Rask's Short Putter Passes Test at MGC

MNPGA

By Mike Fermoyle

ST. LOUIS PARK -- If you mention spring in Georgia to a golfer, he will probably start thinking idylic thoughts about the drama at The Masters and the spectacular beauty of Augusta National.

But for Clayton Rask, who now makes his residence in Vinings, Ga., the spring of 2015 hasn't exactly been all azaleas, dogwoods, camellias and  wisteria. He was robbed twice in a span of a couple of weeks. First they got his apartment, then his truck and a trailer, which was packed with the furniture he was planning to move -- to a safer neighborhood. 

Things got better for Rask over the weekend after he returned to Minnesota. They usually do when Rask comes back to Minneapolis Golf Club to play in the Minnesota Golf Champions, and his return trip this year was no exception. 

The 30-year-old former University of Minnesota star and MGA Player of the Year (2007) shot a final-round 68 (4 under par) on Sunday, capping it off with a birdie at the 18th, and that was the difference, as he claimed a one-stroke victory -- and the first-place check of $2,150 -- with a 54-hole total of 214. 

It was the fifth time Rask has won the Golf Champions crown, which ties the record set by Don Berry in 2010. If it hadn't been for Rask, Berry would have won the tournament for the sixth time, because he closed with a 71 and finished second at 215. 

Scott Gustafson was the low amateur, for the third time, and he tied Wisconsin pro Ryan Helminen for third place at 216. Helminen matched Berry's 71, the second-best score of the day, and Gustafson shot 72.

Ryan Peterson, the former Minnesota State Open champ who is now an amateur awaiting reinstatement, was alone in fifth place at 217, after a 72. Last year's winner, Donald Constable, another former Gopher star, tied Trent Peterson, last year's MGA Player of the Year, for sixth place at 219. One behind them, at 220, was Alexandria GC teaching pro Lisa Grimes, the reigning Minnesoa Women's State Open champ. (In the 14-year history of the Women's State Open, Grimes has won the title four times.)     

"Clayton did it again," Berry said as he signed his scorecard.

Helminen, who was sitting a few feet away, added: "I'd say he's just about unbeatable on this course."

As a matter of fact, Rask has won the Golf Champions tournament the last three times it's been played at MGC. Last year, when it was played at Golden Valley G&CC, Rask was absent, and Constable won. 

What was different about Rask's victory this time was that he won with a regulation-length putter.

Rask made a few waves in Minnesota golf for the first time in 2000 when, as a freshman at Elk River, he finished fifth in the state high school tournament. He added three more top-5 finishes in the next three years, but never won the high school tournament, mainly because his putting wasn't all that good. 

That began to change when he switched to a long putter during the spring of his junior year. He won his first state title, the Public Links Championship, a year later, in 2003. A year after that, he won the MGA Players Championship, and he won the Golf Champions for the first time in 2005. Two years later, he won again, thanks to a 10-foot birdie putt on the 54th hole. 

Rask turned professional in 2008, after completing his college eligibility. Since then, he's played mostly mini-tours, but he achieved exempt status on the web.com Tour for one year (2011), and he nearly got back there this year. He came within a single shot of winning the PGA Tour Canada Championship tournament last summer, which would have given him some status on the 2015 web.com Tour, and he came within a single stroke of advancing to the Final Stage of web.com Q-School last fall.

With the USGA ban on long putters looming in the not-so-distant future (it will begin in 2016), Rask needed to go back to the old conventional length for his putter, and he made the change last fall, two weeks after his Q-School bid ended.

"It took about 12 putters to find one that I really liked, but I found it," Rask said of the Odyssey model that he was introduced to by his caddie, Ross Miller. "I've spent a lot of hours working with Eric Chiles (at the Minnesota Golf Academy), and my putting has really improved. I started working with him a couple of years ago, and I can't believe how much he's helped me. From getting me fitted for clubs -- my old clubs didnt fit me at all -- to fixing my swing. The Academy has been great. That was the reason I made it to the (U.S.) Open last year (where he also made the cut)."

The Odyssey joined the fray, as far as tournament golf was concerned, on the NGA -- formerly Hooters -- Tour, where Rask has played in seven events and made $14,100, which has him No. 14 on the money list so far.

He says the difference between the way he putts with the short(er) putter now and the way he putted before is that he's not nearly as aggressive as he used to be. Not with the putter anyway. 

Rask is still aggressive with the driver, however, and that's why whenever he plays in Minnesota, he draws a gallery. People love to watch him bomb his driver, which he was hitting over 300 yards just about every time he pulled it out on Sunday, even though the conditions weren't all that conducive to hitting long drives. It rained off and on through the front nine, and the temperature never came close to reaching 60 degrees.  

Nevertheless, Rask launched a 310-yard blast off the tee at No. 1 (480 yards, par 5) to start his round and followed it with a 170-yard 8-iron to set up a two-putt birdie.

Having started the day three strokes behind the leader, fellow former Gopher Jon Trasamar, Rask grabbed the lead with birdies at No. 8 (458, par 4) and No. 9 (406, par 4). He was one ahead of Berry, Helminen and Gustafson when he made the turn, but he bogeyed the formidable 230-yard, par-3 10th and fell back into a tie for the lead. (Trasamar got off to a bad start, never recovered and shot 79. He wound up tied for 12th at 222.) 

The tie didn't last long. At the 408-yard, par-4 11th, Rask pounded a 350-yard drive that left him 53 yards from the pin, which was on the front of the green. He then hit a wedge to 3 feet and made the birdie putt to reclaim the lead. 

Although he hit his drive roughly 330 yards at the 12th (500, par 5), he pulled it into the left trees. From there, he "chipped a 6-iron" onto the green, but he three-putted and had to settle for a par. 

The Odyssey redeemed itself for that little lapse down the stretch. At the 217-yard, par-3 16th, Rask saved par with a one-putt, and at the 420-yard, par-4 17th, he was 100 yards from the green after his tee shot (meaning that he hit it 320), but he was in the left rough and had to hit another punch/chip. That one ran farther than he expected, and he was left with a 60-footer from the fringe. He nearly made it, and tapped in from 6 inches. 

No. 18 at MGC was lengthened a few years ago and plays 458 yards from the back tees. It's a monster for average players and a long hole even for most pros -- but not for Rask. He hammered his drive 345 yards, which left him with a 110-yard wedge. He pushed it slightly, but it kicked left off a mound and ended up 20 feet below the cup.

What better test for the new short putter and the modified claw grip that Rask uses to wield it. The Odyssey definitely passed the test. 

"The more I use it, the more confident I get," Rask said, "and making a birdie on the last hole of the tournament to win has to give you an additional shot of confidence."

Berry, who has been the Minnesota Section PGA's Player of the Year 15 times, can't come close to Rask off the tee, but he's been considered the best ball-striker in the state for two decades, which is why he can still contend the Golf Champions title at age 53.

On Sunday, he was uncharacteristically loose from tee to green on the front nine, making three birdies, three pars and three bogeys. He started off with a 270-yard drive, a hybrid to the first green and a two-putt birdie, but he bogeyed the second hole (429, par 4). The Edinburgh USA head pro birdied the 140-yard, par-3 fourth with an 8-iron to 5 feet, only to give that stroke back with a bogey at the fifth (431, par 4). He slipped to 1 over for the round when he bogeyed the eighth, a 458-yard, par 4, before making his only long birdie putt of the tournament, a 25-footer, at the 406-yard, par-4 ninth.

"That eighth hole has been a killer for me," he said afterward. "Two and eight used to be holes where you could think you were going to have pretty good chance for birdie (when both were under 400 yards). Now they're 430 and 460, and it's just a struggle to make pars, especially 8. I suppose Clayton is hitting an 8-iron, or something like that, but I'm hitting hybrids into that green."

Berry's best chance to catch Rask came in the three-hole stretch from No. 12 to No. 14. At the 12th, he missed an 8-footer for birdie, and then he then burned the edge of the hole with an 18-foot putt at the 13th. ("I couldn't believe that putt missed.')  He made what proved to be his only non-par of the back nine when he hit a wedge to 8 feet at the 14th and converted the putt. 

"I've been playing really well this spring," he said, "and I was really happy with the way I hit the ball on Friday (when he shot 71). The last two days (73-71) weren't as good. I just didn't play all that well. Basically, I was just hanging in there, and didn't give myself as many chances for birdies as I thought I should have had."

Gustafson is one of the two best players of the last 15 or 20 years never to turn pro (his Notre Dame teammate Eric Deutsch was the other). Now, nearly a decade removed from his college days, he plays in only two or three state-level championships per year, but when he plays he always seems to play well. He's been a fixture in the top 5 at the Golf Champions, but he's never won.

If there was one hole that kept him from breaking through this year, it was the 12th, the second-easiest hole on the course (behind only the first). It's a hole you would expect the long-hitting Gustafson (he averages about 290 off the tee) to birdie most of the time. Instead, he bogeyed it twice over the weekend.

"That's the hole I'll think about when I look back at this tournament," he lamented. 

He made one of those bogeys Sunday, but he made amends, to some extent, with a birdie at the 13th. Gustafson was also the only one of the contenders to birdie the 560-yard, par-5 15th in the final round. But he missed the green at the par-3 16th and couldn't save par. 

"That pretty much did it for me," he said. "I knew that Clayton was in with 2 under, and the chances of birdying the last two holes were pretty slim. I had putts for birdie on each of them, but I made two pars."

The good news for Gustafson is that his third-place finish guarantees another invitation to this tournament next year.

"I'm happy about that," he said. "This is my favorite tournament, and I love this course. I don't have many chances to qualify for this, because I don't play in many tournaments during the summer. So it's a good thing I keep playing well enough when I'm here to get invited back."     

In the Past Masters Division, Rick Ehrmanntraut survived the rain and a deluge of missed 3-foot putts -- he missed three of them in a five-hole stretch on Sunday -- to win the division for the fourth time in five years. He shot 73 in Saturday's first round and got through the first 26 holes of the tournament in 1 over, before his putter turned traitor for a while, and by then he had a sizable cushion. His eventual second-round score of 79 and the resulting aggregate of 152 were good enough for a three-stroke victory.  


MINNESOTA PGA

Minnesota Golf Champions

At Minneapolis Golf Club

Par 72, 7,045 yards

Final results 

1. Clayton Rask (p), Riverwood Nat'l.                 $2,150     74-72-68--214

2. Don Berry (p), Edinburgh USA                        $1,400     71-73-71--215

T3.  Scott Gustafson (a), Hazeltine National                       71-73-72--216

T3. Ryan Helminen (p), Ridgeway GC (Wis.)       $850      73-72-71--216

5. Ryan Peterson (ar)*, Interlachen CC                              70-75-72--217

T6. Trent Peterson (a), Valleywood GC                              73-72-73--218

T6. Donald Constable (p), Spring Hill GC            $675       75-71-72--218

8. Lisa Grimes (p), Alexandria GC                      $550        74-73-72--219

T9. Andrew Layton (a), Keller GC                                       73-71-76--220

T9. Dylan Gergen (a), Mendakota GC                                75-73-72--220

11. Kris Kroetsch (p), Fargo CC                          $475        77-73-71--221

T12. Jon Trasamar (p), Windsong Farm GC       $375        70-73-79--222

T12. Brent Snyder (p), Troy Burne GC                $375        75-73-74--222

T12. Tyler Koivisto (a), Litchfield GC                                   76-72-74--222

* -- Ryan Peterson is a former professional who is now an amateur awaiting reinstatement     

Past Masters Division

1. Rick Ehrmanntraut, Southview CC                                    73-79--152

T2. John Sprieter, Litchfield GC                                             77-78--155

T2. Jerry Gruidl, Golden Valley G&CC                                   78-77--155

T2. Mike Fermoyle, Southview CC                                        74-81--155

5. Dick Blooston, Edina CC                                                   81-77--158

6. Terry Comstock, Prairie Green GC                                   83-76--159

 (mikefermoyle@gmail.com)