Four Minnesotans to Compete at Inaugural U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship

  STILLWATER, Minn. – Four Minnesotans will travel to San Francisco next May to compete in the inaugural U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship after qualifying Monday at StoneRidge Golf Club.

Clinton Dammann and Mike Fiedler fired a 7-under par 65 Monday as did the team of Greg and Mike Melhus to advance to the tournament next spring.

The four-ball tournament will replace the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship which was played for the 89th and final time in June.

The USGA accepted entries for over 2,200 teams with a total of 128 two-person teams advancing to the championship May 2-6 at the historic Olympic Club in San Francisco.

Dammann, Minneapolis Golf Club, and Fiedler, Legends Club, started quickly with a birdie on the second hole before rolling in three consecutive birdies to quickly jump to 4-under through six holes.

The two would make the turn at 5-under par after a birdie at the ninth and continued their solid play to the final nine holes, getting to 6-under with another birdie at the 11th.

Dammann and Fiedler’s only blemish of the day came at the par-4 12th hole, when the two failed to make par and dropped back to 5-under. They would battle back with four consecutive pars before rolling back-to-back birdies on the final two holes to card a 7-under par 65 and finish tied for first.

“Our expectations were low coming in. We were texting this morning and said we were each good for probably one birdie,” Fiedler joked following the round Monday. “We got off to a good start—the group we were playing with birdied the first four holes so we tried to follow that and the putts kept dropping.”

“We wanted to go out and make a few birdies and ended up in a place we didn’t anticipate,” Dammann said. “[Fiedler] made a few [putts] coming in and I rode his coattails. It wasn’t overly stressful—we always had one ball in play and it seemed to be in the fairway, so it made it easier off the tee box.”

The team of Greg and Mike Melhus, both from the Links at Northfork, quickly dipped into red numbers Monday with a pair of birdies on the first two holes before rattling off five consecutive pars.

With another birdie at the par-4 eighth hole, the Melhus’ made the turn at 3-under, but dropped a stroke with a bogey at the tenth.

The two responded the best possible way with an eagle at the 511-yard, par-5 11th to move to 4-under on the day and continued to roll with a pair of birdies at the 13th and 14th holes to jump to 6-under.

Another birdie at the par-4 17th put the pair at 7-under where they would finish the day at 65, tied for first.

“We got off to a good start; I birdied one and two to kind of ease the nerves, in four-ball that’s always important,” Greg Melhus said after the round Monday. “Mike had a good stretch in the middle of the round—capped it off with an eagle on 12, and I made a couple of birdies coming in. We both had a lot of good birdie chances today, which made it easy because we didn’t have to work for a lot of pars.”

“I’d say we both got off the tee well, especially towards the end of the round” Mike Melhus said. “We were both hitting good iron shots and both had birdie putts in the 8 to 15-foot range, which gave us a lot better chance and we took advantage of it.”

Greg Melhus won the 2010 MGA Mid-Players’ Championship and finished tied for fourth at the state amateur championship the same year. Melhus also has a pair of Top-10 finishes at the MGA Mid-Amateur Championship in 2008 and 2011.

“Our expectations were to pretty much do what we did today. [Greg’s] track record at MGA events speaks for itself and I’ve played in enough best ball tournaments to know we wouldn’t be playing if we didn’t think we had a chance to move on and head south and play some golf next spring,” Mike Melhus said.

“To play in the inaugural USGA Four-Ball is a pretty cool honor and it’ll be the first USGA event for Mike, so I couldn’t think of a better spot to do it,” Greg said.

The team of Gene Elliot and Mike McCoy earned the third and final qualifying position after finishing tied for third at 6-under par 66 and edging five other teams in a six-way playoff Monday.

The two, both of Des Moines, Iowa, began the round on the ninth hole with a birdie and rolled in another at the 10th to quickly get to 2-under par before making seven consecutive pars.

Elliot and McCoy would heat up over the final eight holes as the two made back-to-back birdies at the first and second holes to move to 4-under and birdied the sixth to move to 5-under.

The duo finished on a high note with a birdie on the final hole to card a 6-under par 66 and into a tie for third place.

McCoy won the 2013 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship in Birmingham, Ala., and in doing so, qualified for this year’s Masters Tournament where he shot 78-83, missing the cut.



2015 U.S. AMATEUR FOUR-BALL SECTIONAL QUALIFYING
STONERIDGE GOLF CLUB
STILLWATER, MINN.
7,013 YARDS, PAR 72


FINAL RESULTS
T1. Clinton Dammann/Mike Fiedler, 31-34—65***
T1. Greg Melhus/Mike Melhus, 33-32—65***
T3. Gene Elliot/Michael McCoy, 31-35—66***
T3. Ben Greve/Matthew Gibb, 33-33—66 (First Alternate)
T3. Andy Jacobson/Aaron Barber, 32-34—66 (Second Alternate)
T3. Jake Witham/Matthew Witham, 34-32—66
T3. Topher Baron/Blake Onkka, 32-34—66
T3. David Morgan/Adam Riddering, 33-33—66
T9. William Hickey/Brian Hickey, 32-35—67
T9. Hudson Carpenter/Trent Peterson, 32-35—67
T9. Shane Barnes/Ben Haselbauer, 33-34—67

***QUALIFIED FOR 2015 U.S. AMATEUR FOUR-BALL CHAMPIONSHIP