Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2012 - 42

(backspin
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Tournament Tested Tough
Golfing in the lazy haze of summer is easy-
until you play between the tournament ropes.
By Jon Roe
S
ummertime, when the livin' is
easy. Ah, but Minnesota golfers
know otherwise. Summertime is
when the tournament schedule gets going,
with trophies and prizes to be won. Even
the $2 Nassau takes on more meaning. The
holes shrink, knees start to knock.
Playing in a tournament certainly
heightens the tension. It also leaves impressions
on the memory bank that will
never be forgotten. Many of those moments
seem disastrous at the time, but
eventually become laughable lore.
" I was playing in the local qualifying for
the U.S. Publinks many years ago, " recalls
80-year-old Giles Kobilka, who won three
State left-hander titles in his prime. " I was
paired with Carson Herron and another
player, who also was very good. They teed
off first and both hit drives about 270 yards
right down the middle of the fairway.
" Frank Fraley was the starter, and there
were about 40 to 50 people in the gallery
when he announced my name. I was already
thinking I couldn't match those other
two drives with even my best shot, but
I took as hard a swing as I could anyway.
The bottom of my driver barely-I mean
barely-ticked the ball, and when I looked
down the ball was dribbling off the tee. "
There was no place for Kobilka to hide,
and Fraley didn't help. " Ladies and gentlemen, "
he intoned, " we have just witnessed
the shortest drive in the history of qualifying
for the U.S. Publinks. "
John Weingart is of the same vintage as
Kobilka. He remembers the 1962 Resorters-it
was the first time he qualified for
the championship flight at the week-long
match-play tournament in Alexandria. Lo
and behold, his opponent was none other
than Martin (Stan) Stanovich, the mysterious
summer tournament visitor who traveled
with the equally mysterious Kenny
Pinns, the only player to have won all three
week-long Minnesota tournaments (Resorters,
Birchmont and Pine to Palm) in
the same year.
Stanovich was said to have beaten Sam
Snead out of $10,000 in a mano-a-mano
match. The rotund Stanovich and Pinns
(who added mystic to his reputation by
claiming to be from Las Vegas) attempted
to add to their bankroll by buying themselves
into the Calcuttas prior to each of
the three tournaments.
Weingart was a mere Twin Cities banker
who carried a single-digit handicap, and
he was pitted against the likes of Darth
Vader. The gallery following the match was
" I took as hard a swing
as I could. The bottom
of my driver barely-
I mean barely-
ticked the ball. "
-Giles Kobilka
stunned when Weingart chipped in for a
birdie on the second hole to take a one-up
lead. Weingart was only two down when
play was completed on the 14th hole.
But the turtle-like pace of play was aggravating
Stanovich, so he made a suggestion
as they walked off the green.
" He said, 'The 16th tee is wide open, so
let's skip the 15th hole,' " Weingart says. " He
said he would give me the 15th hole, and I
figured being one down with three holes
to play wasn't too bad. Then he went and
birdied the 16th and the 17th and closed
me out. "
Aaron Barber had won a State Amateur,
a State Publinks, and played with the Gophers
in Big Ten and NCAA championships
by the time he arrived at the Colonial
Country Club in Fort Worth for the 2003
Colonial Invitational on the PGA Tour.
" About 7:30 a.m. Tuesday I found out I
was going to be paired with Annika Sorenstam
when she decided to play in a PGA
Tour event, " recalls the native of New London,
Minn. " I don't know how they did
it, but within an hour it seemed like the
whole world knew my cell phone number.
By Wednesday morning I was on all the
morning shows on network television. "
Barber, now 39 and a financial advisor,
said more than 600 media members were
allowed inside the ropes for the starting tee
shots on Thursday morning. The fairway
resembled a narrow alley.
" I was hanging onto the club for all I was
worth, " Barber says. " Somehow I managed
to carve a 5-wood, with about 20 yards
of slice on the ball, into the fairway. After
the round, Annika said she was sorry she
had put us (also Dean Wilson) through all
this. I told her not to apologize. I had gotten
more calls for endorsements than all
the rest of the time I played on the PGA
Tour. "
40
MINNESOTAGOLFER Summer 2012
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Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2012

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