Reid & Kuznik Are Mr. & Ms. Minnesota Golf

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In 1999, less than a year after he turned professional and joined the PGA Tour, Tiger Woods won the Masters by 12 shots. He then went to work with Butch Harmon and changed his swing. Basically, it took two years for all that work to pay off. Woods won only one tournament in 1998. But something clicked in the spring of 1999, and Woods won eight times, including his second major championship, the PGA. And it was in June of 2000 that he won the U.S. Open by 15 shots at Pebble Beach. That was the first of the four consecutive majors that he won -- 2000 U.S. Open, 2000 British Open, 2000 PGA and 2001 Masters -- in the non-calendar-year Grand Slam that is generally referred to as the Tiger Slam.

Brett Reid did something similar after the Community Christian (Willmar)  sophomore won the boys Class A portion of the state high school championship in 2019. He changed his swing. 

"It wasn't an easy thing to do," Reid's father and coach, Chris Reid, remembers. "You have to make the change, and then you have to learn to trust the new swing. That's probably the hardest part. There were times when it wasn't working."

But two years later, it is working."

This spring, Reid won nine times in 11 tournaments/matches, and he finished second and third in the two that he didn't win. He dominated the competition during his senior season.

As a result, he is the 2021 Minnesota Mr. Golf. 

That was announced Saturday at Oak Ridge Country Club at the Ms./Mr. Minnesota Golf banquet. Camille Kuznik was named Ms. Minnesota Golf. 

Kuznik had a stroke average of 75 or better in each of her last three seasons at Orono. (Her junior season, 2020, was wiped out by the Covid 19 pandemic.)  This year, she averaged 74.4 shots per round.

It was seven years ago that Kuznik started building her golf resume, by winning the Sectional Drive, Chip & Putt championship and thereby earning a spot in the 2015 National Finals at Augusta National. A year later, she made the Orono varsity lineup as a seventh-grader and earned the Spartans' Rookie of the Year award. She won the MGA Junior Girls Championship in 2018 and '19, and the Minnesota Publinx Golf Association Junior Publinx title in 2019.

She finished fifth in Class AAA at the state tournament as a ninth-grader in 2018, and 11th in 2019. That summer, she was 17th in the Optimist International tournament. As part of that event, there was a long drive contest, and Kuznik won it. 

During her six seasons at Orono, she won more than 125 matches/tournaments, and she finished third at the state tournament this year with a 36-hole total of 144, one of the 10 best scores ever posted in the 31 years that the girls AAA portion of the state tournamnt has been played at Bunker Hills. 

A stem cell donor for a leukemia patient, and volunteer at a Ronald McDonald House and St. John's Lutheran Church, Kuznik will begin her freshman year at the University of Wisconsin in the fall. 

Among his victories this year, Reid won the individual title in Section 4A by 12 shots with a 70-72--142. 

At the state tournament, he got off to a slow start and shot 74 at Pebble Creek on the first day. Trailing by four at the start of the second day, he shot a 73 in the wind, but his aggregate of 147 came up one stroke short, and he finished second to Ryan Petry of Fertile-Beltrami.

This fall, Reid will be at Liberty University in Lynchberg, Va.

The Flames made the NCAA tournament this spring, and they have an All-American, Kieran Vincent, returning for his senior year. 

"They had a great season," Chris Reid said. "They have an All-American (Kieran Vincent, and they have two other strong players coming back. Brett's excited about going there."

This was the fifth year for Mr./Ms. Minnesota Golf. The first winner of the Ms. Golf Award, Kate Smith, was the featured speaker at the banquet Saturday. She won a record five state high school championships while she was at Detroit Lakes, as well as the MGA Junior Girls title in the summer of 2013. In 2017, she won the Minnesota Women's State Amateur, and in 2019 the Women's State Open. She recently completed her senior year at Nebraska, having won the Big Ten Conference individual championship, thanks to a final-round 64, which also propelled the Huskers to a second-place finish in the team competition. Among the post-season honors she received, Smith was named All-Big Ten, Academic All-Big Ten, Third-team All-American (Golfweek) and All-American Honorable Mention (Women's Golf Coaches Association). She has since turned professional and hopes to make it through the three-stage LPGA Q-School and onto the women's tour for the 2022 season. 


2021 Ms. Minnesota Golf Finalists

Ally Chan, Minnetonka

Lauren Contreras, Maple Grove

Camille Kuznik, Orono

Isabelle Lynch, Bloomington Jefferson

Isabelle Segal, St. Louis Park

Annika Stensrud, Minnewaska

Kyra Venne, East Ridge

Emma Welch, Lakeville North


2021 Mr. Minnesota Golf Finalists

Josh Galvin, Maple Grove

Leo Gellert, Mankato West

Carson Herron, Minnetonka

Brady Holland, Elk River

Davis Johnson, Chaska

Ian Meyer, Minnetonka

Brett Reid, Community Christian

Ian Simonich, Moorhead

Former winners

Ms. Golf

2016 -- Kate Smith, Detroit Lakes

2017 -- Stephanie Herzog, Red Wing

2018 -- Joanna Kim, Edina

2019 -- Leah Herzog, Red Wing

2020 -- No winner (no season -- Covid 19)


Mr. Golf

2106 -- Andrew Israelson, Staples-Motley

2017 -- Ben Sigel, Minnetonka

2018 -- Tristan Nelko, Wayzata

2019 -- Connor Glynn, Waconia

2020 -- No winner