Welcome to the start of the 2025 golf season. To help plan for next year we are excited to post the following important dates to take note of.

Registration Dates

• Registration for returning members will open on Monday, February 3rd at 8:00 AM
• Registration for new members will open on Monday, February 24th at 8:00 AM

Wednesday Night League Dates

• WNL Draft will be on Wednesday, March 19th at 6:30 PM
• League Social will be on Wednesday, April 16th with Par 3 rounds starting as soon as 2:00 PM. The presentation will be at 6:00 PM for all members. 6:30 PM will be our new player orientation.
• First Week of League will be April 23rd with the regular season ending on August 27th. There is no league golf on July 2nd.
• September 3rd will be our rain-out make up week.
• Playoffs will run from September 10th to October 1st.

Weekend Dates

Please Note: Formats might change but these are the dates of tournaments.

• May 3 (Saturday) – Greek Scramble
• May 10 (Saturday) – Individual Match Play
• May 17 (Saturday) – 2-person Match Play
• June 7 (Saturday) – Lone Ranger
• June 21 (Saturday) – Rotation
• July 12 (Saturday) – Fourball
• July 26 (Saturday) – 2 Person Scramble
• August 9 & 10 (Saturday & Sunday) – Club Championship
• August 23 & 24 (Saturday) – Stableford
  • NOTE: August 24th is reserved as the backup for the Club Championship in the event of a rainout
• September 21 (Sunday) – Calcutta
• October 5 (Sunday) – Shootout

End of Season Banquet

• October 24 (Friday)

We hope that providing these dates early gives you enough time to plan and participant in as many tournaments as possible next season!

The BMGA Board

It was a great evening with nearly 150 attendees. While Howard Hoffman once again won the cub championship, many more awards and recognitions were announced.

See more photos at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/2dec7Lv2V7CA695T9

For those who have registered for the banquet, this is a reminder of the schedule and details.

WHERE? At Brookview Golf Course.

WHEN? The bar will open at 5:30 PM. We anticipate food starting at 6:30 PM. For those who signed up for Background Child Care, that will be available starting at 5:55 PM.

We expect the presentation to start at 7:15 PM and be wrapped up by 8PM.

With the banquet on Friday, this year of WNL is a wrap. Congrats to everyone on another fantastic year of the best league in the metro.

Kudos to the champs Par Then Bar and WNL MVP Steve Couture!

They’re not the only ones going home with some Brookview credits this year though. Below is the list of payouts which should be credited in the coming days.

See you all in 2025!

Conference Team Winners ($40 per player)

Golden Valley Conference: Team Hack Attack

Roster: Brent Nordstrom, Dave Supalla, Kevin Monogue, Lee Hulkonen, Matthew Doherty, Ryan Brunt, Ryan Pula, Brett Notvedt, Brennen Wolter, Steve Bensen, Sam Casey, Chris Reuter

Bassett Creek Conference: I Like Big Putts

Roster: Howard Hoffman, Joe Luchsinger, Joe Minnich, Mike Pokorney, Paul Yakshe, Steve Binenstock, Tom Nestvold, Brian Barlow, Will Rosengren, Sheldon Silberman, Dan Kjorsvik, Patrick Hoffman

Division Team Winners ($20 per player)

Golden Valley East: Who’s Your Caddy

Roster: Steve Shellenbaum, Brent Lindstrom, Chuck Bernardy, Doug Paquette, Mike Manion, Stan Hop, Steve Slivken, Brad Soderling, Peter Steichen, Matt McClernan, Steve Couture, Ben Drews

Bassett Creek South: Bald Man Brewing

Roster: Bill Wallace, Doug Lang, Doug Zuck, Jim Stetler, Justin Wallace, Luke Fox, Tom Scheunemann, Jeff Gillis, Daniel Jacobs, Theo Scheunemann, John Von Eschen, William Guthrie

Semifinal Champions ($30 per player)

Par Then Bar

Roster: Phil Berndt, Adam Thom, Andy Marten, Gregory Donahue, Kyle Johnsrud, Kyle Spicer, Matthew Payne, Christian Tietz, Brett Mory, Philip Barlow, Tyler Lux, Randy Zejdlik

Bald Man Brewing

Roster: Bill Wallace, Doug Lang, Doug Zuck, Jim Stetler, Justin Wallace, Luke Fox, Tom Scheunemann, Jeff Gillis, Daniel Jacobs, Theo Scheunemann, John Von Eschen, William Guthrie

Team Champion ($35 per player)

Par Then Bar

Roster: Phil Berndt, Adam Thom, Andy Marten, Gregory Donahue, Kyle Johnsrud, Kyle Spicer, Matthew Payne, Christian Tietz, Brett Mory, Philip Barlow, Tyler Lux, Randy Zejdlik

WNL MVP ($250): Steve Couture

Each year the BMGA Board elects three individuals to serve a three-year term to the BMGA Board. Of those elected, in their second year, one of those three individuals must be elected to serve as Vice President and then President in their third year.

This year we are excited to have six candidates for this election. An email will go out by the end of the week with voting details to all current BMGA members. Those elected to the board will be announced at the banquet.

Here is the list of names in alphabetical order, along with their submitted photo and biography.

Brian Beitlich My name is Brian Beitlich (pronounced Bite-Lick). I’ve been in the league for 10 years, and have talked about running for a board position for a few years now. I don’t have a bunch of big ideas or an agenda- I just feel the need to contribute to the league that has contributed so much to me. I always say that the league doesn’t run itself, so I’d like to make good on that and help out. Cheers!
Phil Berndt Looking forward to hopefully helping out the league on the board to support the majority and have a fun and financially sound men’s golf league! I have been in the league since 2014 (possibly 2015) can’t quite remember. Captain for 4 years on Par then Bar (recent champion)!  Would like to be a voice for all and hopefully can continue to improve a great league.
Jimmy Buckingham I’m Jimmy, esteemed member of Brookie Strong, 1-time champion of Wednesday night league, and looking to become a board member of the BMGA. I have been in the league for 3 years and this is the most well run league I’ve been a part of in any sport, and I’m looking to contribute to the BMGA. I’ve been co-running a 100+ player golf tournament for the better part of 12 years, and have gotten to know a lot of the BMGA members over the last few years.
Chris Gaspard Chris Gaspard-Finishing 4th year in the league. Hoping to improve my knowledge of the game. I enjoy the comrade of the league and hope to do my part to improve it.
Luke Rajkowski I am Luke Rajkowski and I just completed my second year in the league. Golf has been a passion of mine since my grandpa put a club in my hand at six years old. I grew up near Brookview and spent so much time there. I have enjoyed being part of the league and would be honored to be part of the board.  Brookview is near and dear to me and I want to be part of keeping this league strong.
Sheldon Silberman My existing three-year term is expiring and I have committed to run for another three-year term.  Over the past three years, my focus has been to step in where my talents and interest can improve our overall league experience. One example is an attempt to improve our pace of play, particularly on Wednesday nights.  I instigated the volunteer spotter program in 2022, and, while it was appreciated by many, it did little to solve the problem.  In 2023 as WNL Director, I added the end time to our scorecards and kept track in each weekly post on our web site.  Drawing attention to this seemed to have some impact.  It is clearly one of the things members seem to want to fix – or at least complain about. I also improved our posting time from “the end of the week” to next day posting of results by streamlining and automating certain aspects of the work. I will continue to look for effective methods to improve on this issue.  We made great strides this past year moving to Golf Genius as our scoring tool.   I helped test and write up a transition guide for the WNL scoring that was implemented.  I provided back-up to this year’s WNL Director. I am also very proud of your boards efforts to discuss and adjust our plans to hold the line on costs as best we can considering what the membership wants.  I would like to continue to work this problem establishing more sponsorship opportunities to help contain our costs while providing a valuable social, competitive league and tournament season.   As a retired “senior” golfer, I believe I represent a significant segment of our nearly 200 members.  I have lived in Golden Valley for more than 40 years and have been a BMGA member for over 20 years.

We have our champion for the 2024 season. Congrats to Phil Berndt on his 2024 Shootout championship. You can find the full results of the nine-hole play here:

https://www.golfgenius.com/pages/10315288350243735507

Here is how the back nine played out:

• 10th Hole – Brian Beitlich and Chris Gaspard in a chip off.  Beitlich is eliminated. 
• 11th Hole – Chris Gaspard and Dave Hillesheim in chip off.  Gaspard eliminated.  
• 12th Hole – Perry Jacobson is eliminated with a 5. 
• 13th Hole – Dave Hillesheim, Brad Jordan, Larry Joycelyn and Phil Berndt in a chip off.  Hillesheim eliminated.
• 14th Hole – Dan Kjorsik eliminated with a 8, net 7.
• 15th Hole – Richard Brynteson and Howie Hoffman in chip off.  Brynteson eliminated.
• 16th Hole – Larry Joycelyn is eliminated with an 8 net 7. 
• 17th Hole – Brad Jordan, Howie Hoffman and Phil Berndt in chip off.  Jordan eliminated.
• 18th Hole – Howie Hoffman eliminated with a 5 to Phil Berndt’s par net 3.  

The payouts go to the top 4 players. Congrats to Phil ($100), Howard ($75), Brad ($50) and Larry ($25) for their prizes.

The Two-Man Match Play Championship took place on Thursday, September 26th. The event featured Darin Allen and Ted Roberts (both with 16 handicaps) against Larry Jocelyn and Eric Beitlich (16 from the Gold Tees and a 23 handicap).

The match was close overall, with both teams having the lead.  Allen and Roberts secured their victory on the eighteenth hole.The match began with a tie on the first hole, as both Roberts and Jocelyn scored par.  Allen took the lead on the second hole with a birdie. Jocelyn responded by winning the third hole with a birdie and the fourth with a par.

Roberts brought the match to a tie by winning the fifth hole with a par. The sixth and seventh holes were halved, keeping the match all square going into the eighth hole. Jocelyn’s bogey on the eighth hole gave his team a one-shot advantage, as Allen and Roberts couldn’t match his effort. The ninth hole ended in a tie, leaving Allen and Roberts one point down at the turn.

Jocelyn extended his team’s lead to two points with a birdie on the tenth hole. The eleventh hole saw a tie between Allen, Roberts, and Jocelyn, maintaining the two-point difference in favor of Jocelyn and Beitlich.

Roberts’ bogey on the fourteenth hole put his team down by a point. On the fifteenth hole, Roberts’ hit a beautiful chip shot over the bunker that allowed him to make par, tying the score.

The sixteenth hole ended in a tie as both Roberts and Beitlich holed out for six, setting up a dramatic finish. The seventeenth hole saw Allen, Roberts, and Jocelyn all shoot par, keeping the match tied.

On the eighteenth hole, Allen hit a solid drive to the right rough, about 200 yards from the flag. Roberts’ drive landed in the pond on the left, while Beitlich’s drive went out of bounds past the pond. Roberts’ second shot also found the pond, and Beitlich’s second drive went out of bounds. Jocelyn’s drive from the Gold Tees ended up in the water to the right.

This left Allen in a strong position to manage the course, and he secured the championship for Allen and Roberts by winning the eighteenth hole. The match was very close and both teams played well!

From the last wild card spot in the Golden Valley conference, the #6 seed in the playoffs, Par Then Bar (team #14) defeated perennial favorite, Bald Man Brewing (the 2nd seed in the playoffs) 42-39 in the finals on a beautiful Wednesday night. While captain Phil Berndt was out of town, his team pulled off the victory after a shaky start loosing the first match in at 13-1/2 to 6-1/2. The second match in nearly caught up with a 12-1/2 to 7-1/2 win for Team #14. The third match came in with a solid 12-8 win putting the eventual champions up 31-29. The earlier tie-breaker match was won at 7-3 so Bald Man Brewing needed at least a 2-1/2 point margin in the last match. But that didn’t happen with an exciting (and slightly controversial) 10-10 finish.

Congratulations to the whole team of captain Phil Berndt, Phil Barlow, Greg Donohue, Kyle Johnsrud, Tyler Lux, Andy Marten, Brett Mory, Matt Payne, Kyle Spicer, Adam Thom, Chris Tietz, and Randy Zejdlik.

It was a great end to a great season! Thanks to all the players, captains, the BMGA Board and all the staff at Brookview.

Don’t forget to come watch the shoot out at noon on Sunday October 6 and sign up for the Banquet on October 25 and relive some of the great moments and congratulate all the 2024 winners.

Apologies for the delay in getting this posted. I know everyone was on pins and needles anticipating who had made the championship!

Moving onto the final is Par Then Bar and Bald Man Brewing.
Tee times for the championship round are this Wednesday at 4 and 4:10. With gorgeous weather in the forecast all are welcome to come celebrate the champions and last official night of Wednesday Night League. Whether you decide to tell your significant other that the league year is coming to a close is up to you.