Story by University of Minnesota Crookston Sports Information Director, Shawn Smith.
He swings his flashlight back with an intense focus on his movement and accuracy as a United States Marine Corps recruit trots through the dark during duty in the middle of the night. The recruit, who is in the middle of boot camp, is Brian Bekkala, a native of Livonia, Mich., who is working on his golf swing with whatever means he has available. Bekkala, a self-described hockey player who plays golf, traveled around the world as a combat photographer in the U.S. Marines from 2012-17. During his time as a Leatherneck, Bekkala played golf everywhere he went and with whatever means he was able to. His worldwide pursuit led him to encounter influential people that would help him on his path eventually to the University of Minnesota Crookston, where he would make the men’s golf program.
Bekkala’s worldwide golf journey begins back in Michigan where as a fourth or fifth grader, he was looking for a pursuit to take up his time during the summers when he wasn’t playing hockey. His uncle, a former U.S. Marine in Vietnam introduced Bekkala to the sport of golf.
“I had played hockey my whole life and I didn’t want to play hockey in the summer, so it gave me something to do,” Bekkala recalled. “I got a set of clubs and went into my uncle’s backyard and hit golf balls. There are woods on one side and cars on the street on the other side, so you had to hit it straight. He would give me real golf balls to hit and tell me to aim it at the tree in the middle of the yard. I played over the summer with my uncle and then went out to a golf course and was hooked after that.”
After his first introduction to golf, Bekkala returned to his house where he looked to put his newfound skills to test. Except, Bekkala misjudged his abilities.
“I remember coming home from the first time when I practiced hitting golf balls,” Bekkala said. “I have never told anyone this story before but my Dad was cutting grass in the backyard. We had a fence around our backyard. When we were at my uncle’s house it never seemed like the ball got above six feet in the air. So I thought I would just hit it from 20-feet away and it would just hit the wall and stop. Well I hit a three-wood and it went over everything, including the house that was behind me. I never saw the golf ball again and picked up all my stuff and ran inside. I don’t think I broke anything because nobody came looking, but that made me think that wasn’t a good idea so I didn’t do that again.”
The incident gives images of the scene in the movie in Happy Gilmore where the title character played by Adam Sandler launches a drive all the way down the street, and surprisingly hits a house all the way at the end of the street. Bekkala did not hit any houses as he recalls, but it is his favorite movie and goes along with the quote he loves from the movie, “I’m a hockey player but I am playing golf today.”
The hockey player turned golfer continued to play golf with his uncle and his friends through elementary and middle school. He continued his pursuit and looked to make the boy’s golf team at Livonia Franklin High School.
“I got to high school and wasn’t even sure I would make the team my freshman year,” stated Bekkala. “The golf coach was right behind me as we were hitting golf balls into the dome. He knew that I played for the hockey team and so he just took that for what it was. Then I hit this club that was a hybrid, it was my favorite club at the time, and I hit four or five in a row into the same spot. I am pretty sure those five shots got me on to the high school team as a freshman.”
Bekkala would spend his time during the summer honing his craft as a golfer as the members of the boy’s golf team would drive around golf carts for the junior golf program at the local golf course. This allowed the team members to play free golf all summer long.
“My mom or dad would drop me off in the morning and I would go and play 72 holes in a day freshman through senior year of high school over the summer,” Bekkala said.
His summer golf excursions would lead him to meet a man named Chuck, a Vietnam veteran who taught Bekkala about pressure and putting.
“There is this guy named Chuck, who was another Vietnam vet,” Bekkala said. “I started playing golf with him during my sophomore or junior year. Sometimes I beat him and other times he beat me. He would shoot 75 like it was nothing. I wasn’t very good back then, so playing golf with him all the time helped me out a lot. He told me things about putting that I still use today. I remember telling him, ‘Chuck, you have to make this putt, do you feel any pressure.’ And then he would tell a story about Vietnam and then he would say ‘that is what pressure is.’ When you are under the gun and you have to do something at the end of the day it is just golf.”
Unsure about what he was going to do after high school, Bekkala went back to a documentary he had watched on 9/11 and encounters he had with the U.S. Marine Corps throughout his life to help steer him down his next path. Bekkala had come from a strong family history of service for the country, with his uncle who served in Vietnam, his grandpa on his dad’s side who was in the U.S. Navy, and his grandpa on his mom’s side who served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.
“I joined the U.S. Marine Corps right out of high school,” Bekkala said. “I remember watching a documentary on 9/11 and my mom was a flight attendant and so I was liking sitting there and didn’t think college was going to work out. School wasn’t great at the time and so I didn’t want something like 9/11 to happen to my mom. I was 18 and I didn’t know anything but I thought I did. Sitting on the couch doing nothing isn’t really going to help my mom’s case so I decided to join the Marines. I figured it would help my mom sleep at night, but it did the exact opposite. I was first introduced to the Marines when I was three because I took a picture for the Toys for Tots in Detroit. They needed a three-year old kid to take a picture with the Marines and my grandma volunteered me. I had a Halloween costume where I was a Marine fighter pilot. The recruiter came to high school one day and I thought it sounded cool. I didn’t tell my parents a thing, they just thought I was working out with them. And then my buddy kind of spilled the beans on it to my parents.”
Bekkala was unsure about what his path would be in the U.S. Marine Corps, when he first went to basic training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Parris Island, S.C. Bekkala would continue talk golf and pursue golf throughout boot camp, including his swinging of the flashlight to practice his golf swing. After he graduated from recruit training, the first thing Bekkala did was go to The Legends Golf Course at Parris Island, a Marine Corps golf course near the Marine Corps Recruit Depot.
“My mom, the first time she has set up a tee time in her life, set one up for noon on the day I graduated,” Bekkala recalled. “I graduated at 11 a.m., and I had tee time at noon at the course on base. That course is called The Legends, and it is one of the best courses in the Marine Corps. It is unreal and is in great shape. That is in Parris Island, S.C. So I walked in there with my Marine alphas on. I had no idea what to even do. It was the first time I had put on regular clothes since October that year and this was in February. I didn’t know what to do with my uniform and was walking very gingerly around the clubhouse and making sure I am respectful. I walked in to a part of the clubhouse and there are all these drill instructors there. I remember getting ready to breathe in to scream at them, because that is just what you did. It was basically ‘good morning gentlemen’, that I had to say. I remember breathing in and then realizing that I am Marine now. So instead I just said good morning gentlemen just like a normal person.
Bekkala’s first round of golf after boot camp was eventful, as on the first hole his dad has spotted a 10-foot alligator in a pond.
“We were going by the first hole and my dad had said something about an alligator and that it was huge,” Bekkala said. “So he took a golf ball and threw the ball toward the alligator and then said ‘Brian come here, just check this out.’ There was a 10-foot alligator in this pond and he just takes off. He said ‘if my golf ball is anywhere near this pond, I am just going to leave it.’ My buddy took a picture of it and it has been his Facebook picture for probably 10 years.”
Bekkala’s Marine Corps journey next took him to Fort Meade in Maryland where he went to combat photography training. Bekkala was unsure of what he wanted to do in the U.S. Marine Corps, but they had put a combat photography contract in front of him and he accepted. As his journey as a Marine continued, so did his journey and love affair with the sport of golf. On his off time, he would go to the area golf course with several friends from the Marine Corps, as they needed to travel with buddies anywhere they went off base. His time at the golf course in Maryland led him to meet Fred, a former golf pro at the Marine Golf Course in Okinawa, Japan.
“I met a guy in Maryland named Fred, who gave my lessons out there,” Bekkala recalled. “He was saying that he was the head golf pro in Okinawa. I didn’t even really think Okinawa existed. I thought that I would end in California or North Carolina or somewhere in between there. I get orders and they say Okinawa, Japan. And I said to myself ‘you’re kidding, right?’ I had a lesson with Fred the next week and told him I was going to Okinawa and he was excited for me. He rattled off names and told me to meet this guy named Finnegan. He told me he is a legend out in Okinawa and said tell him that you know me, and you will be just fine.
So Bekkala embarked for the island of Okinawa with his uniform, and a bag full of golf clothes and of course his golf clubs. His fellow U.S. Marines were surprised that he would bring his golf clubs to Okinawa, but Bekkala just fired back, “I would bring these to Iraq if I went over there, these things are coming with me wherever I go.”
As Bekkala arrived in Okinawa, he made his way to the golf course where he met the golf legend of Okinawa Finigan, that Fred had described.
“I go the golf course and have to bring a buddy with me because you have to bring someone with you,” Bekkala said. “Thankfully I had people in Okinawa that would go to the golf course with me. I go there and said I know this guy named Fred and he told me to say his name as much as I could over here. I met this guy named Finigan, who was the golfing legend of Okinawa. This guy was in his 70’s at the time and he would shoot his age consistently. There was a guy named Pete out there, as well, who played professional golf. He tried to get through PGA qualifying school a few times, but couldn’t make it. He played in the US Open and British Open, and won a couple of tournaments on the Japanese Tour. He taught me a lot about golf, as well. It was insane. I would ask him anything under the sun about golf and he would have an answer. We were playing golf one time and he took my lefty driver and flipped it over and swung it right-handed and the ball went 275 right down the middle.”
It was also during his time in Okinawa, that Bekkala would go to the course with his friend Andy from high school and his buddy Blais, who they had met in the U.S. Marines. During one particular outing in Okinawa, Bekkala had challenged Blais that he if he made a birdie they would continue to play golf despite the rainy conditions they were playing in.
“We were on hole nine and I said ‘if I make birdie, we are playing 18.’ He was like ‘whatever, you aren’t going to make birdie, we are going to warm up and go home.’,” Bekkala recalled. “I hit one up next to the green and if this chip goes in, we are playing 18. I hit a 20-foot chip, and he was like ‘you are kidding me.’ We went to the pro shop and bought a new shirt and shorts and by the time we did that and ate lunch, it was perfectly fine, 70 degrees and sunny, so we went out and played again. My buddy brings that story up all the time. That was awesome.”
During his time in Okinawa, he would go on training missions to Australia, South Korea, and the Philippines, along with several other countries. Bekkala’s job took him on these training missions where they would often be on CRRC boats, often known as Navy Seal boats.
“My unit in Japan was more responsible for taking photos of the training missions,” Bekkala stated. “For two years I took photos in the CRRC boats or the Navy Seal boats. I started out using a GoPro and then figured out how to water proof my camera to get better photos. That was really cool.”
As Bekkala went on these missions he would continue to find a way to practice his golf swing with whatever means he had available.
“I remember bringing a golf club to the golf store before we left and I snapped it in half over my knee cap because I was mad,” Bekkala said. “I told them to just put a grip on it, so the club was only about a foot long so I could fit it in my backpack. So like the flashlight thing at boot camp, I would take this club out when I was at work and I would swing that to get my golf fix while we were on our training missions.”
It was during his time in Okinawa that one of his superiors first put in his head the possibility of pursuing golf further while in the Marine Corps and after.
“My captain there at the time he played college golf before he became an officer,” recalled Bekkala. “We would talk all the time and when he left and then I left at the time, he was adamant about me trying to make the All-Marine Golf Team. I haven’t talked to him in probably seven or eight years, but I probably should let him know that I am playing college golf now. He made me think that it was possibly, so that was pretty cool.”
After his time in Okinawa, Bekkala had orders to go to Camp Pendleton in Southern California, where he would have a more 9 to 5 job taking promotional photos for the U.S. Marine Corps. Though he made a move, his golf journey through the U.S. Marine Corps continued.
“After Japan, we went to Southern California and Camp Pendleton and one of the first days I got there, my buddy picked me up at the airport and then dropped me off at the golf course,” Bekkala said. “So I went and played golf and I met the golf pros in there. I told them I just came from Okinawa but I will be seeing you guys quite a bit. I started playing golf there and met another guy named Pete. He took me under his wing and he had all the answers about everything with the Marine Corps. He was a retired Marine and had been working on base for 20 years. So I would ask him questions about the Marine Corps or golf or anything and he would always have answers. I would also watch his dogs when he would take off for the weekend. He lived right on a golf course and I would take his two dogs and go and beat golf balls from 5 at night until it got dark pretty much every day.”
As Bekkala was about to get out of the Marines, he began to focus on what his next path would be. It was while playing golf with Pete that he decided what his next journey would be.
“Right as I was about to get out of the Marines I originally want to be a club pro. But from playing golf with Pete in California, I would tell him how I didn’t like to sit in the office in the Marine Corps. So he told me I didn’t want to be a club pro, that what I would enjoy more was being a superintendent of a golf course. By happenstance I went to the golf course and got paired up with this guy named Tyler and he asked me what I did and if I was staying in the Marine Corps or staying in. I told him I was getting out and that I wanted to be a golf superintendent. He told me that he had the perfect school for me and it was Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Georgia. He was on the golf team and they have a good program for turf. He told me if I could make the golf team, I would have a blast out there.”
Bekkala made his way to Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Ga., but his journey would not go as planned, as he was unable to make the men’s golf team and he would start to lose his passion for a sport that he had played around the world for the past five years.
“I heard that and golf and I was sold,” Bekkala recalled. “I applied and got in and drove down there. I went down there and was sitting in class during the fall of semester of 2018 and realized I needed to get out of there. The golf team didn’t work out and I was working at a golf course and was playing golf and didn’t want to play golf anymore. I basically put my clubs under my bed and didn’t touch them for two months. In the Marine Corps I thought that golf was the best thing ever.”
Bekkala still wanted to pursue being a golf superintendent, so he had googled golf and turf management schools and as fate would have it, the University of Minnesota Crookston popped up in his search results.
“I went online and googled turf schools and Minnesota Crookston popped up. At the time I didn’t know that there were a lot of golf and turf schools. I thought there were just the couple that I had researched online. So I applied and looked at my credits and 90 percent of them transferred.”
Bekkala wasn’t sure he wanted to pursue golf while at Minnesota Crookston since his passion had waned due to his experience at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. However, it was during a golf round in Grand Forks, N.D., that he realized he could still play and that he decided to continue his pursuit of a sport he loved.
“I moved up here and went to Albatross Indoor Golf Club in Grand Forks and hit a five iron and a five iron and hit this huge cut,” Bekkala recalled. “I realized I could play golf again. I went to the athletic area thinking that is where Brad (Heppner) would be, and had looked at a picture online and I went to go find him. I was in one of the offices waiting for someone and I saw Brad walking out with a Titleist box and realized it was him. I went up to him and introduced myself and told him I was in the Marine Corps and that I won a tournament while I was in the Marine Corps. I had asked if he had any spots on the golf team or if I could try out. He told me to think it over if it was something I really wanted to do. So I mulled it over and thought about how all I wanted to do was play golf in Georgia and it didn’t happen. I didn’t want to get my hopes up and have it not happen again and be in the same predicament again. So I thought about it and decided I wanted to do it. I e-mailed Brad and wanted to set something up where I could hit a couple of golf shots in front of him. I just wanted to see if it was a possibility. I had hit a couple of shots in front of him and he said over the summer we will see what your game is like and go from there.”
Bekkala continued to work on his golf game throughout the summer as he remained in Crookston and worked at Minakwa Golf Course in Crookston. His summer job allowed him to get close with Minakwa Golf Course owner Rick Leach and his family.
“I got the job at Minakwa and Rick has taught me everything I know in terms of how to drive the mower and everything like that,” said Bekkala. “He took me under his wing and let me work there. I got to play more golf than I worked. I go and work and then practice all day. Another kid who works there, Isaac (Westlake), who plays for Winona State, I had seen him out there and realized he was pretty good. That made me strive to get to his level. I was worried about getting good enough because all of these guys have been playing tournaments through college and high school. I hadn’t played in a real tournament since 2012. I worked really hard and I had gotten okay, I guess. Brad (Heppner) saw that and said that as long as everything with compliance went through that I could have a spot on the team.”
During his time at Minawka Golf Course, Bekkala also got acquainted with Travis Ross, a former college golfer at the University of New Mexico, who had played professional golf and had pursued a career in the PGA, and who is now serving as a volunteer assistant coach for Head Coach Brad Heppner at Minnesota Crookston.
“Over the summer, Travis had told me some stuff and it made sense,” Bekkala said. “Travis (Ross) worked with me over the winter and the last few months. I really took what he had to say to heart and really worked on my game. That put me over the edge in terms of getting better, especially with having the indoor golf simulator. Travis knows everything when it comes to the golf swing. The things he told me I really paid attention to when we were in Arizona. I could tell that it was paying off. The only thing that I hadn’t worked on with Travis was my putting and that was the thing that wasn’t really clicking that week in Arizona. He has been a huge help. This summer I am definitely going to utilize Travis to work with.”
Bekkala has thoroughly enjoyed his time on the men’s golf team at Minnesota Crookston, and he has continued to improve through his countless hours of work at the indoor golf simulator at Minnesota Crookston. Bekkala shot a low round of 74 during the Golden Eagles last tournament of the season at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Spring Invite in Prescott, Ariz.
“The golf side has been great having all the tools we have now,” Bekkala stated. “For going to a school north of Iowa, where you can’t play golf in the winter time. The simulator we have in our Indoor Performance Center, you can’t find anything better. Our gym is in really good shape. For the student- athlete side of it, you can’t beat it. Especially if you are from Minnesota or the surrounding area, if you want to get good at golf it is on you. All the tools you need are there at Minnesota Crookston. It is just up to you on if you want to put in the work to do it. That is huge because that helps out with recruiting down the road. I would have come here in a couple of years, I don’t think I would have been good enough to make the golf team. I got in here at the perfect time. I think next year should be a pretty good year and I think we should just keep getting better as a program from there.”
Bekkala has also loved the school at Minnesota Crookston, as he pursues his dream of being a golf superintendent.
“It is awesome,” Bekkala said. “I am a huge fan. Work-wise it has been great. Rick is a really good boss and his whole family works at the course and they are awesome. They take really good care of me out there. They teach me everything I need to know. From the school part, all the professors are great. We can’t play college golf without the professors. Dr. (Kristina) Walker has been great at helping to clarify the science portion of growing turf.”
Bekkala has been around the world as a U.S. Marine and he has met countless people that have led him along this amazing journey of pursuing golf. He has come a long way from the child playing golf in his uncle’s backyard. Without the amazing people he has met from his home in Michigan, to the coast of South Carolina, to Okinawa, to Southern California, to Georgia, and now in Northwest Minnesota, it is unsure whether his path would have been the same. Though he describes himself as a hockey player who plays golf, it is clear that Bekkala has had a passion for golf that has come along with him wherever he has been. It is a story that Minnesota Crookston fans are excited to see continue to grow as the former U.S. Marine continues to swing a golf club, whether it is a full three-wood, a flashlight, or a cut off club. We are proud to call Bekkala a Golden Eagle and a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps.
