Campbell Shoots 65 in the Wind, Leads PGA Foundation Pro-Am

WEST ST. PAUL -- This hasn't been a great spring for golf. On the days when it hasn't rained, the wind has been brutal, Some days, it's been a combination of rain and the wind that has made golfers miserable.

On Friday, the rain stayed away, but the wind made things interesting for the professionals and the amateurs at Southview Country Club in the first round of the Minnesota PGA Foundation Pro-Am, formerly the Tapemark.

Thomas Campbell's solution to the problem was to start fast and get to 6 under par before the wind knew he was out there. He birdied the first two holes, eagled the par-5 fourth (477 yards), and birdied both the par-5 sixth and par-4 seventh holes. From there, he traded birdies for bogeys. All three of the birdies he made the rest of the way came on par 3s, the 162-yard 10th, the 142-yard 13th and the 158-yard 15th. It added up to a 6-under 65, and the former University of Minnesota star from New Zealand will go into the weekend with a two-shot lead.

Actually, he could have created a little more separation between himself and the rest of the field, but he bogeyed the 436-yard, par-4 16th, the hardest hole on the course, and he parred the two par 5s at the end of the round, the 488-yard 17th and the 475-yard 18th.

Campbell is a teaching pro and club fitter who has never been the Minnesota PGA Section Player of the Year, but he's come close. He finished second in the Player of the Year standings each of the last two years.

There is a four-way tie for second at 67, and it includes Andrew Israelson, who tied for third in last year's rain-shortened version of this tournament. And his father, Bill Israelson, the three-time Minnesota State Amateur champion (1976, '77 and '78), won the Tapemark twice, in 1991 and '93. Like Campbell, Israelson got off to a very fast start, holing his second shot at the par-4 first for an eagle, and adding birdies at the par-4 third and the par-5 fourth. He surrendered a shot with a bogey at the 11th, but birdied the par -3 13th and par-4 14th holes, and made a final birdie at the 17th.

Also in the foursome at 67 are Derek Holmes, Michael Schmitz and Scott Cole. Holmes probably had the most interesting back nine of anyone in the field. He was 2 under on the par 3's, the result of birdies at the 13th and 15th, 2 over on the par 4s (bogeys at the 12th and 16th), and he was 3 under on the two par 5s, thanks to a birdie at the 17th and an eagle at the 18th.

Jack Ebner, a first-year pro who's playing mini-tours, and veteran teaching pro Grant Shafranski are tied for sixth at 68, and seven-time Tapemark champ Don Berry, the longtime head pro at Edinburgh, is part of a four-way tie for eighth at 69. So is the 2023 Minnesota Senior Open winner, Chris Borgen.



Minnesota PGA Foundation Pro-Am

At Southview Country Club

Par 71, 6,023 yards

West St. Paul

First-round results

1. Thomas Campbell 65

T2. Andrew Israelson 67

T2. Derek Holmes 67

T2. Scott Cole 67

T2. Michael Schmitz 67

T6. Jack Ebner 68

T6. Grant Shafranski 68

T8. Don Berry 69

T8, Chris Borgen 69

T8. Jack Hiemenz 69

T8. Lucas Johnson 69