Star-Journbal Editor
Saturday, July 7 was billed as one of the luckiest days of the century.
Around the world, tens of thousands of couples chose 7/7/07 for their wedding day.
And who knows how many extra lottery tickets were sold.
Also on Saturday, at Pine Edge Golf Course near Goessel, hopeful golfers came to compete in the Third Annual $25,000 Putting Contest.
A recent Nickerson High School graduate came within a whisker of putting for all that dough, but even on this luckiest of days, no one was lucky enough to win the big prize.
"I thought maybe somebody would be lucky today," said tournament organizer Myron Schmidt. "But we didn't have anybody draw the number seven spot when they were drawing for which order they were going to putt."
Thirteen golfers signed up to compete in Saturday's tournament, which probably jinxed everybody from the get-go. Nevertheless, with three Mulligans (do-overs) in their pockets, the contestants set out to make pre-measured putts of five, 10, 15, and 20 feet on the practice green at the beautiful nine-hole par 30 course, located one mile north and one and one-half miles east of Goessel, about a mile and half east of Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church.
The top five finishers in the putting contest were given a chance to putt for the $25,000.
Mark Religa, a golf course regular from south of Goessel, wound up winning the tournament. He and four other golfers, Ron Spillman, Hutchinson, Wayne Neufeld, Inman, Jacob Benson, McPherson, and Andrew Hedrich, Hutchinson, moved on to the money round.
To win the money prize, all they had do was make three consecutive putts — of 10, 30, and 50 feet. (The prize money was put up as a publicity stunt by a turf mower company aptly named — Hustler.)
Of the five putters, only Hedrich made the initial 10-footer and was allowed to continue.
The next putt, a 30-footer, was measured to the inch with a tape measure on the ninth green.
It looked like a mile.
Hedrich, who'd faced pressure putts in high school, but nothing like this, stepped up and gave the ball a solid whack. It was hard enough to give it a chance, but the ball rolled right over the top of the cup!
"It had just a very slight break to the right and I hit it just a hair too hard," he said.
Had it gone in, Hedrich still would have had to make the 50-footer to win the $25,000.
But even so, it was thrilling.
"We were cheering for him," Schmidt said. "I thought it was going in. It's as close as anybody has come to making the 30-footer in three years."
Schmidt, a former dairy farmer, spent seven years carving his dream course out of a wheat field. The remarkable accomplishment was featured a few years ago on (Larry) Hatteberg's People on KAKE-TV.
On Saturday, as he handed the first place award to Religa, his course was as lush and green as any course anywhere, including storied Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Master's.
"At the Master's you get a green jacket, here you get a green vest for winning the tournament," Schmidt said.
The fact that no one would be taking home the big bucks didn't seem to spoil Saturday's fun for anyone.
In addition to the final five, other contestants in the contest were Doc Cezar, Travis Hett, Kris Lindenberger, Kris Benson, Gerald Jost, Andrew Hedrick, Glen Hedrick, Jeff Hett, and Sheri Fraser.
As far as this being his lucky day, Reglia says he doesn't believe in any of that mumbo-jumbo.
"Those numbers mean nothing," he sniffed. "A number is a number."
And besides, as it turns out, it was just dumb luck that the $25,000 putting contest was held on 7/7/07 anyway.
"It's always the first Saturday after the Fourth of July," Schmidt said.
