Fox Rallies in the Wind to Claim 2nd Twin Cities Championship

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HASTINGS -- The winter of 2021-22 was like a guest who refused to leave. When it did depart, and the golf season began, finally, the wind showed up. For most courses in the Twin Cities, the first full weekend of golf this spring began Friday, April 22 -- accompanied by an East wind that averaged about 15 to 20 miles per hour. The next day was the same, and the next day, and the next day, and so on.

Although the wind direction has changed, the velocities have been monotonously similar -- somewhere in double digits almost every day.

And Sunday was the worst we've had so far, at least as far as the wind was concerned. The velocity was 20 miles per hour most of the time, and there were gusts in excess of 30 mph.

All of which helps to explain why Max Fox was happy with the 3-over-par 75 he shot at Hastings Golf Club in the final round of the Twin Cities Championship, and was better than the 73 he opened with Saturday in relatively benign conditions (winds of 10 to 15 mph) at Theodore Worth GC. And it was good enough to make up the three-stroke deficit he faced at the beginning of the day.

Fox, who came from three behind to win the TCC in 2017, did it again this year. His total of 148 earned him a two-shot victory over Stellan Orvick.

"It was brutal today," Fox said. "Basically, it was a two-club wind when it was behind you, and it was as much as three clubs sometimes when it was against you. Club selection has been a challenge all spring, and it was really tough today."

Fox is a 30-year-old financial advisor who has played Hastings GC all his life. Like most golfers his age, he can hit a driver 300 yards or more, and he was tempted to use it on the 335-yard second hole, which was playing directly downwind.

"But it wasn't worth the risk," he said. "Both of the guys I played with hit drivers, and they both wound up in the trees. I hit a 6-iron off the tee."

His strategy worked. He hit a wedge to 12 feet and made the putt. 

"I really didn't hit it all that well tee to green either day," he admitted. "My putter was the difference. The wind was affecting putts, because it was so strong, but I didn't have any three-putts in two days. My putting was great."

He made one bomb on Sunday, a 40-footer for birdie at the 183-yard, par-3 sixth hole, and he followed that with a birdie at the par-5 seventh, which is only 475 yards, and like No. 2, was playing downwind. But he missed the fairway with his tee shot and was 40 yards short in two. From there, however, he hit a wedge shot to a foot.

Orvick, 20, a junior-to-be at Augsburg University, shot 70 on Saturday at Wirth and was the overnight leader. He made four birdies in the adverse conditions on Sunday, and didn't play all that badly. But he had a couple of disasters, and those two holes cost him six shots. 

"I made a quad and a double," he said, smiling ruefully.

He made the quad at the 10th hole, and the 520-yard, dogleg par 5, was the hole that, more than any other, decided the tournament. 

Orvick got in trouble with his tee shot -- and then went for a heroic recovery. That proved to be a costly mistake. It just got him into more trouble. 

Meanwhile, Fox was hitting a nearly perfect drive, cutting the dogleg by going over the trees to the right of the fairway -- "I cut a lot off, almost too much" -- and then hit a 9-iron second shot to 20 feet. He nearly made the putt, and tapped in for a birdie. 

That was a five-shot swing on one hole. 

"He's really good," Fox said of Orvick. "He's young, has a great swing, and as he plays in more tournaments and gains experience, he'll have a lot of success, I think."