Month: October 2024

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.