PRIOR LAKE, MINN. - Former college teammates from Notre Dame and former co-workers at Interlachen Country Club have earned spots in the 2025 U.S. Men’s Amateur Four-ball Championship, scheduled for May 17-21 at Plainview and Echo Lakes country clubs in New Jersey.
The Wilds Golf Club, in Prior Lake, hosted the Minnesota regional qualifier Monday under warm and windy conditions. Eric Deutsch, Rochester, and Scott Gustafson, Chaska, who played together at Notre Dame more than 20 years ago, took the clubhouse lead at seven-under 65, then waited more than two hours before their score was matched by Harry Ollington from England, and Drew Bosley, from Edina. Each team claimed one of the two automatic qualifying spots in next year’s national tournament, while three teams tied at 6-under and played extra holes to determine first and second alternates.
John Hafdal, of Prior Lake, and Danny Menton, of Hutchinson emerged as first alternates, while defending medalists Nick Jarrett, of Rochester, and Trent Peterson, of St. Paul, took the second alternate spot.
Deutsch and Gustafson, who missed a playoff by one shot at a regional four-ball qualifier in Iowa last year, had a classic “ham and egg” round on the way to 65. They got to 2-under after four with a Gustafson birdie at one and both birdieing the short par-4 fourth hole. A team bogey at seven, however, set them back to 1-under, which at the time was five strokes behind Hafdal and Menton, who had just finished their round at 66.
Then their fortunes turned dramatically. Deutsch birded eight, nine and 10, while Gustafson birdied the par-5 12th, followed by close approach irons to set up birdies on 14, 15 and 16. At that point, they were 8-under and had the tournament lead by two.
The run of seven birdies in nine holes – with three of those coming on holes when the partner made bogey or double – came to an end with the team’s second bogey of the day on the par-5 17th, reducing the lead to one shot. Both parred the 18th, however, to take a 65 to the clubhouse.
“We ham and egged it better than you could ever imagine,” Deutsch said of the round as a whole, and the birdie barrage in particular. “It kind of happened pretty quick … it was quite fun.”
With 7-under appearing at the top of the board, Ollington and Bosley, former co-workers at Interlachen and playing in their first four-ball qualifier together, were getting close to rounding out the front nine at 5-under. They broke an early par run with Bosley’s birdie at four, then Ollington, a former University of Minnesota golfer, caught fire and birdied five, seven, eight and nine to put them in striking distance with the back nine to go.
Knowing they needed to get to at least 7-under, both players birdied the par-5 12th. Solid pars on the next three holes led up to Bosley’s birdie after a close wedge into 16. Both players then scrambled for pars the last two holes to round out their tying 65.
“Yesterday just clicked, it was one of those days,” Ollington said the day after the event. “ … We were just seeing the lines good together.”
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