Official Publication of the 98th Annual Resorters Golf Tournament • Echo Press
Saturday, August 3, 2019
FREE •
VOL. 82, NO. 5
Adding to the Lehman legacy Thomas makes first run into the Men’s Champ semifinals By Eric Morken emorken@echopress.com
T
homas Lehman admits that there has been some inherent pressure that comes with playing in the Resorters Golf Tournament every year. After all, this is the course his dad – fivetime PGA Tour winner and 1996 British Open champion Tom Lehman – grew up on. Saying the Lehman family has history at the Alexandria Golf Club is an understatement. “Sometimes,” Thomas said of feeling that pressure to win here. “Just because this is my dad’s home course, home town. Everyone knows him and they know I’m his son, so there’s expectations. There’s definitely some pressure.” At this point, Thomas is starting to brush that pressure aside. In his early 20s now, he has played the
Resorters for years and has been a part of the Men’s Championship Division the last handful of those. This year, with his dad on the bag with him, he is playing the best golf he has ever played at this tournament. “His game has really progressed,” Tom said. “He really didn’t play golf until after he graduated from high school, so the last five years have been a real progression for him. He’s now getting to the point where he’s doing a lot of things really well. Not perfect, but his good golf now is extremely good.” That was on full display on Friday. Thomas secured his first-ever spot in the Men’s Championship Division semifinals with a 6-5 win over Dylan Naylor of Fargo. Joining him on Saturday morning from the 1st tee at 6:50 will be Cecile Belisle,
Eric Morken / Echo Press
Alexandria native and longtime PGA Tour pro Tom Lehman (left) and his son Thomas wait to tee off on the No. 3 box at AGC on Friday. With Tom caddying for him all week, Thomas has made a run into the Men’s Championship semifinals at the 98th Resorters. Andrew Lindberg and Miles McCarthy. It’s a field that anybody could win, but Lehman is playing as well as anyone as he tries to capture his family’s third championship at the Resorters. Thomas took off on No. 6 during his quarterfinal round against Naylor. He hit a 7-iron 220 yards to within five feet of the cup. That putt dropped for eagle, and the rest was history. He took over from there, birdying holes
Everybody who is still left is a really good player, so no guarantees. Anybody can be beaten, but I know for a fact there’s nobody we’re afraid to play. If he can go out and play his game and is fortunate enough where things go his way and the putts drop and he can sneak out a victory, I think that would be a pretty sweet celebration. Tom Lehman on his son, Thomas, playing for a chance at a Resorters title on Saturday eight through 11 before another eagle on the par-five 12th. “He really got things going. I was really proud of him,” Tom said. “He didn’t start out playing that great. He was
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1-over par after five and I think he was six or seven under par after 13. Just went on a tear and it was fun to watch.” It’s been part of a fun week for the whole Lehman family
as another chapter is written in their history at this tournament. Tom won his Resorters title in 1980. In 2009, his brother Jim Lehman
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