Trasamar, Peterson Share Lead after 1st Day at MGC

ST. LOUIS PARK -- The 65-degree morning that was predicted Friday never showed up at Minneapolis Golf Club for the first day of the 2015 Minnesota Golf Champions tournament. 

Basically, the temperature gauge got stuck on 54 degrees, and never moved. That, plus an inch of rain that had fallen the day before, made the 7,045-yard course play more like 7,500 yards. That rain also made the greens slower than they usually are at MGC -- all of whcih conspired to make scoring difficult.

The two players who handled the conditions best were Jon Trasamar, who turned professional almost exactly one year ago, and former Minnesota State Open champ Ryan Peterson, who is in the process of turning amateur again.  

They both shot 70, 2 under par, although they went about it in sort of opposite directions. 

Trasamar is a former Pine to Palm champ from Blue Earth (he accomplished the rare double of winning both the qualifying medal and the match-play portion of the Pine to Palm in 2013). He completed his college golf eligibility at the University of Minnesota last May, then turned pro and won right away, in the first Dakotas Tour event he entered, at Bakker Crossing in Sioux Falls (with a tidy little 64-64 over the last 36 holes). Playing in only five of 18 events, Trasamar wound up No. 10 on the 2014 Dakotas money list with $23,483. 

On Friday, he  did his damage on the front nine. He birdied No. 1, a 474-yard par-5 that is usually the easiest hole at MGC, added a birdie at the 429-yard, par-4 second and got to 3 under with a birdie at the 458-yard, par-4 eighth. But that was his last birdie. He almost parred out from there. The only blemish on his card was a bogey at the 217-yard, par-3 16th, a hole that caused all sorts of problems on Friday. (Of the top six guys on the leaderboard at the end of the first round, only one, Tom Whaley, parred the 16th. The other five all made bogeys.)

Peterson didn't really get going until the back nine. As a matter of fact, he was 2 over through 11 holes, but an eagle at the par-5 12th (500 yards) got him back to level par. He also birdied the 14th and the 560-yard, par-5 15th, but he too suffered a bogey at the 16th, and he appeared headed for another bogey -- or worse -- at the 17th (420, par 4). His drive went left at No. 17, and there was some question about whether he was even in bounds. He was, but he was deep in the forest and didn't have much of a shot. The best he could do was get his ball into a bunker well short of the green, but from there he hit his next shot to 5 feet, and made the putt for par.  

He then capped off his back-nine 32 with a birdie at the 18th (458, par 4).

A former two-time state high school champion (2005, '07) from Eagan, Peterson went to Colorado State and won the Mountain West Conference individual crown in 2010. After turning professional, he won the State Open in 2012, but he never got all that close to his ultimate goal of qualifying for the PGA Tour. Last summer, he wasn't playing all that badly. He finished seventh in the Tapemark Charity Pro-Am at the beginning of June and sixth in the State Open at the end of July, but by the end of the summer he had decided to give up playing golf for a living.

He is currently awaiting reinstatement, and is expected to be back in the good graces of the U.S.G.A. -- and a full-fledged amateur once again -- some time in August.

Lurking one stroke behind Trasamar and Peterson, at 71, are Edinburgh USA head pro Don Berry, a five-time winner of the Golf Champions, and amateur Scott Gustafson, another former state high school winner who has finished as high as second in the Golf Champions. 

"I played a practice round on Wednesday, but I wish I hadn't," said Berry, a 15-time Minnesota PGA Player of the Year who has won 22 professional majors in this state (8 State PGA titles, 7 Tapemark Pro-Ams, 5 Minnesota Golf Champions, 2 State Opens). "The greens were fast for the practice round, and then the rain really slowed them down, and today they were nothing like the way they were on Wednesday. I don't think I ever got a putt to the hole today." 

Bearpath G&CC head pro Kevin Cashman, who has both a State Open and a Golf Champions title on his resume, is tied for fifth place at 72, along with Whaley, a former State Mid-Amateur champ and an MGC member. 

After that, the scoreboard gets really crowded. There are nine players tied at 73, including a couple of notable reinstated amateurs -- Mike Christensen, the 2002 MGC winner, and reigning State Open champ Trent Peterson, the 2014 MGA Player of the Year. 

Clayton Rask, who has won this tournament four times, is another stroke back, with a 74, and defending champ Donald Constable, is in a seven-way tie for 20th at 75. 

Tee times for Saturday's second round will begin late, at about 12:30 p.m. and continue until roughly 3 o'clock. 
 

MINNESOTA PGA

Minnesota Golf Champions

At Minneapolis Golf Club

Par 72, 7,045 yards

First-round results 

T1. Jon Trasamar (p), Windsong Farm GC         70

T1. Ryan Peterson (ar)*, Interlachen CC             70

T3. Don Berry (p), Edinburgh USA                      71

T3. Scott Gustafson (a), Hazeltine National        71

T5. Tom Whaley (a), Minneapolis GC                 72

T5. Kevin Cashman (p), Bearpath G&CC           72

T7. Mike Christensen (a), Bunker Hills GC         73 

T7. Ryan Helminen (p), Ridgeway CC (Wis.)      73

T7. Justin Smith (p), Bolstad/University GC        73

T7. Andy Jacobson (a), Eagle Creek GC            73

T7. Thomas Campbell (p), Bolstad/University     73

T7. Andrew Layton (a), Keller GC                        73

T7. Erik Christopherson (a), Stoneridge GC        73

T7. Trent Peterson (a), Valleywood GC               73

T7. Ryan Paulson (p), Minneapolis GC               73

T16. Clayton Rask (p), Riverwood National        74

T16. Joe McCormick (a), Crow River GC            74

T16. Lisa Grimes (p), Alexandria GC                  74

T16. Jack Pexa (a), New Prague GC                 74

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