Official Publication of the 100th Annual Resorters Golf Tournament • Echo Press
Th
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R E S O RT
Centennial
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Saturday, July 31, 2021
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VOL. 84, NO. 1
100 YEARS OF HISTORY Record numbers, talented field celebrate centennial Resorters Tournament
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By Eric Morken emorken@echopress.com
t’s been 14 years now, but Alexandria native Bryce Hanstad can still remember the emotions he felt as the week got further and further along. Hanstad had to wait a year for a chance at redemption at the Resorters Golf Tournament. He fell in a 6-5 final to Ryan Smith of Victoria in the 2006 Men’s Division championship at the Alexandria Golf Club. In 2007, he returned as a 20-year old playing Division I golf at Colorado State and as one of the heavy favorites back on his home course. “I definitely had some better perspective going back in 2007 versus 06,” Hanstad recalled. “I had a year of college under my belt and some maturity at that point having played a year. I had gotten more used to the 36-hole days, so taking Saturday of the Resorters a little more in stride and pacing myself. Our college events were 36 holes the first day and then 18 the next day. I think that experience and then playing against some of the top players in the country at Colorado State in our events, a lot of that really helped me be a little more comfortable.” Hanstad certainly felt the pressure as an Alexandria native. He grew up playing at the Alexandria Golf Club and worked in the clubhouse from the time he was 16-years old through college. He would later go on to play professionally on the Gateway and Dakotas Tour. Winning a Resorters championship against the quality competition that frequents this tournament in now its 100th year is meaningful for any golfer no matter where they come from. But it’s especially true for players who grow up around this event. “You get to the point where you’re sick and tired of caddying and you want to play yourself,” Alexandria native and British Open champion Tom Lehman said when recalling
Eric Morken / Echo Press
Winners of the 2020 Resorters Tournament were (back, left to right) Rick Vanyo, Senior; Betsy Aldrich, Women’s Executive; Tom Eidsvold, Grand Master; Nicholas Adams, Men’s Regular; Austin Vukovits, Men’s Championship; Dan Elton, Master; (front) Lunden Esterline, Junior 10-12; Troy Johnson, Men’s Executive; Hannah Boraas, Junior 13-15; and Ale Heinen, Women’s Division. All 10 are back in the 100th running of the Resorters Tournament this summer as they join a talented field across multiple divisions that includes a record-number of participants.
INSIDE: Vukovits looks to defend crown in loaded men’s field. PAGE 4 his 1980 Resorters Men’s Division championship in an interview with the Echo Press in 2014. “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.” Hanstad can certainly relate. Tournament wins in his career included the 2007 Minnesota
Golf Association State Amateur Championship at Hazeltine. That came just a couple weeks prior to his run through the 2007 Resorters that was capped off with a 5-4 championship win over Danny Anderson of Willmar. A week of nervous energy gave way to relief and excitement as he hoisted the trophy near the AGC putting green.
“It’s a fast follow from my state amateur victory,” Hanstad said of where the Resorters victory ranks in his golf wins. “To have those both happen within a couple week span, that was just kind of a wild, fun ride to be on. With Resorters being over five, six days, to continue sleeping on who you know you’re playing the next day, there’s just an inherent buzz of being a local, so it carries a lot of significance for me.”
HISTORY: Page 19
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