Bemidji boys golf takes second in Willmar tournament, gains momentum
Bemidji’s young boys golf lineup nearly caught Lakeville South in Willmar, signaling real progress before the Section 8-3A grind.
Bemidji High School’s boys golf team put together its strongest outing of the season in Willmar, and the timing could hardly be better. In a 22-team field at the Little Crow’s Country Club Cardinal/Wildcat Invitational, the Jacks finished second with a 621, just two strokes behind Lakeville South, while Beckett Grand and Jackson Fogelson tied for fourth with matching 150s.
That result reflected more than one hot round. Grand, the only Bemidji golfer with state experience, has become the anchor for a lineup built around younger players, and Willmar showed how much the group has grown around him. Axel Burlingame added a 160 for 17th place, giving Bemidji a third counting score that held up against one of the larger fields the program has seen this spring.
The surge has not come out of nowhere. Bemidji also took second out of 22 teams at the St. Cloud Invite on May 7, finishing just three shots behind Benilde-St. Margaret’s. Grand shot a 73 there to place third individually, while Fogelson tied for 25th with a 79 and Drew Valley also tied for 25th with a 79. That pattern matters: the Lumberjacks are getting scoring depth from more than one player, not just a single standout.
For a Class AAA program with an enrollment of 1,331, that depth is the difference between staying competitive and fading in a loaded Section 8-3A field. Bemidji’s boys finished 35 strokes behind Alexandria in the section tournament a year ago, but Grand’s rise from a freshman seventh-place finish into a leadership role gives the Jacks a very different feel now. The experience he gained then is carrying more weight because the roster around him is younger and still learning how to handle pressure rounds.
The section path remains steep. Under Minnesota State High School League rules, the top team and the top six individuals not on the winning team advance from section play to the Class AAA state tournament, set for June 9-10 at Bunker Hills Golf Club. That leaves little margin for error at Headwaters Country Club in Park Rapids, where Bemidji needed the kind of balance it found in Willmar.
The numbers suggest the ceiling is rising. Grand and Fogelson both scored 150 in Willmar, Burlingame kept the lineup afloat with a 160, and Valley’s steady play in St. Cloud showed the Jacks are starting to get help from the middle of the roster. If Bemidji keeps trimming those scores, the program will not just be a factor in Section 8-3A. It will be one of the teams forcing the favorites to earn every shot.
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