Minnesota Golfer - Directory 2023 - 50

BACKSPIN
A Rare Bird
In golf, we all strive (and hope) to hit a one,
but a two on a par five can be twice as nice.
* BY MARK CRAIG *
T
here are any number of ways two shots can be spent
on the brutish par-5 18th hole at picturesque Pioneer
Creek Golf Course in Maple Plain.
From personal experience . . .
There's the smart layup to short of the creek followed by a
" gosh-darnit " and a " kerplunk. " There's pulling fairway wood
for the second shot and ball-retriever for the third. There's one
chip to the elevated green with the false front followed by an
identical shot after the ball rolls back to your feet.
And then there's what Matthew Berntson, a plus-2 handicapper
from St. Louis Park,
did with two swings from
the 573-yard black tees as
the sun was disappearing
behind him on June 10.
" My driver carries
310, " said the 26-year-old
self-taught golfer. " I hit it
[323], right up to the 250yard
plate. Perfect. "
Even the prevailing
headwind on that hole
was lying down, holding
its breath for what would
happen next.
" My 5-wood carries 250,
12,500-to-1 shot.
The Minnesota Golf Association tracks aces and albatrosses
each year. By the end of the 2022 season, 448 aces and 13 albatrosses
had been reported.
Five of the albatrosses were holes-in-one on par 4s. Kurt
Lambert of Maple Grove used driver for his on the 341-yard
14th hole at Pheasant Acres Golf Club.
Three of the eight reported albatrosses on par 5s came at Pioneer
Creek. Matthew Peterson of Prior Lake made quick work
of the 509-yard first hole with driver and, yes, pitching wedge.
" It's funny, " said Bernston.
The Minnesota Golf Association tracks
aces and albatrosses each year.
By the end of the
2022 season, 448 aces
and 13 albatrosses
had been reported.
260, so I pulled that club, a
Stealth Plus 5-wood, " Berntson said. " I hit it toward the center of
the green with a back-left pin because there was just a bit of rightto-left
wind. It landed right on the front edge and rolled. "
Perfectly.
" The greens there are so pure, " Berntson added.
Berntson was walking that day. His three playing partners, all
strangers to him, were in carts.
" They got to the green first and they didn't think the ball had
gone in because it was still visible, " Berntson said. " As I got closer,
it was looking closer and closer to being in. "
Actually, it was in the hole but resting on the pin. A double
eagle. An albatross. A 6-million-to-1 shot, according to The
Double Eagle Club, which calls itself, " the worldwide registry
for double eagles scored. "
" And I don't even have a hole-in-one, " Berntson said of the
golf's, um, " easier " bucket-list moment, considered a mere
50
MINNESOTAGOLFER Directory 2023
" Then one goes in. "
Berntson had, by his standards, a horrific front-9 41 that day.
" But the albatross got me back to even with a 5-under
back-nine, " he said.
Over the phone, Berntson doesn't sound like an excitable
jump-up-and-down screamer. He sounds as even-keel and analytical
as you'd expect from a bright young man who works as
aerospace engineer at Honeywell.
" It didn't really shock me that the ball went in, " he said. " When
I hit it, I said, 'Well, that's going to be really close.'
" I didn't do anything special afterward. Didn't take a photo.
The guys who were with me were hugging me and everything. I
think they were more excited about it than I was. "
Mark Craig is the NFL/Vikings columnist and a golf writer for the
Star Tribune.
" The day I got mine on 18,
the group I was in almost
had two earlier. "
Berntson's playing partners
were near the green
watching his second
shot on the par-5 14th
roll over the edge of the
cup. Then one of them
almost aced the drivable
par-4 16th hole.
" We were going to 18 talking
about, 'Wow, we've never
seen an albatross before, and
we've almost seen two in
one round,' " Berntson said.
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Minnesota Golfer - Directory 2023

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