Author: David Shama

Charity golf tournaments come and go but the Tapemark, which this year will be played June 10-12 at Southview Country Club in West St. Paul, has staying power.  “I think it’s probably the oldest charity golf event in the country with the possible exception of the Bing Crosby,” Bob Jr. said.

The Tapemark is a golf tournament, not a glitzy show featuring the rich and famous.  In that regard the tournament reflects the Klas family──low key, hard working and humble Minnesotans.  “Almost all the other tournaments are designed around celebrities,” Bob Jr. said.  “People (spectators) come out to ours because it is the same as 40 years ago.  If people liked what they saw in 1972, they like it now because it’s the same product.

“It’s one of the four majors in the Minnesota PGA Section and has been for decades.  It’s arguably the only event on the golf calendar that the fairly serious amateur can play with the pros in a competitive environment.”

Tournament winners have included Don Berry (six times champion), George Shortridge (five times) and Tom Lehman (1990 title).  And Bob Jr. offered this trivia question that has Lehman as the answer: “Who is the only man ever to win the Tapemark and the British Open?”

The tournament, although mostly volunteer supported, is a year-round effort and now attracts corporate sponsors including the Anderson Agency and U.S. Bank.  About 10,000 man-hours are probably devoted to it and the annual women’s golf tournament in September.  “It’s not easy (managing the tournaments),” Bob Sr. said. “It’s very complicated.”

He refers to volunteers as “teammates,” and they do everything from registering golfers to running the scoreboard.  Although Pat Cody passed away years ago, the volunteers include sons Tom and Brendan.  “We couldn’t put the tournament on without with them,” the elder Klas said.

The late Pete Boerboon was among those most involved with the tournament.  Bob Jr. recalls an amusing tale about Boerboon when the tournament was on local cable TV years ago.

“His ball was in a bunker near the green and on his first shot he could not get out,” Bob Jr. said.  “On his second shot he knocks the ball across the green and into another bunker.

“By his ninth shot he was on the green.  Pete thought his saving grace was that the TV cameras had only been covering him from the start of playing No. 17, not all the way through his shots near and on the green.

“A few days after the tournament, he was taking the garbage outside when a neighbor said, ‘Hey, Pete, I saw you on TV and you had a rough time.’

“Pete replied, ‘Yeah, I had nine blows.’  The neighbor disagreed and countered, ‘No, you had 11.’ ”

There are a lot of Tapemark stories but the best one is its success all these years.  The tournament is pretty much year to year but it keeps coming back, and there are no plans to change the commitment now, particularly during these difficult economic times when funding for nonprofits is challenging.

And the philosophy of the Klas family remains the foundation for the pro-am. Bob Sr. talks about how none of us know what abilities and handicaps we will be given.  “You have to play the cards you are born with,” he said. “You can’t change in the middle of the hand.”

His son said the tournament puts life in perspective. “It gives you a sense of balance in life,” he said. “It reminds you there are others in the community who need help.”

The tournament website includes a request for donors to consider a $40 special gift to recognize the 40^th anniversary.  https://tapemarkgolf.org/.

Jerry Kill’s busy to-do list as the Gophers’ new football coach includes aggressively monitoring the academics of his players.  It’s no secret some have lagged in classroom performance and Kill said during an interview with Sports Headliners “the truth” comes out at the end of May.

He receives daily updates on what’s going on with his players and no one will be more interested in the academic results when spring semester ends.  “I think we’re working together to do the best we can. …Trying to salvage some things,” he said.

Kill wouldn’t predict how many players might become academically ineligible to play. “Hopefully we can save the majority of them that were in difficult situations,” he said.

The Gophers have an already thin roster as Kill prepares for the season opener at Southern California on September 3.  But regardless of the depth impacted by academics later this spring, Kill knows there’s a lot of future work to be done in recruiting better players and students.

He has seven coaches on the road recruiting, and looks forward to having high school players and potential recruits on campus next month when they participate in camps.  He and his assistants took over the Gophers program too late last fall to put their mark on recruiting.

“This past year (the 2011 recruiting class) we really can’t take a whole lot of credit one way or the other, except for about four, five, six kids” he said. “But going to this year, it’s critical for us to have a good class.

“And we need to do a good job in the state of Minnesota.  We need to recruit to our culture.  We need to recruit the kids that are going to be successful here at the University of Minnesota.”

Kill said it will take a lot more than one class to improve a program that was 3-9 last season and has been floundering for years.  “If you’re going to turn around a program, you can’t build it off mistakes,” he said.  “You gotta do well.”

Other than Minnesota, Kill wouldn’t single out states his recruiting will focus on, but the Midwest is the first target.  He and his assistants will rely a lot on relationships to help them with players regardless of where they are from.

“We want to concentrate in the Midwest as much as we can, and recruit kids that understand the weather conditions, the school etc.,” he said.  “And then what we can’t get here, you go back to relationships, people you trust.”