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Official Publication of the 93rd Annual Resorters Golf Tournament by the Echo Press • VOL. 77, NO. 4
RESORTERS Golf Tournament
FRIDAY,
August 8, 2014
Back on the bag Tom Lehman comes home to the tournament he grew up loving By Eric Morken emorken@echopress.com
Alexandria native Tom Lehman was back in a familiar spot at the Alexandria Golf Club on Tuesday afternoon as his 11-yearold son, Sean, took to the 10th tee box in the Junior 10-12 Division at the Resorters golf tournament. He wasn’t just walking the same fairways that he grew up playing. Lehman was back on the bag again, serving as his son’s caddy, which is exactly where he got his start in the Resorters Tournament as a kid about Sean’s age. Back then, there was no Junior Division for him to play in. The only way for him and his friends to take an active role in the tournament was to caddie for other players. Lehman was on the bag for perennial players like Dennis Beard from Oklahoma and former Resorters champion Pete Passolt. That only heightened the anticipation when the time came to actually start playing. “You get to the point where you’re sick and tired of caddying and you want to play yourself,” Lehman said on Tuesday. “We all grew up thinking
this was our U.S. Open. This was the biggest event of the year by far and to win the Resorters was every kid’s dream.” Lehman went on to accomplish that dream as a college player at the University of Minnesota in 1980. He was runner-up in the Men’s Division in 1977 where he lost to Jerry Gruidl of Golden Valley. Everything came together for him a few years later. He took on Bemidji’s Bill Israelson in the championship match that summer and outlasted him 3-2 to win his first and only Resorters championship. “I remember playing really well,” Lehman said. “The whole week I played extremely well, shot a lot of really good rounds, way under par nearly every match. This golf club has always been the kind of club where if you play well you can shoot low. I remember that week playing really well and shooting really low.” Lehman has gone on to win bigger tournaments during his professional career, but as a kid growing up in Alexandria, that win was as good as it got back then. Those memories of the Resorters are one of the reasons he makes it a point to try and get back here almost every year now to share the week with his family.
Defending cham pio Senior Division P n falls in age 4
“We all grew up thinking this was our U.S. Open. This was the biggest event of the year by far and to win the Resorters was every kid’s dream.” Tom Lehman PRO GOLFER
Blaze Fugina | Echo Press
LEHMAN Page 26
Tom Lehman studies the green over the shoulder of his son, Sean, during a Junior 10-12 championship match on Wednesday morning.
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