighth tee. But from there, he hit a spectacular pitch shot to 4 feet and made the putt.

The eighth hole is a 385-yard, par 4. Pint was 30 yards left of the fairway but only 50 yards short of the green on that one -- under a willow tree. He had to make another 10-footer for par there, too. 

Pint tends to fool golf course architects a lot (they don't design holes to protect them against guys who hit the ball 350 yards and 25 degrees off line), and he did it again at No. 10 (510, par 5). He hit that drive 340 and about 35 yards right of the fairway. 

From there, he had an open shot. Sort of. The only problem was that he had to get the ball up quickly and carry it nearly 170 yards to get over the gully -- Mankato members call it "The Gob" -- that protects the green. So he hit a 56-degree wedge, and that turned out to be about a half a club less than he needed. The ball carried roughly 165 yards and came down in the gully, in grass 2 feet high. He needed two swipes from there to get it onto the green, but saved yet another par, this time with a 15-foot putt. 

Blackman, who was also in the final group, along with Lloyd, Pint and  Mohr, described watching Pint's tee shots this way: "The ball gets small so fast, I have a hard time following it."

Mohr, who ended up in seventh place (68-36-75--179), is a fairly prodigious hitter of the golf ball, by the way. He averages well over 300 yards off the tee. But he couldn't keep up with Pint.   

Eventually, the law of averages caught up to Pint, and he got into some places from which he couldn't salvage pars. In a couple of cases, it wasn't even his driver that got him in trouble. He hit a wedge long, right and under a pine tree at the 155-yard, par-3 sixth, and did well just to make a bogey from there.

At No. 15 (297, par 4), his 3-wood tee shot put him 2 feet behind a 60-foot tall pine tree. He was only 15 yards from the green, but he had no shot. As much as he wanted to try for a miracle escape, there simply wasn't anything he could do, except chip out sideways. That resulted in his second bogey in a row.

Then there was the 17th, a dogleg left par-4 with two bunkers on the far corner. The bunkers start at about 290 yards out, and most of the players in the Championship Flight lay up with 3-woods or rescues/hybrids. Pint walked onto the tee with two clubs -- his driver and an iron -- in his hand. The spectators weren't thrilled to see the iron, and they cheered loudly when he tossed it aside and took his stance with the driver, which he proceeded to blast 50 yards beyond the bunkers.

He wasn't trying to hit the drive on that line, but he had a shot from over there in the uncharted section of the rough where the ball wound up. Once again, he had fooled the architect. Basically, Pint's golf game could be thought of as a kind of 21st Century version of constantly finding new routes to China.  

"It was nice to have all those people to help me look for my ball," Pint joked afterward. "But there were a few times when I was worried about their safety. I'm just glad I didn't hurt anyone this afternoon."

As Pint dropped back during the final round, it opened the way for Lloyd, Blackman and Klein. All three are Mankato natives (Lloyd now lives in Wayzata and is a member at Windsong Farm), and all three have been playing in the Krugel Invitational forever.

Klein probably should have won the tournament a couple of times. But he's been undone time and time again by No. 17.

"Every year, that hole has gotten me," he lamented. "Or at least, that's the way it seems."

The 17th got Klein again on Saturday. After drenching rains in the morning, pairings had to be reshuffeled, and there was a shotgun start at 1:30 p.m. Klein started on the 18th hole, and he was 2 under par when he came to No. 17, which was his last hole, but he made a double bogey at 17 and had to settle for a 71.

On Sunday, however, his fortunes took a turn for the better at the 17th.

"I birdied it both times I played it," he said with a smile.

The birdie in the morning was part of a 34 that got him within two strokes of the lead.

Lloyd would have shot 32 and had sole possession of first place going into the final 18 if it hadn't been for a bogey at the 18th (440, par 4). He got the lost stroke back, however, when he chipped in on the first hole (390, par 4) in the final round.

Strangely, none of the title contenders birdied either the first two par-5's, No. 4 or No. 5 (540). As a matter of fact, Blackman didn't make any birdies on the front nine. He made eight pars and one bogey, at the 148-yard, par-3 sixth.

Lloyd, who like Blackman is a former MGA Players (Minnesota State Match Play) champion, got to 2 under for the final 18 with a birdie at the seventh (490, par 5), thanks to majestic shot with his 14-degree rescue. From 240 yards (against the wind), he hit the ball to within 12 feet of the hole.

"Unfortunately, I didn't make the eagle putt," he noted. "But that was a great shot. I couldn't have hit it any better."

By the time the final foursome made the turn, Lloyd was 4 under par for the tournament, leading by three over Blackman, and by four over Klein. Blackman then reached the green at the par-5 10th in two. Lloyd had to lay up, but he hit a wedge third shot to 8 feet and made the putt, thus matching the birdie that Blackman made by two-putting.

Klein began his stretch run with a birdie at the par-5 11th (514 yards), getting up and down from greenside bunker. At that point, he was 1 under, and four strokes behind.

"I didn't know exactly how I stood," he said. "But I was peeking at the scores every so often. So I had a pretty good idea what was going on. The main thing, though, was to go about my business and just try to make pars and birdies." 

Lloyd bogeyed the par-3 12th (155 yards), and Blackman inched to within a stroke of him with a birdie at the 353-yard, par-4 13th. Lloyd countered with a a birdie at the 175-yard, par-3 14th, to get back to minus 5.

"I wasn't paying all  that much attention to how many under par the other guys were," Lloyd said. "I was just trying to get to 6 under, or maybe 7 under, because I thought if I could be minus 6 or minus 7, I'd win. I didn't quite get there, but things worked out pretty well anyway."

Up ahead, Klein was making a birdie at the 15th. He then three-putted for a bogey at the par-3 16th (125 yards), but followed that with a birdie at his old nemisis hole -- the 17th. That put him at 2 under, and he stayed that way by parring the 18th.

Lloyd (now minus 5) hit a wedge to 5 feet and birdied the 16th, which gave the 47-year-old former MGA Mid-Amateur champ a little extra cushion, and that was nice to have, especially when he pull-hooked his tee shot at the 17th. The ball hit a tree and took a wicked bounce (25 yards left and backwards). It took about 4 minutes and 30 or 40 people to find it. 

"I don't know who found that ball," Lloyd said later, "but he really did me a favor. I never would have looked there."  

Finding the ball enabled Lloyd to make a bogey, instead of a double. Blackman also made a bogey, and remained three behind.  

The 18th at Mankato GC is long, and there's water just left of the green, which means there is the potential for a big swing in the standings. But that didn't happen. Like Klein before them, Lloyd and Blackman parred the last hole.   

Lloyd began playing in the Krugel Invitational in 1984, when he was 18. He didn't win for the first time until 18 years later, in 2002. But since then it's become something of a habit, and he's the only player to have won more than three Krugel titles. 

The celebration of his fifth on Sunday was dampened somewhat by the recent death of Vince Flynn, the author of more than a dozen best-selling political-action thrillers. Like Lloyd, Flynn was 47, and he had been a regular at the Krugel for a long time.

"I don't think Vince ever won his flight," Lloyd said after accepting his championship trophy. "But he was a great guy, and he loved this tournament. He always had a great time here during this weekend, and he always made it more fun for everyone around him. We're really going to miss him." 
 
MINNESOTA AMATEUR GOLF

Loren Krugel Invitational 

At Mankato Golf Club

Par 71, 6,172 yards

Final results 

1. J.B. Lloyd                   70-33-69--172

T2. Josh Blackman      70-34-71--175

T2. Geoff Klein             71-34-70--175

4. Ryan Gellert             70-36-70--176

T5. Jeff Pint                   68-35-75--178

T5. Rick Frieburg         71-36-71--178

7. Curtis Mohr               68-36-75--179

T8. Greg Werner          72-36-73--181

T8. Pete Honsa            72-38-71--181

T10. William Leaf        73-34-75--182

T10. Jon Hanner         70-38-74--182

12. Sam Hoffman        72-36-75--183

13. Jay Kautt                69-39-78--186

14. Tony Krogen          73-35-79--187

15. Dan Wenner          70-40-78--188

T16. Andy Peterson    78-36-75--189

T16. Nick Fritz              78-40-71--189

T16. Jimmy Fromm     76-39-74--189

T19. Thomas Strandemo  78-38-74--190

T19. Landon Wallace  76-39-75--190