{"id":9482,"date":"2025-07-14T16:28:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T16:28:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/9482\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T16:28:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T16:28:04","slug":"thomas-comes-out-of-nowhere-to-claim-94th-cloquet-invitational-duluth-news-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/9482\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas comes out of nowhere to claim 94th Cloquet Invitational – Duluth News Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLOQUET \u2014 Applause for the final group at the 94th Cloquet Invitational filtered through the pines but the top prize on Sunday had already been claimed.<\/p>\n

Bennett Thomas of Lakeville, Minnesota, playing the final round two groups ahead of the 36-hole leaders, put down a 1-under 70 at Cloquet Country Club on a day in which contender after contender struggled mightily, winning the tournament in his first attempt by two shots. Second-place finisher Cory Schultz of Owatonna, Minnesota was also in Thomas\u2019 group.<\/p>\n

Thomas said he was somewhat aware after 12 holes that he was in contention but didn\u2019t look directly at any scores until after playing the 17th.<\/p>\n

\"Cloquet<\/p>\n

Bennett Thomas of Lakeville, Minnesota blasts out of the bunker on No. 13 at Cloquet Country Club during the final round of the Cloquet Invitational on Sunday, July 13. Thomas went on to win the tournament by two shots.<\/p>\n

Brandon Veale \/ Duluth Media Group<\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless of what I needed to go shoot it wouldn\u2019t have changed my strategy at all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Thomas, who played collegiately at Winona State, had been laying low in the field after 4-over-75 in each of the first two rounds. He started Sunday eight shots behind overnight leader and high school teammate Hogan Ordal (who plays with Cloquet\u2019s Karson Patten at Minnesota State Mankato). Thomas played in a member\/guest at CCC last year and enjoyed the experience. He learned his way around the tight layout as well, not even bothering to pack a full-fledged driver for the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hit a 2-iron really low and hard. That\u2019s kind of been my bread and butter around here,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n

\"Cloquet<\/p>\n

Lance Sayler braces himself after hitting from the edge of a water hazard on the 13th hole during the final round of the Cloquet Invitational on Sunday, July 13 at Cloquet Country Club. Sayler, who removed his right shoe to make his stance, popped the ball into the air where it can be seen at the top edge of the photo.<\/p>\n

Brandon Veale \/ Duluth Media Group<\/p>\n

Thomas didn\u2019t keep it sober all the way around. Facing a particularly enjoyable task on the tee at the long par-4 17th, his back leg came flying up in his follow-through, a swing modification that recently developed as a reaction to a softball injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe putter\u2019s been hot the whole week. I\u2019m really reading the greens well. My speed\u2019s been really solid and I\u2019ve been pretty lights-out inside about 8 feet all week. I knew if I could hit some greens today, I knew I could make a couple putts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Esko native Keegan Poppenberg competed with both Thomas and Ordal in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference meets, representing Minnesota Crookston. Throw in Cloquet native Sam Baker, an active college golfer at Florida Gulf Coast, and there were a lot of young guys bantering with each other high on the leaderboard.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s steady, all parts of the game, he\u2019s just very consistent. There\u2019s no real weaknesses,\u201d Poppenberg said of Thomas, with whom he played in Friday’s first round.<\/p>\n

It was definitely gusty on Sunday, but none of the eight golfers in the last two groups fared better than a 5-over 76 and seven of the eight had their worst rounds of the three-round tournament on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\"Cloquet<\/p>\n

Keegan Poppenberg, right, a Cloquet-Esko and Minnesota Crookston golf alum tees off on hole No. 14 at Cloquet Country Club in the Cloquet Invitational during the final round on Sunday, July 13. Playing partners include, from right, Jim Stafford, Dan Moline and his son caddying and Hogan Ordal.<\/p>\n

Brandon Veale \/ Duluth Media Group<\/p>\n

Ordal had started each of the first two rounds with multiple birdies, but his final round went south quickly with double-bogeys at 3 and 6 en route to an 85. First-round leader Dan Moline passed Ordal on No. 6 but was 9-over on the last 12 holes and finished eighth.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Thomas had four birdies and a bogey over his first eight holes. Poppenberg had three bogeys on the front nine but was still tied with Thomas at the halfway point. His bid faded with a double-bogey on 12 followed by three successive bogeys. He ended up in fifth place, four shots behind Thomas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have felt a little better about top-five if I shot this round on Friday and battled back,\u201d Poppenberg said.<\/p>\n

After a hairy par save on 9 that required a sideways punch-out and an approach shot from a tilted lie that reached the edge of a hazard, Thomas was steady and unspectacular on the second nine. He made seven pars and, though he failed to get up and down from a bunker on 13 and from short of the green on 18, no one asked him to be heroic.<\/p>\n

Schultz, who started the final round a shot behind Thomas and nine off the lead, made up ground on account of consistency, with a stretch of nine pars in a row. His long approach shot came up short on the 17th and led to a bogey, making Thomas\u2019s efforts on the 18th academic as he tapped in for bogey and a tournament total of 7-over 220.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a lot of good iron shots and wedge shots today, which I was kind of missing the first two,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n

Past champions Jim Stafford and Baker shot 5-over 76 and tied for low local at plus-10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLOQUET \u2014 Applause for the final group at the 94th Cloquet Invitational filtered through the pines but the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[9424,9425,9426,9427,427,9428,9429,9430,9431,99],"class_list":["post-9482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-amateur-golf","tag-bennett-thomas","tag-cory-schultz","tag-dan-moline","tag-golf","tag-hogan-ordal","tag-jim-stafford","tag-keegan-poppenberg","tag-sam-baker","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}