Printable Version

Story originally printed in the Winona Daily News or online at www.winonadailynews.com

Published - Monday, June 30, 2008

Numbers up for Winona junior golf tourney

By Rick Solem | Winona Daily News

Last year, the Winona Area Junior Golf Championship was down in numbers.

This year, that’s not the case.

Today marks the 11th year of the championships. The tournament begins at 8 a.m. at Cedar Valley Golf Course.

Despite 30 of last year’s golfers not being in this tournament, the numbers are up.

“I’m sitting at 110 golfers,” tournament director and Cedar Valley pro Pete Kuklinski said. “That’s 30 more than last year, so I have 60 new players this year.“

Kuklinski wasn’t happy with the low turnout last year. He does his share to get kids participating in golf, and this year, he took extra steps to get participants.

“I really pushed it,” Kuklinski said. “I went to a couple sectional tournaments, talked to some coaches and got them passing out the entries. I just want these kids to play golf.

“My goal is to make it the largest junior golf tournament in Minnesota, and I’m getting there. The PGA events get about 70-80 players. My goal is to have 150. I’m happy with the crowd I have this year.”

In past years, Kuklinski has known most of the golfers and could gauge as to who was going to come in near the top of the leaderboard. This year, not so.

“I’ve got kids from Byron, Stewartville, Rochester,” Kuklinski said. “We’ve got them coming from all over. I even have one from Durango, Colorado, who was visiting a friend.”

Last year, the 15 to 18-year-old girls age bracket had just four participants. This year, there are 18, including some known talents.

“Casey Christensen and Cassandra Johanns are trying out for the Winona State women’s golf team next year,” Kuklinski said. “And Emily Swift is the defending champ, and is going to golf for UW-Eau Claire.”

“It’s going to be competitive all the way through,” Kuklinski said.

The oldest girls bracket tees off at 9:45 a.m. and will play 18 holes.

The oldest boys bracket (16-18) tees off at 8 a.m. That bracket will play 18 holes, and the top 12 from there will play another nine holes to determine the winner.