Author: David Shama

Minnesota’s professional golf heroes are few but another one has emerged in 24-year-old Troy Merritt who has boosted his PGA earnings to nearly $600,000 already this year and might make THE PLAYERS Championship next week.

The former Spring Lake Park High School golfer finished third last weekend in the Zurich Classic and hopes to build upon that success at this week’s Quail Hollow Championship.  The third place was Merritt’s first top 10 finish on the PGA Tour, according to PGA.com.

Merritt has only been on the PGA circuit since January.  His biggest payday, $435,200, came at the Zurich where he finished 14 and under, and was at one point the tournament leader.

Although Merritt had a strong start on the PGA tour, more recently he had been missing tournament cuts.  Merritt learned how challenging the tour can be, and prior to the Zurich Classic he made an adjustment, according to a story by PGAtour.com contributing writer Craig Dolch.

Merritt told Dolch: “I thought about what was going on, what I wasn’t doing right. And basically, what it came down to was it was all in my head.  Not committing to the shots that I wanted to hit.  I was half committing to the shots that people were expecting me to hit.  So I came out this week really focused on playing my game how I always played it.”  https://www.pgatour.com/2010/r/04/26/troy-merritt/index.html

Merritt needs another outstanding performance (including his newly found short game) at Quail Hollow to qualify for the prestigious PLAYERS next week.  Dolch points out that Merritt’s hopes rest on making it on the FedExCup rankings of top 10 players.

Merritt won the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament in December to make the 2010 tour.  That’s part of a success story that began at Spring Lake Park, continued at Winona State and Boise State, and then on to pro golf in 2008.

Fans from Minneapolis, St. Paul and three suburbs purchase the most Twins season tickets.  Minneapolis is No. 1 with 17.6 percent of season tickets, followed by St. Paul at 6.4, Plymouth 2.6, Eden Prairie 2.5 and Bloomington 2.4.  Hennepin County fans purchase 43.2 percent of the approximately 24,500 season tickets.

Among the design successes of Target Field is that the ballpark was built to “turn its back” to the nearby county garbage incinerator.

The Twins dugout at Target Field is located near first base as it was at Met Stadium.  The team’s dugout at the Metrodome was located near third base.

The Twins began a four series schedule against Central Division teams last week in Kansas City.  After their current series in Detroit, the Twins play at Cleveland over the weekend and then come home to face Detroit again. The Twins play 72 games against division teams.

The Twins have committed only two errors, the best total by seven in major league baseball.  The Twins franchise record for fewest errors in a season is 74 in 2002.

Luke Hughes, recalled last week from AAA Rochester, is the kind of versatile bench player the Twins prefer.  He can play third or second base, and also the outfield.  Hughes was hitting .267 with five RBI playing for Rochester.

Augsburg senior first baseman Joe Pierce (Eden Prairie) extended his consecutive-game hitting streak to 31 with hits in all five of Augsburg’s most recent games, including a 5-for-7 performance in a doubleheader against Saint John’s on Sunday. Pierce’s streak of 31 straight games is the 16th longest in NCAA Division III history. His .477 batting average was best in the MIAC at the beginning of this week.

The Vikings can’t use inclement late season weather as an excuse if the team doesn’t finish well in its last several games.  The Vikings must play outside in Philadelphia on December 26, but three other December games are in the Metrodome and the last game of the season, January 2, will be at Detroit’s Ford Field, a covered facility.

Nathan Tow-Arnett, the Gophers redshirt junior walk-on safety, was born July 25, 1982 and will be 29 years old when he plays his senior season.

Gophers redshirt freshman walk-on tight end Sahr Ngekia is a cousin of former Vikings and Gophers running back Thomas Tapeh.  Ngekia has only been playing football for three years.

Wild prospect Kris Foucault has 14 points (eight goals, six assists) in 18 playoff games and helped the Calgary Hitmen advance to the Western Hockey League finals versus the Tri-City Americans.

Wild wing Antti Miettinen will represent Finland at next month’s IIHF World Men’s Championship.  He will join defenseman Brent Burns (Canada), coach Todd Richards (USA) and assistant equipment manager Brent Proulx (USA) as other Wild representatives at the tournament.

Sophomore quarterback MarQueis Gray told Sports Headliners after Saturday’s spring game that he made extraordinary improvement during the Gophers March and April practices that prepared the team for next season.

Either Gray or three-year starter Adam Weber is expected to soon be named the team’s No. 1 quarterback for 2010 by coach Tim Brewster.  While Gray awaits that announcement, he believes that both his confidence and ability to play quarterback are dramatically improved.

“You’re just not going to be a great quarterback over night,” Gray said. “So you gotta put in the work and time and effort to be that quarterback.”

Asked to put a percentage on how much he improved from the start of the 15 spring practices to the end, Gray replied: “I would say I am about 85” (percent better).

Last season the Gophers offense often struggled, including in the team’s last three games when Minnesota scored a total of 29 points.  In Big Ten games the Gophers were last in the conference in rushing at 97.1 yards per game and eighth in passing at 198.1.

In the spring game on Saturday the offensive line look improved, the running backs were okay and just like last year the receiving was disappointing with too many dropped balls.  At times Gray and Weber threw effectively, completing 4 of 7 for 68 yards, and 8 of 20 for 144 yards.  Gray threw a touchdown pass to wide receiver Hayo Carpenter.

The Gophers need more and better offensive playmakers including at wide receiver, a position Gray was used at now and then last year.  He caught six passes for 58 yards and one touchdown.  He also showed why he was the team’s best athlete, a 6-foot-4, 228-pound player with good hands, speed and ability to run.

If Weber wins the quarterback job, Gray is willing to play wide receiver, full time or part.  “I am a team guy,” he said.  “I want to play wherever the coaches want me to play.  If they want me to play receiver, I’ll play receiver.”

Gray said he won’t be too disappointed if he’s not named the starting quarterback.  “No, I will just know what I have to work on to try to get better for next year.”