BLO History

To: Grand Exhalted Commissioner For Life July 6, 1999

From: The Historical Committee

Subject: Overview of This Great Event

In the mid 80’s, the Edstrom brothers and their friends laid claim to the family cabin on beautiful Baby Lake for the last week in July each year to vacation and relax away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life in the big city. The days (starting about noon) were filled with swimming, boating, skiing, shooting, fishing and occasionally, golfing at Tianna Country Club in nearby Walker. In the early days, not everybody golfed, those who did golf did not do it every day, and even when they did golf, it was 9 holes, not 18.

As time passed, golf slowly became a more important part of the vacation and by 1991 enough people were playing so that an organized tournament was conducted. The word "organized" is used very loosely here because the rules and structure of the tournament were never specified and agreed to and most of the contestants kept score in their heads rather than on a scorecard. Some players used winter rules even though the course was in perfect shape and some players took advantage of non sanctioned tactics such as mulligans, gimmes and foot-mashies. Even with this unstructured approach to the "tournament", by the end of the day somebody was able to claim bragging rights to the championship. The tournament went on like this with year-to-year changes in format until 1995 which is the start of the "modern era" of the Baby Lake Open.

Two important features characterize the modern era, the adoption of an A/B player classification system and the awarding of the coveted plaid jackets to the winners. The A/B classification system has produced a more equitable way of giving everybody a shot at winning the plaid jacket and it also has produced a side benefit of generating tremendous creativity from players trying to get reclassified. The plaid jackets were the contribution of John Behm and have without a doubt been the most important reason for this tournament’s recent success. It is too bad that Fever hasn’t been close to wearing a jacket since his initial donation but this might be the year.

The champions of the modern era are:

1995 Steve Riley and Dick Hall

1996 Kerry Johnson; The Monster without Guns

1997 Steve Riley and Chuck Walberg

1998 Brad Edstrom, Jason Fodstad, Jim Wussow, Al Edstrom and Chris Gustafson

1999 Joel Johnson, Steve Johnson, Steve Hellerud and Chuck Walberg

2000 Rocky Edstrom, John Behm, Andy , and Kim

1998 marked the first year of the 4-man format and was also the first year that we had a wire-to-wire winner. In previous years, the leader after day one always choked under the pressure of playing in the last group on Saturday. (Since Brad and Jim had previously choked, it must have been Al, Jason and Chris who carried the 1998 champions).

Congratulations to the 2018 BLO winners

Jack Behm, Dick Hall, Marlow Roberts & Dan Meyers.

Congratulations to the 2017 BLO Winners

Tyler Olson, Paul Roberts, Mike Spencer & Dan Roberts.

Hi everybody,

The Baby Lake Open is one month away so its time to start getting organized. The tournament entry fee will again be $50 and the golfing format will be the same as last year...4 man teams with 2 A and 2 B players on a team. The festivities will be kicked off with a shotgun start Pro-Am at 3:30 on Thursday, July 25 at Tianna Country Club. Arrange your own foursomes for the Pro-Am if you want or else I'll pair you up at the course. Be there by 3:00 so we can all get checked in and grouped up before the tee time. Immediately after golfing, Tianna will have the hot hors dourves and salad bar ready at a cost of $12 (last year only 2 people ordered steaks so steak is not on the menu this year). Following dinner we will draw the teams and conduct a Calcutta auction. After that, maybe some Texas hold-em if anybody is interested and, by the way, the bar will be open throughout the night. And speaking of bars, rumor has it that the Barefoot Bar will open sometime Wednesday night (and will close sometime Sunday morning).

The BLO tournament will start at 1:30 on Friday and Saturday with exact tee times available on Thursday and Friday nights. There is no need to prepay the tournament entry fee but I do need to get a good headcount sooner rather than later for the tournament so email me with your intentions and who else will be coming up with you. Please let me know if you will be here for the Thursday Pro-Am.

On Sunday following our tournament, Tianna is running a benefit tournament to fund the local high school golf team and I have attached a flyer describing the event. If you are interested in participating, let me know and I'll try to arrange a team or teams.

See you in 4 weeks!

The Commish

2014 Tournament Summary from The Commish.

Another successful Baby Lake Open! With 52 participants this year's tournament was the biggest ever and probably the most exciting. Two teams tied at the end of regulation play with 3 under par totals and then battled evenly through two sudden death playoff holes before darkness forced an end to the competition leaving us with co-champions this year. Congratulations to Wally, Sammy, Gussie, Jack, Monster, Jimmy, Dave and Chad. Also to be congratulated are Fever, Lenny, Nate and Larry who captured the first annual Toilet Bowl Trophy (donated by Skuby) with a total score of 23 over par. The full results sheet is attached.

This year's tournament produced a very impressive total of $2400 for our donation to the Cancer Society. $800 comes from your entry fees, $580 from the Calcutta pool, $500 from Mel Heinen in honor of his father, $425 from the Barefoot Bar and $125 from additional contributions by many of you. Special Thanks again to the guys who stock the Barefoot Bar because they pay for all the supplies but don't recoup any of that cost ... all of your bar donations go to the Cancer Society.

Remember that the signup deadline for the 2015 BLO is July 4th. Send me an email or call/text me at 6 one 2-859-8865 with your commitment. Prospective new players next year will be wait-listed and will only be accepted to round out the field in intervals of 4. Hope to see you all at the Pro-Am on July 23rd!

The Commish

PHOTOs Sent in by Rocky

If you can't see the photos Click here (your system does not support or have Flash installed)

BLO Champs 2013

2013 blo results

Message from the Commish

Sorry about the delay in getting the results out but I was waiting for a double check on some unusual drug test numbers. It seems that two of the players on the winning team each had a blood alcohol level of 0.00! While there has never been any written policy covering this for the Open, it is clearly a gross violation of the spirit of the event. The rules committee will perhaps have some input on this before next year's event.

Congratulations to the winning team of Erick Luster, Paul Roberts, Tommy Kenneth and Curt Thompson. They had a remarkable six under par score and won by a whopping 14 strokes. I call their score remarkable because of the horrible weather conditions but then again, maybe the low blood alcohol numbers had something to do with it.

Second place went to John Skubitz, Dave Lindberg, Steve Hellerud and Mike Sanford. Third place was split between two teams, Steve Riley, Jim Bowen, Scott Wortman and Jason Fodstad and John Behm, Zach Karst, Wally Edstrom and Dan Edstrom. The complete standings will be posted on the Baby Lake Open website.

We had 48 players this year and that ties the high that was set in 2012. This year first place paid $600, second place paid $400 and third place paid $200. The real winner again was the American Cancer Society who will receive a donation of $2500 this year. This donation consists of $900 from tournament entry fees, $75 from the Calcutta auction pool, $525 from the Barefoot Bar and a special donation of $1000 from Mel Heinen in honor of Dave Saucier. Thanks again this year to the "proprietors" and contributors of the Barefoot Bar (Wally, Rocky, Fever, Rick, Randy and Erick) because ALL of the proceeds from the bar go to the donation...nothing is taken out for expenses.

Hope to see you all at the 2014 tournament next July 25th and 26th.

The Commish

Click to enlarge

Official Summary – 2012 Baby Lake Open

The official results are finally in, held up somewhat by a questionable drug test result, and the winners are: Fever, Little Fever, Wally and Tommy. They had a 2 stroke lead at 144 after day 1 and steadily pulled away in day 2 to card a one under par 287 and win by 7 strokes. The second place team of Brad, Dan Hoops, Scottie and Bryan Boesen had a respectable 294 and third place was split between 2 teams at 297...Mel, Nate, Paul Roberts and Pat Halliday and Jim Wussow, Erick Luster, Larry Roberts and Lenny Larson.

We had a record field of 48 players thanks to 9 new players and 4 who returned after absences of many years. The fact that 5 of the new players finished in the money bodes well for continued participation in years to come. For the complete standings, go to Babylakeopen.com.

David Edstrom donated a beatifully constructed memorial to the Baby Lake Open Hall of Fame. Right now, this memorial and the traveling trophy are the only legitimate Hall of Fame items that we have but you gotta start somewhere! Who knows, maybe in 50 years Walker, Minnesota will be mentioned in the same breath as Canton, Ohio and Cooperstown, New York among hard-core sports fans.

In addition to a record number of players this year, our donation to the American Cancer Society also set a record at $1600. This was made up of $825 from the Tournament itself, $155 from the Calcutta, $168 from additional donations and a whopping $452 from the Barefoot Bar. Many thanks to everybody who .kicked in added donations and Rocky, Wally, Scottie, Fever, Brad and Erick for making the Barefoot Bar such a success. (For those of you who might not know, ALL proceeds from the Barefoot Bar go to the Cancer Society...nothing is taken out to cover the costs).

STANDINGS

2011 champs.

Mike Sanford & Tim Bowen- 2 of the the Current BLO Champions

Hi Everybody,

The 2011 Baby Lake Open is in the books and was a resounding success in many ways. The weather was beautiful the whole time, there was some really good golf played (some not so much), the Thursday Pro-Am, dinner and festivities was great and all the participants appeared to have a really good time. The one downer was that we only had 8 teams this year so that limited our payout to 2 teams rather than 3. Hopefully next year we will be back up to 10 or 11 teams with many of this year's absentees promising to return and some newbies expressing interest also.

The new Champions of The Baby Lake Open are Tim Bowen, John Skubitz, Mike Sanford and Mel Heinen with a four round total of 6 under par. All four of their rounds were under par, the first time that has been done in this tournament! Congratulations to the new champs! The low round for the tournament was posted by Jim Bowen and Ryan Matt at 5 under par on the final day but it wasn't quite enough to catch the champions. Jim and Ryan were joined by Sammy Garbow and George Horner on the second place team. Look for the full standings on the Baby Lake Open website. (I suppose there will be people looking at these scores and reading between the lines and seeing candidates to move from B to A status next year...just sayin...).

On the financial side, we had a very good year considering our participation was slightly down. The American Cancer Society will be getting a donation of $1101 from this year's tournament. The entry fees accounted for $700, a cut from the Calcutta auction was $45 and The Barefoot Bar came in with an amazing total of $356.09. Next year if our participation level gets back to normal, I predict that will grow to $500! Many thanks to Wally and Rocky for running the bar and to Wally, Rocky, Scott, Fever and Erick for contributing the bar supplies.

Hope to see you all again next year at the bigger and better 2012 Baby Lake Open!

The Commish

2011 BLO Field

Hi Everybody,

It's time again to register for the Baby Lake Open. The tournament will again have a $10,000 hole-in-one contest on both days (maybe this will be the year!). This year there is no need to pre-pay but I do need to get a commitment from everyone as soon as possible. The tournament cost is $50 and we will be starting at 1:00 PM on Friday and Saturday, July 27 and 28.

As in the past, some players will be showing up early to get in a few practice rounds. If that includes you, let me know so I can get enough tee times. It looks like the Barefoot Bar will probably be open for business about 6:00 PM on Wednesday so bear that in mind if your schedule will allow you to arrive that early. On Thursday we will again have the Pro-Am with a shotgun start at 3:00 PM. Let me know if you plan to play. Immediately after the Pro-Am, we will have dinner in the Tianna clubhouse with the Steak and/or Shrimp special and hot hors doeurves bar on the menu. After dinner we will have the drawing for teams and a Calcutta auction.

This year on the Sunday following our tournament there is a 4-person scramble tournament scheduled for Tianna to benefit the local high school golf team. The cost is $80 per person and that includes the golf with cart and dinner afterwards in the Tianna clubhouse. If you are interested in playing, let me know and I'll arrange a foursome and schedule us in.

I don't have everybody's email address so I know some potential players won't get this message. When you respond to me that you are (or are not) going to play this year, please tell me what you know about who else will be playing who is not on the copy list. Thanks!

See ya in a couple weeks!

The Commish

Hi Everybody,

Hope to see you all again next year at the bigger and better 2012 Baby Lake Open!

The Commish

Message from the Commish:

The 2011 Baby Lake Open will be held at Tianna Country Club in Walker, MN on Friday and Saturday, July 29th and 30th. The registration desk is now open so send your $50 entry fee to:

Dick Hall

Please have your entry fee in by Friday the 22nd of July.

We will probably have room for a few more golfers so if you have friends or neighbors who would enjoy a PGA weekend (poker, golf, alcohol), bring 'em along!

The Pro-Am will again be a 3:30 shotgun start on Thursday followed by the spectacular dinner special at Tianna and the drawing for teams and Calcutta auction in the Tianna clubhouse. Let me know when you will be arriving so I can make tee times for the early arrivals and can get an accurate count for the $10,000 hole-in-one contest. The Barefoot Bar at Edstrom's on Baby Lake will be open again during tournament weekend and Wally is off the IR list so he will be doing double duty as a bartender and a contestant in the tournament.

2010 BLO Champs

George Josh Brad Rob

Message from the Commish:

Hello everybody,

The 2010 Baby Lake Open is just a month away and preparations are underway to make it the best one ever. We expect a few new players this year and are hoping that we won't lose many from last year's fine showing. The entry fee is $50 of which a portion will go to the American Cancer Society. In previous years our donation has ranged from $600 to $1000 and with the continued growth of the side contests at the golf course and the proceeds from Ugly's Barefoot Bar, our contribution this year year will probably be near the high end of the range.

The Pro-Am on Thursday will again be a shotgun start at 3:00 PM, followed by the drawing for teams and a Calcutta auction at the Tianna clubhouse. Plan to be at Tianna by 2:30 so you can get your hole assignments and enter the envelop games before we tee off.

The menu for Thursday evening will include the steak special that was so popular last year featuring a wonderful hot hors d'oeuvres bar. The kitchen will stay open until we have all had a chance to order. If your schedule doesn't allow you to play golf on Thursday afternoon, plan to arrive at Tianna in the evening to join us for dinner and the rest of the evening festivities.

The format for the tournament on Friday and Saturday will be unchanged from the past few years...4 person teams playing as two 2 person scrambles each day. We will again feature a $10,000 hole-in-one prize on hole #2 as part of the tournament and other voluntary closest to the pin, long put and straight drive contests. New this year will be a voluntary low net for twosomes each day.

Registration for this year's tournament is due July 12th.

Entry fee is $50

Send checks to:

Dick Hall

218 Trenton Lane

Plymouth, MN 55441

The early registration is important so that we can get a solid headcount which is needed for the hole-in-one insurance as well as proper staffing at the course (marshals, rules officials, beverage staff, etc.). When you send in your registration, please indicate whether or not you will be playing in the Pro-Am and if you have any preference for who you are paired with that day.

Hope to see you all on the 22nd!

2009 Baby Lake Open Summary

The 2009 champions are David Edstrom, Erick Luster, Scott Edstrom and Mel Heinen who overcame a 6 stroke deficit on the final day ended with 289 to squeeze out a one stroke win over the second place team of Jim Wussow, Thomas Jackson, Mike Sanford and Chris Gustafson. The team of Rick Edstrom, Devin Weberg, Dan Edstrom and Jim Fraser took third place with a solid 295.

The charity contribution pot from the Baby Lake Open this year totaled $1390 thanks in large part to a block of contributions made in memory of Don Edstrom and Kathy Wagner by several people who sent their donations along with Rocky Edstrom. Thank you Maria Pencola, Martha Tucker, Elfriede Rucker, Douglas and Barbara Marcum, Hans and Kathleen Wagner, Joyce Rucker and Cindy Kirkland. The Barefoot Bar contribution was $255 this year which is down slightly from last year but the golf scores were a little lower this year too, so maybe there's a connection between the two. The contribution pot will be split between the American Cancer Society ($890) and the Walker high school golf program ($500).

Mark your calendar now for next year's event. The Thursday Pro-Am followed by the spectacular dinner and opening night festivities will be July 22nd with the tournament on the 23rd and 24th.

Thanks to everyone for participating...see ya next year!

The Commish

2009 Baby Lake Open Champions

Mel Heinen, Erick Luster, David Edstrom, Scott Edstrom

BLO Fishing contest winner 2008

Tony Edstrom

Click picture to Enlarge

2008 BabyLake Open Champs

Sammy Garbow, Dick Hall, Rocky (not one and done) Edstrom, & Chris Marshall

Message from the Commish

The 2008 Baby Lake Open was a huge success with perfect weather, no arrests or hospital visits and a tight race that wasn't decided until the last group missed a putt on 18 that would have forced extra holes. The proud winners of the coveted champions jackets (new this year thanks to Rocky, Wally and senior craft night) at 298 were Sammy Garbow, Chris Marshall, Rocky (not one and done) Edstrom and Dick Hall. In second place with 299 were John Behm, Chris Gustafson, David Edstrom and Jason Fodstad. Third place at 301 went to Steve Riley, Mike Spencer, Larry Roberts and Mike Sanford. The official purse this year was $400, $200 and $100 and the Calcutta payout was $500, $260 and $100.

The Thursday night dinner special and festivities at Tianna was an unqualified success so we will be having the steak and seafood special after the Pro-Am in future years. The $10,000 hole-in-one prize at hole #2 again went unclaimed but Sammy Garbow was 2 feet from the cup on Saturday and followed that with a tee shot on hole #11 that came to rest 4 inches behind the cup. This year's rookie class of Chris Marshall, Tony Edstrom, Mike Edstrom, Erick Luster and Brian Manning all made the cut which automatically qualifies them for next year although Erick was on the bubble until late Saturday.

The American Cancer Society will receive a donation of $1050 from this year's tournament. This total was reached by a combination of entry fees, envelop games each day, extra donations by several players and the proceeds from the Barefoot Bar. The bar cashbox was filled with $308.91, a band-aid and some cheese curls but the band-aid and cheese curls won't be forwarded to the ACS.

The 2009 open will be on the 24th and 25th of July with the Pro-Am on Thursday the 23rd. Mark your calendars now and hopefully you can dodge things like weddings and family reunions to participate in the 15th annual Baby Lake Open. See you all then.

The Commish

The 2007 Baby Lake Open is history and the new champions are Steve Riley, Thomas Jackson, Don Edstrom and Wally Edstrom. Congratulations to the champs and thanks to everybody who participated this year. Second place went to the team of Jim Wussow, David Edstrom, Chris Gustafson and Bob Pennaz while the betting favorite team of Rick Edstrom, Andy Bongo, Todd Wilson and Mike Wilder finished in 3rd place.

The winners of the closest to the pin contests on Friday were Mike Hamilton, Wally Edstrom and Dean Keller and on Saturday, Andy Bongo, Dan Meyers and Dan Edstrom. The most accurate drive contest on Friday was won by David Edstrom and on Saturday by Mel Heinen.

The biggest winner again this year was the Cancer Society because we came up with a donation of $1450 thanks in large part to a late night memorabilia auction on Saturday that netted $500 from Jason Fodstad, Marlow Roberts, Wally Edstrom, Steve Riley and Ron Edstrom.

See you all again next year!

The Commish

Message from the Commish: June 13, 2007

Hi Everybody,

This year's Baby Lake Open is fast approaching with the Pro-Am on July 26th and the tournament on the 27th and 28th. The entry fee remains unchanged at $50 and is due by Monday July 16th.

Send checks to: Dick Hall 218 Trenton Lane Plymouth, MN 55441

This year's tournament will follow the same format as last year's but there will be some changes to the Pro-Am on Thursday and the Thursday evening kickoff event. The Pro-Am will again be individual stroke play in foursomes of your own choosing with a shotgun start at 3:30 PM at Tianna Country Club. Be there by 3PM to check in, get starting hole assignment and sign up for the optional closest to the pin, long drive and long put contests. We will be adding an optional "predict your score" contest for the 18 hole round (Details will be available at signup). The formation of teams and Calcutta auction will take place at the Tianna clubhouse about an hour after we complete our round of golf. The kitchen at Tianna will be open until about an hour after we finish golfing. I don't have email addresses for everybody who played last year so please pass this on to anybody you might see who isn't on the address list.

See you next month.

The Commish

Message from the Commish:

2006 Baby Lake Open Summary

Congratulations to the 2006 champions, Steve Riley, Andy Bongo, Dean Keller and Mike Sanford for their 8 stroke win over the 2nd place team of Rick Edstrom, David Edstrom, Dan Edstrom and Mel Heinen. Also in the money this year were Jim Bowen, Brad Edstrom, Wally Edstrom and Curt Thompson for 3rd place and Pat Weiland, Jason Fodstad, Tim Hall and Chris Thomas for most improved team from day 1 to day 2.

The big winner this year was the American Cancer Society. With a donation of $250 from Northern Lights Casino, $305 from the par 3 contest run by Marlow Roberts on Saturday , a portion of everybody’s entry fee and additional donations from several players, our total donation this year was $1300.

2005 Babylake Open Results

Team 3 (Ron H., Rick, Larry R., David) won the championship in a one-hole playoff with team 7 (Pat, Swine, Turtle, Riley)

2004 Champs

Rick, Joe Jack, Steve D., Commish

Message from the Commish

Hello to all you Baby Lake Open hopefuls. This year's tournament is fast approaching and we are now accepting entries. The entry fee this year is $50 with most of the increase going to a larger donation to the American Cancer Society. Everybody who played last year is automatically qualified for this year's event, but you must submit your entry fee by June 24th or you will lose your automatic exemption. On June 25th we will start contacting golfers on the waiting list to fill out the field. In addition to last year's entrants, Brian Henry and Jamey Gheen qualified by being the reigning champions of the Smith Lake Open and Erick Edstrom and Ron Harrington have been awarded sponsor's exemptions.

We will again start the festivities with the pro-am event on Thursday at 4:00 P.M. at Tianna Country Club. Although not part of the official tournament, we strongly encourage all tournament participants to participate on Thursday to reacquaint themselves with the golf course and the staff members in the pro shop, the bar and the beverage cart.

The drawing for teams and the Calcutta auction will take place in the Tianna clubhouse after the pro-am event and the kitchen in the clubhouse will be open for dinner as well. (The bar will probably be open too.)

The championship rounds on Friday and Saturday will start at 1:30 P.M. and a record field of 48 golfers is expected. The $10,000 hole-in-one prize is again up for grabs both Friday and Saturday on hole #2. Voluntary long drive and closest to the pin contests will be available all 3 days with sign-up for these contests taking place in the clubhouse each day. Tournament winners will receive a modest cash award in addition to the coveted winner's jackets and will have their names engraved on the permanent BLO trophy.

See you in July!

The Commish

2003 Champs

Dan Meyers, Steve Riley, & Jim Wussow

2002 CHAMPIONS

Letter From The CommishLer

8-5-2001

Summary - 2001 Baby Lake Open

The 2001 tournament is now history and was one of the best ever. The Thursday Pro-Am event was a huge success and will be repeated next year. The kick-off dinner at The Woman Lake Inn worked out quite well and we will negotiate with the management to return next year. The addition of the Calcutta auction and the other side games also added to the fun and will definitely be part of the program from now on.

As has been the pattern in most years, the first round leaders (Rick, Steve, Tim, Brian) succumbed to the pressure and fell, this time down to 3rd place. The rain on Friday probably had an effect on the scoring but with beautiful weather on Saturday, the scores came down and two teams were able to get past the first round leaders. Congratulations to Monster, Big Dog, Mike and Dan who posted a 149 on Saturday for a winning 302 total and also to Brad, Wally, Scott and Blake, the second place finishers.

Thanks to everyone who participated this year and mark your calendars now for next year’s event: Thursday, July 25 for the Pro-Am and Friday July 26 and Saturday July 27 for the 12th Annual Baby Lake Open.