The second major of the year for the PHAT tour- The Phat

The second major of the year was hosted at one of my favorite tracks, The Links at Northfork in Ramsey, MN.  You would think that being a familiar course, I would have an advantage of some sort. Unfortunately my swing off the tee has abandoned my woefully for what seems like the entire year. Sigh.

At least the weather was beautiful.  This was the third straight time playing the course with sunny skies and no wind.  That is amazing for this track.

The Heils played 18 in the morning before the event.  Yet they are masochistic so they hit the range before the event.

Bill and Nick look sharp while making their games sharp as they warm up next to the Heil brothers.


The finish came down to the wire.  We actually had a tie for first with Jeff Jiovanazzo and Jim Crowley.  That resulted in the first playoff on the tour's illustrious history.

Todd, Matt, and Bill watch as Jeff mutters to himself about missing his putt on 18.  Jeff Heil and Nick putt out.  Jeffs putt on 18 proved costly, dropping him into a playoff with Jim.

The rest of the crew watches the final group play up 18.

Vigen hits his approach chip into 18.

Scott putts with his putters handle while Jim lines up his winning putt (which he missed).

The playoff went over to the 1st hole.  Jim recovered from a bad tee shot to get on in regulation and 2 putt for a par.  Jeff had a putt from the fringe shown here to tie but missed the putt.

And so to the victor goes the spoils of the sweet hickory shaft.  Todd mounted the trophy on a recovered barn wood plank.

To recap, here are the results.  Scores shown as gross/net.  For me a T5 was my highest of the year. Still the round was marred by an 8 on the 5th hole.  Just horrendous.

1 77/70 Jim Crowley
2 78/70 Jeff Jiovanazzo
3 75/71 Ryan Winterquist
4 77/72 Bill Starken
T5 87/76 Kris Halsrud
T5 87/76 Todd Heil
T7 87/77 Scott Loe
T7 88/77 Nick Smith
T7 91/77 Matt Oelschlager
T10 86/78 Jeff Heil
T10 99/78 Mike Vigen
12 91/84 Brad Opsahl
DNP Eddie Rymer
DNP Chad Mechke
DNP Jason Simek
DNP Dan Magnuson