MITCHELL — The largest golf tournament in South Dakota Golf Association history was held Sunday.
And Mitchell’s Lakeview Golf Course was ready and capable to make it happen.
A total of 304 players were on hand for the SDGA Adult/Junior Championship at Lakeview on Sunday, which consisted of 152 two-person teams playing in an alternate shot format. The state Adult/Junior competition has doubled in size since the last time it was held in Mitchell seven years ago.
Dean Zahn, who is the SDGA’s Director of Competitions, said the largest tournament milestone is a round mark, one that shows the continued growth of the game over the last five years, riding a boom after the coronavirus pandemic made golf one of the few sports that was available to play as a socially distanced activity that was outdoors.
“It’s pretty exciting to have that much support and junior golf is booming all over, golf is booming in general,” Zahn said. “So to have that many players wanting to play in this event is really exciting and it looks great for the future. We have more and more demand on our Junior Tour, and we’ve seen big growth.”
Mitchell is hosting the state’s Adult/Junior and Junior championships for the first time since 2018. The tournaments are generally held on the same weekend so that players can compete in both with ease.
In the 2018 tournament, there were 140 junior finishers. Since then, the SDGA has added an under-9 division and also created an age 10-11 division rather than the previous under-11 age cutoff. The Adult/Junior Championship that year had 74 two-player teams.
This year, there are 216 players signed up for the Junior tournament, which starts Monday and runs through Wednesday for the oldest age groups. It represents a 54.3% increase in a seven-year span for the Junior championship, while the Adult/Junior participation jumped by 105%.
Golf carts are lined up near the entrance of Lakeview Golf Course during the South Dakota Golf Association’s Adult/Junior Championship on Sunday, July 20, 2025.
Marcus Traxler / Mitchell Republic
That makes for a lot of work for the staff at Lakeview Golf Course, which includes Clubhouse Manager Eric Hieb and Golf and Cemetery Superintendent Jason Gunnare. Hieb commended the large staff of local volunteers and helpers that assisted with the tournament, doing jobs such as helping locate balls on the course, working the driving range, checking out golf carts and helping to clean golf clubs.
Hieb also recruited members to loan their carts to be used during the tournament, considering there were 152 teams that could potentially use a cart along with spectators upon request carts, creating demand far beyond a typical course day.
“You can only prep so much until the actual day comes to make sure everything’s running smoothly, but the more prep work you put in, the easier it is to make things go smoothly so everybody that’s coming through because they’re coming from all over the state to make sure they’re enjoying their time at Lakeview,” Hieb said.
Hieb said Mitchell’s central location in the state is one plus for many visiting players, and the course management takes pride in having a well maintained course that is player-friendly and has enough room on the driving range, practice area and parking lot.
“It’s definitely something we take pride in and getting the chance to host the largest tournament in state history, that’s a very cool thing for Lakeview,” Hieb said.
The large fields are leading to an SDGA schedule change. Zahn said 2026 will be the first to have the Adult/Junior and Junior championships played over two weekends. The age 16-18 Adult/Junior and Junior competitions will take place June 22-24 at the Golf Club at Red Rock in Rapid City, followed by the same competitions for age 15-and-under a month later (July 26-28) at Hart Ranch Golf Course in Rapid City.
“We’re going to have a younger version and an older version, because this is getting too big for one golf course to handle,” Zahn said. “But this is a good problem to have and we’re excited for that change too. … It’s quite the undertaking now.”
For the administration of the tournament, the SDGA had three waves of tee times, with young golfers playing nine holes early Sunday morning with the first tee time at 8 a.m., the age 16-18 golfers that were playing 18 holes going off in the mid-morning and then a late wave of golfers playing their 18 holes starting as late as 3:50 p.m. The Adult/Junior alternate shot format helps keep pace of play moving and allowed groups of six total players since only three balls were in play at once.
“Our last tee time goes off at almost 4 p.m.,” Zahn said. “So you’re getting to the point where if we have any weather situations, we can’t finish. So it’s another reason to split them up.”
Aside from a brief afternoon downpour on Sunday afternoon, the weather cooperated for players and organizers alike to get the championship rounds played.
Lakeview is in line to host the 2026 SDGA Men’s Mid-Amateur Championship June 6-7, which is open to players age 25 and older. In 2027, it will host the Two-Woman Championship in June, which includes four age divisions of team play.
Marcus Traxler is the assistant editor and sports editor for the Mitchell Republic. A past winner of the state’s Outstanding Young Journalist award and the 2023 South Dakota Sportswriter of the Year, he’s worked for the newspaper since 2014 and covers a wide variety of topics. A Minnesota native, Traxler can be reached at mtraxler@mitchellrepublic.com.
