Meyer and Miller Tied for Tapemark Lead with 64's

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WEST ST. PAUL -- Ross Miller is playing on the Korn Ferry Tour this year -- sort of. 

The 28-year-old former Mankato State star made it to the Final Stage of the Korn Ferry Q-School last fall, but he didn't quite play well enough there to gain full status for 2020. And in a year when Covid 19 wiped out three months of their schedule, the players with full status on the Korn Ferry don't seem inclined to take many weeks off. That means fewer chances for Miller to get into tournaments. 

As a result, he's played in a lot of Monday qualifiers. That's a really tough way to make money. 

As Miller describes it: "If we play on a good course, it takes 5 or 6 under to make it. If the course isn't that good -- just a driver and a wedge on every hole -- then it's more like 7, 8 or 9 under that you have to shoot."

Here's an example of the brutal nature of Monday qualifying for an event on the Korn Ferry Tour, golf's top minor league. There were 240 prospective qualifiers -- most of whom can really play -- trying at two sites for eight spots in the TPC Colorado Championship at Heron Lakes in the last week of June. Between the two sites, there were seven guys who shot 64, and they all ended up in playoffs, two at one site playing off for one spot, and five at the other playing for two spots. That means four of the 64-shooters didn't advance.  

And the Monday qualifiers are just to get into the tournament. Then you have to make the cut to get a check. 

So far, Miller has earned his way into three events. He made the cut in the first one, the Pinnacle Bank Championship in Omaha, and posted a 72-hole score of 4-under-par 280 (67-73-70-70) on a fairly tough course, The Club at Indian Creek. (The winner, Seth Reeves, shot 74 in the first round.) It was good for a tie for 28th place and $4,284.

In each of the other two events, he missed the cut by two strokes. 

"I've also been an alternate on site at three other tournaments," he noted. "But I didn't get into any of them. It's frustrating."

On the plus side, Miller won a tournament on the Dakotas Tour this summer. He blitzed the Vardon Golf Club in Minot to the tune of 65-64-64-67--262 (26 under) to earn the first prize of $25,000 in the Western ND Charity Pro-Am (August 13-16).

"That definitely helped," he said. 

Despite playing in only four events, Miller finished fourth on the 2020 Dakotas Tour money list with $31,286. 

He's from Maple Grove (and went to Osseo High School), but he's been home for a total of only about three weeks since the beginning of June. Fortunately for Miller, he's found a home away from home in recent years -- Southview Country Club -- and he's there this weekend for the Tapemark Minnesota PGA Pro-Am. 

In 2017, he tied for fourth at the Tapemark. A year later, he claimed the crown by winning a three-man playoff with Robert Bell and seven-time champion Don Berry. Last year, Miller played his last six holes at the Tapemark (Nos. 4 through 9 at Southview; the leaders start the final round of the tournament on the back nine) in 4 under on his way to a closing 63 and a second straight Tapemark title, by one stroke over Berry and two over Bell. 

(Miller has also won another Southview tournament in each of the last two years, the Southview Shootout. Two years ago, he won the 18-hole-tournament part of the Shootout, plus the five-hole "shootout" that follows it. The top six finishers go into the shootout, and one is eliminated on each hole. He won the 18-hole event again last year with a 64, although he didn't follow that victory with another one in the shootout.)

Having gone 4 under for his last six holes in last year's Tapemark, Miller played the first seven holes of this year's tournament in 4 under. He started with a birdie at the 355-yard, par-4 first hole, birdied both of the  par-5's on the front nine -- the 470-yard fourth and the 480-yard sixth -- and added another birdie at the seventh (370 yards, par 4). There were two more consecutive birdies at the 11th (385 yards, par 4) and 12th (327, par 4), and he capped off his round by hitting his second shot onto the green from the left rough at the 18th hole and two-putting for his seventh birdie of the day -- and a 7-under 64. 

That has him tied with Chris Meyer for the lead.  

Miller said that Southview is playing a little longer this year than it has in the past, partly because for the second year in a row the tournament has been postponed from June to September (last year the Tapemark was pushed back three months because the greens needed the time to recover from a winter that left nine of them utterly unplayable for the first part of the season). Consequently, the weather is colder, and the ball isn't going as far this year as it did when the tournament was played in June. Even so, he was still able to reach three of the par-5 greens with irons for his second shots. He hit his tee shot at the fourth into the trees and had to punch out, but he hit a 3-iron second shot to the sixth, and 5-iron seconds at the 17th and 18th. 

Meyer hasn't won the Tapemark, but he has an impressive record, with five consecutive top-10 finishes from 2014 through 2018, including two top-5's, one of them a tie for third in 2014.

He started his round on the back nine Friday and parred the first five holes, Then he made three birdies in the next four holes, Nos. 15 (157, par 3), 16 (423, par 4) and 18. After a hicup at the first, where he made his only bogey of the day, the University of Wisconsin alumnus proceeded to birdie five of his last eight holes, starting with the par-3 second (166 yards) and the par-4 third (374).

Meyer, who like Miller averages right around 300 yards with his driver (the Korn Ferry stats show Miller at 297.4 yards per drive this year), neglected to birdie the par-5 fourth, but he made up for that with a birdie at the 220-yard, par-3 fifth and another at the par-5 sixth. He capped off his 64 with a birdie at the 331-yard, par-4 ninth.  

Another former Tapemark champion, Jeff Sorenson (2009), a six-time Minnesota Section PGA Player of the Year, is two strokes behind the co-leaders, alone in third place with a 66.  

A bogey at the first didn't exactly qualify as an auspicious start, but Sorenson birdied four of the next six holes (2, 4, 6 and 7). The Minikahda Club teaching pro followed that burst with 10 pars in a row but closed out his round with an eagle at the 18th. 

Sam Matthew, a former Minnesota State Amateur champ, is in a three-way tie for fourth at 67, along with Matt Rachey and Derek Holmes. Three-time Tapemark winner Ryan Helminen is part of a four-way tie for ninth at 70, and the ageless Berry, who claimed his 17th Minnesota PGA Player of the Year Award last year, at age 57, is tied with three other players for 14th place at even-par 71.  

The Amateur Division leader is at the opposite end of the age spectrum from Berry. Sam Udovich, a 14-year-old Southview member, shot 66 and has a four-stroke head start on second-place Pete Odell going into the final two rounds. Ty Munneke is third, one behind Odell at 71. Another Southview member, Bella McCauley, a junior-to-be who plays for Simley (she's home-schooled but lives in the Simley district) and won the state Class AAA girls high school championship in 2019 by 10 shots, is in sixth place in the overall amateur standings with a 73. But she's also listed as the leader of the Women's Amateur Division. 

Jasi Acharya is second among the women, with a 74, and Haley Boner Witzel is third with a 78. 


Tapemark Minnesota PGA Pro-Am

At Southview Country Club

Par 71

West St. Paul

First-round results

Professionals

T1. Ross Miller, Medina G&CC         64

T1. Chris Meyer, Southview CC        64

3. Jeff Sorenson, Minikahda Club     66

T4. Matt Rachey, Bolstad/University 67

T4. Sam Matthew, North Oaks CC    67

T4. Derek Holmes, PXG Mpls.          67

T7. Brian Seiwert, Burl Oaks GC       69

T7. Andy Smith, Hazeltine National   69

T9. Eric Rolland, Augsburg Univ.      70

T9. Brian Hills, 2nd Swing                 70

T9. Brent Snyder, Troy Burne GC     70

T9. Ryan Helminen, Ridgeway GC   70

T14. Thomas Strandemo, Wild Marsh 71

T14. Don Berry, Edinburgh USA         71

T14. Josh Whalen, Elk River GC        71

T14. Kyle Scanlon, Northfield GC       71

Amateurs

1. Sam Udovich, Southview CC          66

2. Pete Odell, Midland Hills CC           70

3. Ty Munneke, Tianna CC                 71

T4. Phalla Long, Tanners Brook          72

T4. Todd Enfield, Mankato GC            72

6. Bella McCauley, Southview             73