ALEXANDRIA — Alexandria’s Hannah Boraas has played in and won plenty of big golf tournaments over the course of her young career already, and what she accomplished on Saturday was right up there as one of the most memorable tournaments she has been a part of.
The soon-to-be senior in high school has been a part of two big-school state titles in Minnesota during the spring season at the Class AAA level with the Cardinals. She recently finished fifth at the Minnesota Golf Association Women’s Amateur Championship.
At the week-long Resorters match-play tournament on her home course of AGC, Boraas already had a Junior 13-15 title from 2020. That came against a field of almost all boys in her age group, and now Boraas can add a Women’s Division championship from the Resorters against a field of almost all collegiate golfers.
“This is for sure my favorite tournament of the year,” Boraas said after winning a 1-up match against Emma Carpenter in the finals on Saturday. “It’s just such a good feeling to be out here on the course. In terms of the (women’s) field, this was probably one of my bigger tournaments. It’s almost all collegiate players, and getting to learn from them and seeing how they handle themselves on the course, this is definitely one of my top tournaments, for sure.”
Carpenter was the No. 1 seed in the Women’s Division at the 101st playing of the Resorters this week. She qualified with a 3-under par 70 in her first time playing at the Alexandria Golf Club on Monday. Boraas shot a 75 in qualifying to earn the sixth seed.
ADVERTISEMENT
Boraas jumped into match play and won 2-1 over Avery O’Donnell and MacKenzie Olsen in her first two rounds. She won a 3-2 match over Caroline Monty, a recently-graduated senior from Stillwater, during Saturday morning’s semifinals.
That sent her to the championship against Carpenter, who will be a senior this year for the Gophers golf team at the University of Minnesota. Boraas was up to the challenge, finishing at 1-over par 74, and winning three holes on the back nine — 10 with birdie and 11 and 15 with pars — to secure the 1-up win for the title.
Boraas three-putted the par-three 17th as Carpenter forced an 18th hole with a par win to get to within one. Boraas calmly went to 18 and parred the hole, forcing Carpenter to make birdie. She could not quite do it as Boraas celebrated another big win.
“She hits the ball insanely far, so I knew that was kind of a disadvantage for me,” Boraas said of facing Carpenter. “The key for me was hitting it straight off the tee, which really helped. I made quite a few putts that really mattered today.
“That putt (on 17) really stung because I knew I could have put it away then. Going into that hole-18 tee shot, I knew I needed to just hit it like I normally do with good accuracy. My nerves were definitely there, but one shot at a time.”
Boraas was one of 10 champions recognized at the post-tournament awards ceremony from a Resorters Tournament that featured 448 golfers at AGC and nearly 50 more in flights played at the Geneva Golf Club in Alexandria.
Check back early this coming week at www.echopress.com for full stories and photos from all 10 championship flight winners. Here is a summary of who came out of this year’s tournament with a title in addition to Boraas.
- Zak Jones, a soon-to-be graduate student at the University of Texas Arlington, won the Men’s Championship Division by taking a 2-up match against Nick Jarrett of Rochester.
Jones, who is friends with the Lindberg family from Alexandria, has come up from Texas to play in two Resorters Tournaments now. He lost in the opening round a year ago, but he was on his game this week.
ADVERTISEMENT
Jones had a flair for the dramatic, winning in 21 holes on Friday in the quarterfinals. On Saturday, he won a 1-up match against Alexandria’s Ryan Conn in the semifinals ahead of winning 16, 17 and 18 with two birdies and a par to erase a 1-hole deficit against Jarrett.
“It was phenomenal. I played Ryan in the morning and both (Ryan and Nick) are just phenomenal mid-amatuer golfers," Jones said. "They don’t make mistakes. They don’t make bogeys, so you have to make birdies and hope they miss their birdie putts. Then (Friday), I played Gunnar Broin, and the last four holes were probably the most electric four holes I’ve ever played.”
Jones made birdie on holes 17 and 18 against Broin just to force a playoff before winning with par on the third extra hole.
- Riley Larson, a 17-year-old from Glenwood who will be a senior at Minnewaska Area High School this fall, won the first flight of the Men’s Regular Division.
Larson beat Cory Pelzel in 19 holes on Saturday morning to take the title. He added 2-1, 4-3 and 6-5 wins throughout the week.
- Troy Johnson of Maple Grove won a fifth straight Men’s Executive championship.
Johnson took his finals match with Chad Hacker of Owatonna by a 2-1 final after both players parred the par-three 17th. Johnson also beat Andrew Olson in a 4-3 match in the semifinals on Saturday morning, and added 5-4, 4-3 and 8-7 wins earlier in the week.
- Amanda O’Donnell of Elk River won a 4-3 match against Alexandria native Jodi (Krafka) Sullivan in the Women’s Executive championship.
O’Donnell qualified as the first seed and then rolled through the match-play portion of the tournament. She won 9-7, 4-2 and 7-6 ahead of her championship match with Sullivan.
O’Donnell is now a two-time Resorters champion. She won the Women’s Division in the 2001 tournament.
- Mark Lindberg of Alexandria won a second straight Senior Division championship.
Lindberg beat Alexandria’s Mike Herzog in a 4-3 match on Saturday.
Lindberg built a 4-up lead on the front by shooting a 2-under par 34. That carried him through on the back where a par win at 14 moved him back to 4-up before both players parred No. 15 to end the match.
- Jon Empanger of Chaska added to his Resorters trophy case by winning the Masters Division against Alexandria’s Steve Herzog.
Echo Press records kept of all the winners across each division from prior Resorters Tournaments have this as Empanger’s ninth title across multiple divisions, but Empanger indicated during the awards ceremony on Saturday that this was No. 8.
ADVERTISEMENT
It’s a lot either way, and Empanger got the job done in the Masters Division this week by winning 8-7, and two 5-4 matches leading into his tight battle with Steve Herzog in the championship.
- Mike Golden came in second in the Grand Master Division during the 2021 tournament, but he got his Resorters championship one year later.
Golden matched up with Alexandria’s Dave Harris in a tight match on Saturday and won 2-1.
- Lunden Esterline won the Junior 13-15 Division championship with a 4-3 win in the finals against Alexandria’s Carver Larson.
Esterline, who is from Kansas but spends his summers in Alexandria with his family, had a week that included a hole-in-one during his semifinal win on Friday. That win over Carson Boe of Cottonwood came in a 2-1 final after Esterline won 7-5 and 3-2 matches earlier in the week.
Esterline torched the course at AGC on Saturday, shooting 5-under par through 15 holes to secure his second Resorters championship after also winning the Junior 10-12 Division in 2020.
- Alexandria’s Henry Buttweiler won his first Resorters title by taking the Junior 10-12 Division.
Buttweiler beat fellow Alexandria golfer Garrison Johnson in a 2-1 match during Saturday’s finals. Johnson was the first seed in the championship flight, and Buttweiler was the third.
The Trust Project
