‘THIS ONE’S FOR YOU AND STEVE, POPS’

On the early afternoon of Labor Day, 2020, a crowd assembled outside the pro shop at Green Lea Golf Course. It had been a cool and damp morning, but Labor Day Monday afternoon brought warmer temperatures and some sun.

Amongst those gathered on the Green Lea patio was Albert Lea insurance salesman Andy Petersen. Standing next to him was his caddy, son Jack. It was the conclusion of the 94th Albert Lea Shortstop, one of Minnesota’s longest standing golf traditions. Always Labor Day. Always match play.

Players first become eligible to play in the shortstop when they turn 21, so for Petersen, who’d played every year he was eligible, this was his 22nd time teeing it up on Labor Day weekend Saturday morning for the 18-hole qualifier, followed by back-to-back 18-hole matches on Sunday. If you’re lucky enough, it’s followed by back-to-back 18-hole matches on Monday, too. About 90 holes in all and 20 or more hours on the course over three days.

Andy had been “lucky enough” in previous years, having been to the tournament finals many times. But the luck spigot had run out each time with him losing in the final match.

Between his father, Larry, who’d been playing since 1975, and Andy’s older brother Steve, the Petersens had nearly 90 Albert Lea Shortstop tournament entries among them by Labor Day 2020. Plenty of President’s Flight championships, including in the 51st annual when Larry defeated Buck Heegard, 1969 Championship Flight champion, in the President’s Flight final. More than a dozen Championship flight semifinals for the family, and a few Championship Flight runners-up (Andy has finished second four times).

Yet through 2019, that was it. The large banner listing the tournament champions had no Petersens on it. Albert Lea’s first family of golf had a giant hole in the resume.

In 2020, Andy changed the narrative.

“I remember when Jeff (Green Lea owner) gave him the trophy,” Larry Petersen recalled recently, “I remember Andy’s speech, and part of it was ‘This one’s for you and Steve, Pops. We finally got a Petersen name on the board, and they can’t take that away from us.”

Family. That’s always been at the heart of the Albert Lea Shortstop. The Petersens. The Rasmussens. The Kriegers. The Heegards. The Lerums. The Heilmans and the Hallmans. The Mickelsons and the Stadheims. Many, many more.

“This tournament’s been a family affair for a long time,” Larry said. “It was a vacation weekend, and Buck (Heegard) and Al (Lerum) brought their whole family. It was a big deal.”

And now, on the cusp of the 100th iteration, it’s still a big deal and still a family event. This year’s event, 128 golfers, filled up in less than two hours.

A player from Kansas City, Josh Hahn, competing in last year’s tournament – his first ‘Stop weekend – couldn’t get over the amount of non-golfers milling about the tournament grounds and caddying and making up sizable galleries for random third flight matches. It was an experience he said he’ll never forget.

WINNINGEST CHAMPION OF THEM ALL

Chris Baas, the winningest Shortstop champion in its 99-year run, can attest to the Shortstop’s family aspect now. His two sons, Grant and Alex, have taken to the game. The older of those sons, Grant, 13, who has already experienced his own successes in the junior golf scene, will be looping for his father this year and likely for many years to come as his own Shortstop eligibility doesn’t begin until 2034.

Baas graduated high school in 1995 and played in his first ‘Stop in 1998. Not surprisingly, he qualified for championship flight.

“I had a ton of confidence, and I believe I played Tim Holland in my first shortstop match, and he beat me and I was really mad,” Baas recalled. “It was a great learning experience. Tim was a great player. I had some growing up to do.”

He grew up fast. He won in 1999, and two years later he won his second championship. He wouldn’t lose another Shortstop match until the 2004 semifinals. Three consecutive championships and a 14-match winning streak. It was the longest in tournament history until Brent Miller captured four straight titles from 2014-2017.

After winning in three of his first five attempts, Baas has now captured seven Shortstop titles in total, one more than Miller. This year will be Baas’s 30th year teeing it up on Labor Day weekend, and he’s been in the finals 10 of those 30 years, including last year. Everyone knows he’s still one of the favorites, even though 90 potential holes over three days is a lot of golf for a 50-year-old.

“It’s an endurance,” he said. “Back when I was younger and in way better shape it wasn’t really a problem. But the body breaks down.”

But the tournament has become about passing the torch, too, for Baas. His son Grant has already shot scores that would make him a Championship flight contender, but alas, he’s 8 years too young.

“Obviously I want to ingrain it in their minds how fun it is,” Baas said of his sons Grant and Alex, both of whom play. 

He remembers being Grant’s age and riding his bike to the course, or hitting balls at Southwest Middle School football field.

“When I was young I knew of the quality of the play before me, and I guess I wanted to be a part of it,” Baas said, who pointed out how much he was pushed by growing up and playing golf with Phil Schmidt (three-time Shortstop champion, 2006, 2010, 2011) and Andy Petersen (2020). I truly loved golf. I put in the hours and hours and hours of practice. I wanted to help carry it on.”

FAMILY AND 50

When Gary Dunn stands on the first tee for the Saturday qualifying, decked head to toe in his Minnesota Gopher garb (huge Ski U Mah fan), he will be doing it for the 49th consecutive Labor Day Saturday. That is the longest known current streak. No one is sure if it’s the longest streak of all time. Rumor has it Vance Mikkelson made it to 50 before he quit attending. And the Kriegers – brothers Earl and Jon – both have 50 plus starts, but both say they’ve each missed one along the way.

Dunn says he intends to play 50 straight, and then call it quits after next year, not that anyone believes him.

“My uncle Al Lerum, who won in ’58 and ’64, played in 50 shortstops,” Dunn said. “He is kind of my sensei, so I don’t want to go past him.”

Dunn’s history with this tournament extends well past that 49-year mark as he caddied for 9 years prior to turning 21. He remembers his first ‘Stop like it was yesterday. It was 1978.

“I played terribly as I worked all summer cutting down trees in central Minnesota and had hardly picked up a club. But the entry fee for flights was $50. I carried my own bag and stayed at my mom and dad’s house. It wasn’t a huge financial burden. And I got to see my cousins (Bob and Doug) and my uncle Al Lerum. I just kept playing because it was a great way to have a family reunion.”

A few years later he got married, and his wife Jane would borrow his mother’s pushcart and loop for him.

“It’s a family affair,” Dunn said.

Dunn should know. He’s played in one short of half the Shortstops and been present for about 60 percent.

TRANSITIONING TO A NEW ERA

One of the true legends of the Albert Lea Shortstop is Jeff Stadheim. The Albert Lea native and longtime Mason City jeweler has been playing in the Albert Lea Shortstop since 1990. He was eligible a few years earlier, but he was busy playing for his collegiate team, the Texas Lutheran Bulldogs. Many an Albert Lea native followed Stadheim to Texas Lutheran over the next dozen years.

“I had looked forward to playing in (the Shortstop) all those years growing up,” he said. “And even when I was away at school, I would be calling back and checking to see how the matches were going.”

In his first year, in a passing-of-the-torch type moment, Stadheim, in his first ever Shortstop match, beat two-time champion Gene Peterson (1985-86) after being 4 down at the turn. Stadheim went on to make Champ Flight finals and ended up losing to another Shortstop legend, Mick Hockinson. It would be the first of six Champ flight runner up finishes for Stadheim, who did eventually secure his lone championship in 1998.

Stadheim has incredibly fond memories of the tournament even before he became a perennial championship chaser.

“I remember growing up and going out there and watching the tournament in the early ’80s and seeing a lot of the names of the guys like Dick Davies, Ken Ulman, David Everds, John Shimpach,” Stadheim said, who himself caddied at the tournament as a young boy for his future brother-in-law.

This year Stadheim (1998) and Hockinson (1990, 1997, 2004) and about 18 others will tee it up in the inaugural Legends Flight of the Albert Lea Shortstop. Former champs Joe Klick (1992), JB Lloyd (1993, 1994), and Mike Nelson (2005) are also competing. Albert Lea has always been known as a golfer’s town, and the Legends flight is full of a lot of names tournament followers will surely recognize.

It’s something tournament organizers Jeff Elseth (owner and himself a Shortstop champion in 1991) and Eric Amann (tournament chairman) have been hoping to create for many years. All it took was 100 years to make it stick.

“Growing up in Albert Lea, (the tournament) is just a connection to back home,” Stadheim said. “The camaraderie that you have generated with a lot of the people that visit the Shortstop over the years. It’s just a fun event.”