Travis Ross won the 2026 Ernotte Hiller Memorial Labor Day Golf tournament at Minakwa Golf Course on Monday, his third straight tournament championship. Ross is no stranger to success on the golf course, as he golfed at St. Cloud State University, where he won the NCC Individual championship in 2007, before transferring to D-1 New Mexico, where he made the Mountain West All-Conference in 2011.
After college, Travis played pro and retired 12 years ago.
Ross shot a 76 in qualifying. “I can still strike the ball pretty well, but it’s a grind around the greens. It’s always been a bit of a struggle the last few years of playing now that I don’t play that often,” said Ross. “Overall, I played really good against Juice (Mark Lyzcewski) and other than that I was just kind of hanging on so and I just hit the ball good enough that I can stay in it.”
The medalist was East Grand Forks Senior High graduate and current University of Minnesota Crookston golfer Brody Johnson with a 66.
As the returning champion, Ross received the #1 seed and took on Matt Hiller in the first round. Ross won 2-1. In the second round, Ross took on Mark Lyczewski and won 5-4 to advance to the semi-finals. Ross beat Wade Hanson to advance to the championship, where he took on Johnson. It was a good battle, and Johnson took the lead on the first hole, but it was the middle of the round that proved to be the difference as Ross got it going and took the lead and held on the rest of the way to win on the 17th hole. “It was tough. He’s a great competitor. He chipped in on me and I had a three putt the first hole. So he was awesome. He played pretty well and I was just kind of holding on to be honest,” said Ross. “I chipped in on eight, so I kind of got him back I won eight, nine, finally made a putt on 10, and then another one on 11. That was kind of the four-hole stretch for me that flipped from, I was about to go two down after eight. I chip in, all of a sudden it’s all square, and then I win nine, tie 10. Win 11 to go two up so that was kind of the match were those few holes there. It was great to finally make some putts I’m just kind of searching out there with the putter.”
Ross thanked Brandon Carlson, Zach Strommen, and Gretchen Carlson and the entire Minakwa staff for their work and said the course was in great shape and they made the pin placements tough.
Matt Hiller beat Jaime Martinez (UMC Golfer) on the 18th hole to win the consolation championship.
OTHER FLIGHT WINNERS (Coming soon)
Minakwa Flight –
Hiller Flight –
Red River Flight –
The Ranch Flight –
First Flight –
Second Flight –
Third Flight –
Fourth Flight –
Fifth Flight –
