By Mike Fermoyle (mikefermoyle@gmail.com)
MANKATO -- On Saturday, Kelton Schmitz shot a tournament-record, 8-under-par 63 at Mankato Golf Club in the first round of the Krugel Invitational.
The Minnesota State-Mankato sophomore-to-be had been in that neighborhood before, having shot 65 at his home course, New Ulm Country Club, on several occasions, and he said he really didn't get nervous until he was in the fairway at the 18th hole. He hit a poor second shot into a bunker and saved par, thereby breaking the old tournament record by two strokes. (The official course record at Mankato GC is 62, shot by Mike Zinni twice.)
But Schmitz conceded that on Sunday, as he was trying to win the Krugel, his nerves started to show a lot earlier than the final hole.
"I was pretty nervous the whole round," he said. "My hands were sweating so much that I went through three gloves today."
Nevertheless, he was able to come up with some clutch shots down the stretch, most notably at the 440-yard, par-4 18th hole, and the result was a one-stroke victory over former Krugel champion Tony Vincelli.
Schmitz bogeyed three of the first nine holes in the final round, but he played the back nine in 2 under on his way to a valedictory 72, which put his 45-hole total at 170.
Vincelli, who made 13 pars and four birdies through the first 17 holes of his final round, singed the edge of the cup with an 8-foot putt at No. 18 and suffered his only bogey. That gave him a 68, but his tournament total of 171 was one too many.
J.B. Lloyd, a six-time Krugel champ -- and winner three of the last four years -- shot 71 on Sunday afternoon and finished third at 174. Justin Doeden, who was an NAIA All-American at Cardinal Stritch University during the 2014-15 college season but is transferriing to Minnesota for his junior year, was another stroke behind in fourth, at 175. He also closed with a 71.
Matching Vincelli for the low score in the final round was Geoff Klein, a perennial contender at the Krugel. He holed out from off the green at the 18th for a 68 and a 179. That was good for fifth place.
The Krugel used to be a 54-hole tournament, 18 the first day and 36 the second. Now it's 18 the first, 27 the second. Players start on the back nine Sunday morning, and then play a full 18-hole round in the afternoon.
Schmitz was five clear of the field when Sunday began. Lloyd was tied for second, after his opening 68.
Not a lot changed as a result of the morning nine. Schmitz and Lloyd toured the inward half in even-par 35, but Vincelli joined Lloyd at minus 3 overall with a 33, and Doeden moved up to fourth, at minus 2, with a nifty little 32. It should have been even lower. He missed short birdie putts at the 13th and 14th holes, and the long-hitting former Lakeville South star also missed a 3-footer for par at the 16th.
Those four were in the last foursome, and it was pretty much a Four-Man Show all afternoon.
Schmitz already had one victory under his belt -- he won the New Ulm Invitationala month ago with a 45-hole aggregate of 172 (68-69-35) -- but he looked a little shaky early in the afternoon as he attempted to seal the deal at Mankato GC.
At the quirky second hole, a 397-yard dogleg left par-4 with a blind second shot, Schmitz flaired his tee shot to the right, and ended up in the middle of a pine tree. He one-putted for a bogey. Vincelli made the first of his four birdies, and suddenly he was within three of the lead.
Doeden, who led one of the MGA's State Amateur Qualifiers recently with a 64, eagled the 540-yard, par-5 fifth, and Lloyd made a birdie. Lloyd added another birdie at the short sixth (148 yards). Vincelli made a par, but Schmitz and Doeden both made bogeys. At that point the leaderboard read: Schmitz -6, Lloyd -5, Vincelli -4, Doeden -2. (Doeden made things interesting with his long drives -- he averages over 300 yards off the tee, and he hit a 7-iron 230 yards at the 10th hole -- but he never got closer to the lead than three strokes, and he finished at 2 under.)
Vincelli made a 45-footer for birdie at No. 8 (385 yards, par 4), and Lloyd made a 4-footer to tie the skin -- and Schmitz. When Lloyd two-putted the 206-yard, par-3 ninth from 60 feet for a par and Schmitz failed to save par from the left greenside bunker, Lloyd had the lead, at 6 under par.
A 300-yard drive and a 4-iron over the ditch guarding the green at No. 10 (506, par 5) left Lloyd with an easy two-putt for another birdie (7 under), but Vincelli stayed within one (at -6) thanks to a 100-yard wedge shot to 3 feet. Schmitz hit the best tee shot at the 10th, 320 yards, but he hit an 8-iron about 3 inches fat.
"I was lucky there," he said, with a slight sigh of relief. "My hand slipped off the grip, and it was a really ugly shot. My ball went into the hazard, but just barely, and I was able to play it from there, and get the next shot onto the green. That probably saved me two strokes."
And his chance to win the tournament, because he was two behind Lloyd at that point, and one behind Vincelli.
Schmitz got his back-nine charge started with a 12-foot putt for birdie at the par-5 11th (514 yards).
"I needed that," he said. "But I thought I was going to have to make a few more to catch J.B."
That was basically what everyone in the gallery of roughly 100 people thought, too. After all, no one plays Mankato GC better than the 49-year-old Lloyd, who won this tournament each of the last two years.
It didn't work out that way, however. Lloyd pulled an 8-iron almost into the water hazard 10 yards left of the green at the par-3 12th (155 yards), made a bogey there, and then doubled the 13th (353, par 4) and bogeyed the 14th (175, par 3). A 285-yard drive to within 5 yards of the green at the 15th (297, par 4) set up a birdie, but the damage had been done.
While Lloyd was making his disastrous 6 at No. 13, Schmitz and Vincelli were both making birdies. Schmitz did it in conventional fashion. He laid up with an iron and hit a wedge to within 4 feet of the hole. Vincelli's 3 was a minor miracle. After pulling his tee shot into the trees on the left, he had virtually no shot at the green, which is on the far side of a gully that's 20 feet deep and 40 yards wide.
The 1996 Krugel champ punched a low shot that crashed into the bank leading up to the green, about 15 feet from the top and hopped up onto the green, winding up 2 feet from the cup.
"I could hit a thousand ball from there and not hit it that close again," he said. "It was the only shot I had, but it was a total gamble. I knew that if I hit the shot a little too high and landed it on the green, it was going to take about two bounces into the hazard and never be seen again."
Vincelli made another great escape from the left trees at the 15th, where he needed an 8-foot putt to save his par. Schmitz was similarly resourceful at the 15th, extricating himself from the trees on the right.
Eventually, it came down to the 440-yard, par-4 18th, the hardest hole on the course. And it was tougher than usual on Sunday, because it was playing into about a 15-mile-per-hour breeze. It was a perfect match-play-style conclusion to the tournament.
Both Schmitz and Vincelli hit good drives. Vincelli was left with 185 yards to the green, which is guarded menacingly by a water hazard to the left and a bunker front right. He hit a 5-iron into the bunker.
"I was trying to hold it off a little," he explained, "because I didn't want to turn it over and go into the water. I just held on a little too much."
Then it was Schmitz's turn. He was 175 yards away, just in the left rough.
"I was pretty confident that I could hit the shot on the green," he noted. "It was exactly the same shot I hit this morning. My divot fromt he morning couldn't have been more than a foot from where I was this afternoon. I knew it was an 8-iron. All I had to do was hit a solid shot."
He did.
To anyone who learned the game of golf in the era of persimmon woods and balata balls, the notion of hitting an 8-iron from 175 yards into a stiff breeze probably seems alien, but Schmitz actually hit the shot 190 yards and ended up 45 feet past the hole. He was a little worried about three-putting, but his first putt had perfect speed and left him with a tap-in for par from less than a foot.
Meanwhile, Vincelli hit a first-rate bunker shot. Unfortunately, it trickled past the hole and left him 8 feet away. He had been making clutch putts all afternoon, including a 7-footer for par at the 15th and a 5-footer for par at the 17th, but his par putt at the 18th broke out of the hole at the last second -- "I needed to hit it just a little bit harder" -- and relegated him to second place.
2015 Krugel Invitational
Zinni (Championship) Flight
Par 71, 6,250 yards
Mankato
1. Kelton Schmitz 63-35-72--170
2. Tony Vincelli 70-33-68--171
3. J.B. Lloyd 68-35-71--174
4. Justin Doeden 72-32-71--175
5. Geoff Klein 74-37-68--179
T6. Alex Case 72-38-72--182
T6. Shane Barnes 74-39-69--182
T6. Tom Homan 72-36-74--182
Contact Us
Have a question about the Minnesota Golf Association, your MGA membership or the contents of this website? Let us help.
