Minnesota Golfer - Fall 2010 - 5

(editor'sletter)
Closing the Book on
the 2010 Golf Season
W
ho among us would not marvel
about the year in golf as
we near the close of the 2010
season? The excitement started in April, with
golf rounds in Minnesota soaring through the
roof (up 54.4 percent). At Augusta National,
all eyes, moist-though-they-were, focused
on Phil Mickelson when he birdied the fi nal
hole-his fi fth birdie that day-to win the
Masters. His wife was waiting by the green,
and their backstory-her battle with breast
cancer-was top-of-mind for most viewers.
It was the season's fi rst major, and our fi rst
feel-good golf moment since Tiger trashed
his Escalade.
Despite his four wins, Dustin Johnson deserves
our admiration for his graceful exit
after the bunker blunder at Whistling Straits
in August. He ought to get credit for nearly
winning two majors this year. But what he really
has coming to him are thank-yous from
Graeme McDowell and Martin Kaymer, as DJ
played a pivotal role in their respective wins
at the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship.
Another fi rst-time major winner, Louis Oosthuizen,
a little-known South African with a
jaunty, gap-toothed grin, paced the fi eld by
a commanding eight shots at St. Andrews to
become the world's Open champion.
Closer to home, Tom Hoge successfully defended
his amateur crown, a feat we haven't
seen since Dave Nordeen, playing out of the
now-paved-over Rich Acres GC, won the
State Amateur in both 1985 and '86. This
year's runner-up Don Constable, fresh from
a win at the prestigious and historic North &
South Amateur, and Hoge played the game at
another level at Dacotah Ridge. They played
for the Heffelfi nger Trophy in what felt like
a match-play duel. Both of these young, talented
players share equally bright futures in
competitive golf.
Hoge's accomplishment notwithstanding,
2010 will truly be remembered for another
golfer who mounted a successful repeat: Olivia
Lansing, 22, of Dellwood, Minn. Lansing,
a recent graduate of Drake University with
nine collegiate wins, continued her hot play
by capturing all four women's amateur " majors " :
the Minnesota Women's State Amateur,
the State Match Play, the Minnesota Women's
State Publinks and the MWPGA's Match Play
Championship. We haven't seen this sort of
dominant play since 2006, when Leigh Klasse
and Amy Schmucker split the four majors
(Lansing also won two of the four in 2008)
and we've never seen a player win all four in
the same year.
Weather was the real game-changer in
2010, playing a decisive role in determining
the ups and downs in rounds played this
season. Golf rounds exploded in March, up a
whopping 72 percent, thanks to a warm and
relatively dry spring that came during what
we usually consider the " off season. " However,
as the season unfolded, these " rounds
in the bank " were sorely needed. For June
through August, temps were up an average of
about 4 percent; rainfall fi gures were also up
by an average of 44 percent. The month of
July was particularly bad, with spikes in both
temps and precipitation. Thus, after rounds
peaked in April, they dropped dramatically in
May (down 14.2 percent) and then slid considerably
during June, July and August (down
an average of 6.3 percent).
Weather could again be a game-changer
this fall, if September and October are mild.
See you on the tee.
W.P. Ryan, Editor-in-Chief
www.mngolf.org
Fall 2010 MINNESOTAGOLFER
3
http://www.mngolf.org
Minnesota Golfer - Fall 2010

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