MANKATO -- Dave Gunderson has never been easily detered.
After playing high school golf at Stillwater, he got no scholarship offers, but he enrolled at the University of Minnesota and in the fall of his freshman year tried out for the golf team as a walk-on. He didn't make it. A year later, he tried out again -- and didn't make it.
He finally made the team as a junior, in the fall of 1998. It was another six months before he cracked the tournament lineup, but by the second half of his senior year he had worked his way up to the No. 3 spot.
These days, Gunderson is a reinstated amateur with a family, a job (at Medtronic) and not much time for golf. He hardly ever plays tournaments anymore, but when he does he is still a formidable competitor, as he demonstrated on Sunday by coming back from eight strokes behind with 15 holes remaining to win the Krugel Invitational.
Gunderson shot a relatively easy 3-under-par 68 in his final round to conclude the 45-hole tournament with a total of 176 (1 under). That earned him a one-stroke victory over four-time champ J.B. Lloyd, who closed with a 75. Toby Robinson, who recently completed his college career at Bethel University, was another two back, at 179, in third place, and Minnesota junior-to-be Jon Trasamar finished fourth at 180.
This was Gunderson's second victory at the Krugel. He won the first in 2000. Six weeks after that, after playing in the U.S. Amateur, he turned professional and set out to make living playing tournament golf.
He played on the Dakotas Tour, the Hooters Tour, made a few starts on the Nationwide (now web.com) Tour. Eventually, he came to the realization that he probably wasn't going to make it to the PGA Tour and decided to join the real world, which he did in 2006.
Gunderson won't be playing in the State Amateur next week at Hastings CC, and he won't be playing in the State Open at Bunker Hills, either.
"We just had another baby (so he now has three kids), and I barely play any golf at all," he said. "But my wife gave me a Hall Pass this weekend, and I'm down here with a bunch of college buddies."
In all probability, the Krugel will be one of only two tournaments Gunderson will play in this summer. The other one will be the Club Championship at Stillwater CC.
The lack of practice and competition notwithstanding, he looked very solid on Sunday afternoon at Mankato GC.
Lloyd, who won his fourth Krugel title last year, appeared ready to make it five, as he birdied the first two holes of the final round, which put him a 6 under for the tournament. At that point, Robinson was his closest pursuer, at 2 under.
Gunderson, playing one hole ahead, was 2 over. He gained three strokes at the 490-yard, par-5 fourth hole, where he hit a 340-yard drive and a 9-iron second shot, which set up a two-putt birdie, and Lloyd made a double bogey 7 about 15 minutes later.
After a bogey at the par-3 sixth, he bounced back with a 310-yard drive at the par-5 seventh and a 6-iron to the green, which led to another two-putt birdie. Gunderson didn't birdie the par-5 10th, but he did gain a stroke at the 520-yard, par-5 11th, hitting a 3-iron second into the right front bunker and then blasting to 2 feet.
Behind them, Robinson had birdied the 195-yard, par-3 third and the fourth. However, he failed to get up and down from the right bunker for a birdie at the par-5 fifth, missed a 5-footer for birdie at the sixth and wasted a 350-yard drive at the seventh by three-putting the green for a par. Llloyd also three-putted the seventh green for a par.
Having squandered their chances to put space between themselves and the pack, Lloyd and Robinson both began to come back to the pack. Robinson went bogey-bogey at the ninth and 10th. Lloyd went bogey-double.
Amateur golf tournaments tend not to have big electronic scoreboards all over the place. So Gunderson didn't know that the leaders were coming back to him. He was just making his way around the course, hitting fairways and greens, but not displaying much magic on the greens. Up to that point, his longest birdie putt had been little more than a tap-in.
That changed at the short (353 yards) but brutally tight 13th hole. After laying up with a 3-iron from the tee, he hit a wedge to 10 feet and made the putt for a birdie. Suddenly, he was back to even par for the tournament, and only one stroke behind Lloyd. But Lloyd made a 15-footer for birdie at the 175-yard, par-3 14th to get back to 2 under overall.
Gunderson kept hitting greens and giving himself birdie chances, but he two-putted the 14th, 15th and 16th greens for pars.
"I didn't really know what to expect coming into this tournament," he said afterward. "I haven't played much golf of any kind, and I haven't played tournaments at all for a long time. So it was all kind of unknown, and I was pleasantly surprised that it worked out so well. I hit a lot of good shots, and even though I didn't make many putts, I was hitting too putts. I was giving myself a chance to make the putts, and I wasn't leaving myself with long putts coming back for par. It was a relatively stress-free round, I guess."
The one hole where Gunderson really gunned a birdie putt was the par-4 17th. His 35-footer was showing little inclination to slow down as it approached the cup, but the line was exactly right. It crashed into the back of the hole, popped up and dropped back down for what turned out to be the winning birdie.
Lloyd came to the tee at the 440-yard, par-4 18th 1 under for the tournament, tied with Gunderson. He hit a pretty good tee shot, but it trickled into the right rough.
"I was 160 yards (from the middle of the green), debating between 8-iron and 9," he said. "I hit the 8, and it looked good in the air."
The ball actually landed just short of the green, but it didn't have any spin and ended up going just over the green into some thick grass.
"I should have hit a 9," Lloyd said ruefully.
His chip left him with a 5-foot putt for par, and it grazed the edge of the cup, refusing to fall -- and making Gunderson the winner.
"I just didn't have it today," Lloyd lamented. "I didn't deserve to win. I certainly would have taken it. But I didn't play very well, and Dave did."
Krugel Invitational
At Mankato Golf Club
Par 71, 6,240 yards
Final results
Championship Flight
1. Dave Gunderson 70-38-68--176
2. J.B. Lloyd 65-37-75--177
3. Toby Robinson 69-34-76--179
4. Jon Trasamar 68-38-74--180
5. Jordan Hawkinson 70-36-75--181
T6. Jimmy Fromm 76-35-71--182
T6. Jon Hanner 75-34-73--182
T6. Frederick Van Rooyen 74-35-73--182
T6. Tony Vincelli 75-34-73--182
Executive Flight
1. Tim Andersen 70-69--139 (tournament record for the Executive Flight by 3 strokes)
2. Roger Landwehr 75-72--147
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