The 64th Annual Tournament of Champions tees up on Friday at the Atlantic Golf and Country Club and continues through Sunday. The tournament features three divisions of competition with an Open Division, Senior Division which is available to players 50+, and a Super Senior Division which is available to players 65 and up.

All the division winners from last year’s tournament are back to defend their titles. Ross Martens is the defending champion in the open division. He shot a weekend total of -3, 204 to take the title and capped it off in style with a final round 66, which matched the best round of the tournament. Zach Christianson was the runner-up last year, 4 shots back, and Ben Renaud was third at +2. They will all be in the field again.

Del Miller won a playoff over Ron Peterson to win the Senior division last year. Both players finished at +8 for the weekend and Miller won the playoff on the second hole with a par. Both players are in the field again.

Rick Thompson won the Super Senior Division for the 2nd year in a row in 2021 with a +7, 214 weekend total. He shot a terrific final round of 67 to edge out John Willmore by a shot. They also will be back to compete again.

The tournament does have a bit of a new flair to it this year. The tournament has been opened up to all golfers that want to participate.

That’s tournament committee member Doug Leonard who said they hoped to boost attendance a bit and still gave priority to past players.

In addition to opening up the tournament they also have some other fun wrinkles. A long drive competition will be held on Friday night, a closest to the pin competition Saturday, and low round prizes the first two days. They will also divvy out some great prize money.

We’ll have coverage of the tournament with updates and shot-by-shot action all weekend long on KJAN. The public is welcome to come out all weekend long to watch play and enjoy food and drink on the course.