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ALEXANDRIA — Brian Choe of Coppell, Texas has been a regular in the Men’s Championship Division at the Resorters Tournament in recent years.
Choe won the 2018 title by a 1-up score over Nate Adams of Maple Grove during his college playing days. Now after dropping his amateur status after playing this past school year as a senior at Abilene Christian University, Choe can add a win in the annual Resorters Pro-Am to his resume in Alexandria.
Choe was the low gross in the Pro Division among 18 golfers on Saturday at the Alexandria Golf Club. He shot a 5-under 67. He almost went even lower, but his only bogeys of the day came on two of his final three holes on Nos. 1 and 3 at AGC.
Choe had a birdie in between there on No. 2, and added birdies on Nos. 5, 7, 10, 12, 13 and 15. He was 4-under on the back nine.
That helped him hold off a field of three other pros who shot 4-under. Brady Swedberg, the tournament director at Geneva Golf Club in Alexandria, joined Thomas Campbell and Eric Chiles, both pros from the Twin Cities area, in shooting rounds of 68 during hot and windy conditions to start this year’s Resorters week.
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“It was a little bit tough out there with the wind,” Swedberg said. “The course was in perfect shape. The greens were great, so you felt like if you gave yourself some looks, you’re bound to make some.”
Swedberg said his driver was just a bit off, which was making it harder to get the consistent looks at birdie that he was hoping for.
“As many times as I have played out here, you feel like you should go around the course and make more than four birdies, so a little frustrated,” Swedberg said. “I had a few at the end that felt like they could have gone in and they didn’t. That’s just the way it is. So a little disappointed, but at the end of the day, to shoot four under with no bogeys is OK.”
Swedberg, who coached the Alexandria Area High School boys golf team to a third-place finish at the Class AAA state tournament this past spring, was three-under on the back with birdies at Nos. 12, 13 and 15. He added another birdie on the par-five sixth hole.
“I could say it’s just another pro-am, but it’s always a little extra fuel,” Swedberg said of playing this event in his hometown. “I don’t even know how many rounds of golf I’ve played out here. A thousand, probably. I don’t even know, but it’s a lot. Growing up here and playing over 100 rounds a summer, so it’s pretty special out here with the Resorters and all the memories out here. It is extra motivation to try to come out and win this golf tournament.”
Swedberg won the Resorters Pro-Am in 2015 . His second-place finish on Saturday was a continuation of some good golf that he has been playing after also winning a pro-am in Willmar earlier this summer.
Alexandria’s Grant Hanson, who shot a 1-under 71 to tie for fifth on Saturday, has also been playing near the top of many of these one-day pro-ams around the state. Hanson is the director of golf at Geneva Golf Club.
“It’s been a little up and down, but overall it’s been pretty good,” Swedberg said. “I played the Minnesota Open. I played OK there, made the cut, and then I’ve played seven or eight of these one-day pro-ams. I’m playing a little better than I played last year, and Grant has been playing great. We’ve been having some fun this summer. We go to most of these tournaments together, so it’s fun to get some wins.”
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Mike Sahli was the low-gross finisher in the amateur division at Saturday’s pro-am. He shot 1-under, while Andrew Olson and Jerry Rose each shot a 1-over 73.
2022 RESORTERS PRO-AM -- PRO DIVISION SCORES - Brian Choe - 67; Eric Chiles - 68; Thomas Campbell - 68; Brady Swedberg - 68; Chris Borgen - 71; Grant Hanson - 71; Jeff Sorenson - 71; Casey Vangsness - 73; Aaron Jacobson - 73; Lisa Grimes - 73; Austin Meissner - 74; Chris Larson - 74; Bob Miller - 76; Dave Kluver - 77; Jon Crouse - 79; Chris Howell - 80; Aaron McClay - 80; Kyle Lee - 97
