Minnesota Golfer - Directory 2023 - 33

tied on the fourth hole of the afternoon 18, Axtell had Lakotas
stymied, his ball a foot and a half from the cup and Lakotas's
ball three feet. Lakotas pulled out his niblick-roughly the equivalent
of today's 9-iron-and lofted his ball over Axtell's.
" Git in! " Lakotas shouted, and the ball did as ordered, falling
into the cup from the side. Axtell was apparently rattled by
the shot and missed his putt, putting Lakotas 1 up.
" Right there's where I beat him, " Lakotas said afterward. " I
broke his heart with that chip shot. Guess
I'm just too good for that guy. You know,
I'm a heck of a lot better now than when
I won the title at Superior. Everybody
knows that. "
A record gallery of 1,500 spectators
followed the match, which Lakotas won
handily, 6 and 4.
" I'm the guy who draws 'em, " Lakotas
said of the crowd. " Some come to see me
get beat, and some come to see me win,
but lots of people come to see me. "
Lakotas again had a bit of an off-year
After that, Lakotas had an easy time winning his third
Johnny
Lakotas
was one of the
in 1938. He failed to qualify for the U.S.
Amateur Public Links-the only time
between 1936 and 1940 that happened;
and he was eliminated in the quarterfinal
of the State Public Links at Bunker Hills by long-hitting St. Paul
Central High School student Spero Daltas in 37 holes.
Lakotas bounced back in 1939 at Meadowbrook, in what might
Publinks championship. He hammered Stewart Wilson of
Columbia, 8 and 6, in the quarterfinal and took care of George
Brunes of Hilltop, 6 and 5, to reach the final against his good
friend Gordon Peterson of Armour. Despite the usual boastful
banter before the final match, Lakotas was surprisingly subdued
after his victory. Asked for a comment on the match, Lakotas
simply said, " I'm not talking. " He even appeared to be taking it
easy on Peterson, whom he'd known
and played golf with for years. Their
wives
and
their
fathers walked
together in the gallery throughout
the match.
The match had been fairly close
greatest characters
in Minnesota
golf history.
have been the most dominant performance of his career. Lakotas
managed to survive his second-round match in a downpour
that saw flooding from the creek on the 14th hole, players using
four-, five- and six-irons on greens instead of putters, and players
forced to hit out of standing water in the rough, as no relief was
given to balls off the fairway. Lakotas's match against Ed Webster
of Highland Park was settled when Webster's drive on 18 landed
in wet turf, leaving him a shot he could only advance 50 yards.
until Peterson shanked consecutive
tee shots on the 11th and 12th, losing
both holes, and Lakotas birdied the
13th to go 4 up. Lakotas shockingly
missed an eight-inch putt on the 15th
green that would have ended the
match, causing some in the gallery
to question his intentions, but when
Peterson made a triple-bogey 7 on the
next hole, Lakotas ended things with
a par for a 4-and-2 victory.
It was an odd way for one of the state's great golf showmen
to end his championship years. Lakotas would be bounced in
the semi-final the next year, the last time the State Public Links
used a match-play format. At stroke play, he had top-10 finishes
in 1943 and 1944, and finished second at Meadowbrook in 1945,
the same year he finished tied for 10th in the Minnesota State
Amateur. After that, he faded from the scene.
By the post-war years, Johnny Lakotas's days of dominating
tournaments, drawing huge galleries and filling reporters' notebooks
with outrageous quotes had come to an end. Still, it was
great fun while it lasted.
Get the Book
Published by the MPGA, " A Century of Public Golf Champions:
The 100th Anniversary of the Minnesota Public Golf Association "
is scheduled to release in 2023 and is available for purchase at mpga.net.
mngolf.org
Directory 2023 MINNESOTAGOLFER 33
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