Voges and co. win 2026 B&L Golf Classic
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NEW ULM -- With the heat index hitting 99 degrees on Monday, Nate Voges and his teammates stayed cool and calm enough at the B&L Golf Classic to win the tournament at the New Ulm Country Club.
Team 4B, consisting of Voges, Taylor Hayenga, Bruce Hendrycks, David Vorwerk and Jeff Schone, won with a score of 126, beating out three other teams who all shot 127s.
Voges, who was a first-time winner in the tournament after playing in it for around 15 years, said the key to winning was staying hydrated and finding shade when available.
"You've got to figure that you're gonna have some bad rolls in there, but I would say we found the shade as much as possible and drank a lot of water and Gatorade," Voges said.
Finishing behind Team 4B were Team 7A's group of Doug Shult, Don Bohn, John O'Hare, Ted Marti and Gary Kruggel, Team 6's Tom Steinbach, Jeremy Sudbeck, Jerry Boddy, Kevin Loverude and Mike Hillesheim and Team 5's Andrew Pettis, Tylor Hopp, Jamie Johnson, Roddy Melzer and Tom Totland.
Not that it was necessarily a game plan, depending upon who was asked, but the shade was easier to find for Voges and co. due to their tee shots.
"The main thing was we had fun and gave each other a lot of [crap]," Voges said. "The one thing that we didn't do was on every hole, our drives were terrible, right or left, but somehow we got two balls on the greens and were able to get them down with some pretty good putting. … We were in the woods more than we should have been, but we seemed to find one or two good shots in there."
Finishing fifth with a 128 was Team 9B's Todd McKeeth, Trent Loverude, Tom Portner, Steve Wenner and Don Olson, while Team 16's Jackson Ahlness, Chad Cooreman, Jason Steele, Dave Brown and Dave Christiansen was sixth with a 128. Team 14's Pete Guggisberg, Brad Johannes, Tom Furth, Gregg Holm and Neil Herzog carded a 129 for seventh, while Team 1A's Cary Hayenga, Terry Steinbach, Tony Sowder, Joe Eckstein and Ray Koberg Jr. shot a 130 fo eighth.
The B&L Golf Mixer opened the two-day B&L tournament experience on Sunday, which was won by Team 10B's Jeff Ferrell, Adam Larson, Rick Kamm and Julie Ferrell as they scored a 61. Taking second on Sunday was Team 9B's Brian Ubl, Gary Kruggel, Kevin Loverude and Jamie Johnson with a 62, while Team 16B's Isaac Ekrath, Gregg Holm, Dean Warta and Duane Ristau had a 63 for third place.
Four teams tied for fourth place with 64s. Those teams were Team 7B's Tom Portner, Brett Wilhelm, David Vorwerk and Connor Portner, Team 9A's Dan Reinhart, Jerry Henning, Brent Reinarts and Meleah Reinhart, Team 16A's Tom Steinbach, Phil Vorwerk, Marie Hort and Jeff Schone and Team 17A's Brandt Munson, Greg Schmitz, Bruce Gieseke and Sara Gieseke.
Team 5B's Kendall Anderson, Jayme Groebner, Kelly Dalton and Brady Dalton and Team 14A's Andrew Pettis, Mike Bornhoft, Joe Slander and Bret Romberg shot 65s to tie for eighth in the Mixer.