Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2022 - 29

Mark Brettingen, 1954-2022
Brettingen was mainly focused with shooting the MGA's
major men's, women's and junior amateur championships
and local USGA qualifiers, but he would also make time to
cover many allied golf association tournaments including the
annual high school state championships, the Men's, Women's,
and Senior State Opens and the Public Links championships.
In addition, he was credentialed to cover a slew of major
national and international golf events including the 1991 U.S.
Open, the 1999 Samsung Women's World Championship, the
2002 Solheim Cup, the 2002 and 2009 PGA Championships,
the 2006 U.S. Amateur, the 2008 U.S. Women's Open, the
2016 Ryder Cup, the 2017 U.S. Senior Amateur, and the 2019
KPMG Women's PGA Championship.
Likewise, when the professional tours visited Minnesota,
Brettingen also covered them for the MGA, including nearly
every regular and senior PGA Tour event hosted by Bunker
Hills and the TPC Twin Cities golf clubs, the Nationwide
(now the Korn Ferry) Tour's Scholarship America Showdown
hosted by Troy Burne and Somerby golf clubs, and, less frequently,
the LPGA Tour.
However, one of his fondest memories was traveling
to Pittsburgh to cover the 1994 U.S. Open at
Oakmont Country Club, where the King, Arnold
Palmer, who grew up in nearby Latrobe, was making
his last open appearance. Although Ernie Els
defeated Loren Roberts and Colin Montgomerie in
sudden-death after an 18-hole playoff, Brettingen's
highlight was getting the shot of Palmer walking up
the 18th fairway (see photo at right), the last hole
of the King's final round at the national championship,
doffing his cap and waving to the fans.
Brettingen loved the work and it showed.
Anyone familiar with Brettingen's work will
recognize his signature shot, the greenside bunker
blast. Once he was aware of the player's ball
coming to rest in a sand bunker, he considered it
a professional challenge to get into position and
compose the shot before the player blasted from
the bunker. What usually followed was a fountain
of sand and golf ball exploding out of the bunker,
with the subject's face dramatically lit from below
and the balance of the image framed by an emerald
green and punctuated with a yellow flagstick.
Brettingen produced his signature image in
nearly every photo assignment he shot for the
MGA, so it was among his favorites to capture,
but when he wasn't covering golf, he also covered
professional football.
Thanks to a Vikings contact through his bowling
league, Brettingen was hired by the team in the
mid-1980s and would later work for the National
Football League through the 2006 season.
He loved the football work and was disappointed
when, after an NFL Properties merger, the highly treasured
assignments dried up, says Patrick.
He retired from the United States Postal Service after a
32-year career, where he met his wife Linda in an after-work
bowling league. They married in 2012.
In fact, Brettingen was an accomplished bowler having
compiled 300-point games on eight or nine occasions, scoring
an 800 for a three-game series, an exceptional Honor Score,
and winning a USBC state doubles title in 1978 with partner
Leif Carlson, a fellow Bloomington/Kennedy High School
grad and MGA Senior Men's Player of the Year (2012).
He was a member of the Hiawatha Golf Club, where he was
a competitive single-digit handicap golfer, and he participated
in the MGA Senior Tour for many years. In addition to bowling,
his other passions included baseball, biking and reading
about history. He is survived by his wife, mother Delores,
brothers Thomas (Ann), Patrick (Sue), nephews Kris (Paige),
Benjamin, Nick, and Tim, great-niece Elise, great-nephews
Brice and Miles, honorary stepsons Michael and William, and
honorary grandson Ezra (best buddy).
Arnold Palmer at his last
U.S. Open appearance in 1994.
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Summer 2022 MINNESOTAGOLFER
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