9 in the running for Grand Masters crown

By Al Edenloff Alexandria Echo Press

Nine players are vying for the Resorters Men’s Grand Masters title this year.

Defending champion Michael Golden automatically qualified for the tournament while the other eight players are competing for positioning within the bracket. Match play will resume Thursday. Golden has played in the Resorters for about 30 years. He’s also won several club championship titles at Atikwa Golf Course at Arrowwood Resort in Alexandria. After the first day of qualifying on Monday, Skip Madsen is lead- ing with an 8-over-par round of 80. Madsen is making his sixth appearance in the Resorters. Some of his more notable accomplishments stretch back to 1965 when he qualified and played in the USGA Junior Amateur in Wilmington, Delaware. He has won club championships at six different golf clubs – Moorhead, Detroit Lakes, Oxbow, Fargo, Pinnacle Peak in Scottsdale, Arizona, and the Farms Golf Club Super Senior Champion in Rancho Santa Fe, California.

Madsen also won several shortstops, including Fergus Falls, Barnesville, Perham, and others. He advanced into the semifinals of the Pine-to-Palm in the same year that he defeated the reigning U.S. Mid Amateur champion.

Madsen has some stiff competition to fend off. Dave Harris and Jerry Peterson are just four strokes back with 84s. Harris has competed in

51 Resorters tournaments and won three titles – the Senior Division in 1998 and 2006, and the Masters Division in 2014. He was also a runner-up in the Grand Masters twice.

Harris has won the AGC title 11 times. He coached Alexandria high school for 34 years and served as the Minnesota State High School League golf coach president for three years, and was inducted into the

MSHSL Hall of Fame in 2007.

Peterson estimated that he’s played in about 35 Resorters. He was a runner-up in the Men’s Division championship in 1985. He’s won numerous club championships and shortstops and played for the University of Minnesota varsity golf team. At age 48, he played in the Men’s Regular finals.

In fifth place (so far) is Gary Ekdahl, who carded an 87 qualifying round, followed by William Douglas with 89, Jack Seltz with 89, Clayton Pike with 90, and Gary Obele with 92. The second round of this division’s qualifying begins on Wednesday at 12:15 p.m. on hole