The Duluth All-City Golf Tournament was conceived in 1941 as a demanding contest to determine annually the city golf champion of Duluth, Minnesota. To that end, tournament sponsors Duluth News-Tribune and Duluth Herald established a season-ending golf tournament of the best 32 golfers representing the city’s two public (Enger Park Golf Course and Lester Park Golf Course) and three private (Northland Country Club, Ridgeview Country Club and Riverside Golf Club) golf courses.
The field of 32 players was determined by 36-hole medal play intramural tournaments conducted at each golf course - some doubling as club championships. Ridgeview and Northland both qualified six players for the tournament, Enger Park and Lester Park seven each and Riverside four. Golfers unattached to any of the Duluth golf courses could compete for two at-large spots (Riverside closed in 1943 and its four entries were divided among Enger Park and Lester Park). Having qualified for the tournament, the participants played 18-hole match play elimination rounds with the two finalists playing a 36-hole match. Each year, the tournament rotated among the Duluth courses. By 1946, the Duluth All-City Golf Tournament was considered to be one of the most prestigious golf events and a major among local and regional tournaments.
The first All-City champion was Jim Koehler of Enger Park who defeated fellow club member Wally Johnson 2 and 1. The championship golf trophy - a large silver loving cup to be displayed at the home club of the champion - was presented to Koehler. Koehler would repeat as winner in 1944 and 1953.
Over the years, the structure of the tournament changed. By 1943, the Northland and Ridgeview clubs determined their entries by selecting their lowest handicap players. A junior event was added in 1944. A substantial change occurred in 1955 when the tournament moved to 72-hole medal play. Under this format, a 36-hole cut eliminated all but eight players with a 54-hole cut further reducing the field to four players for the final 18 holes. A year later, the tournament was reduced to 36-holes all played on a single day to lessen the burden on the host course which had to close access to members or to the public to conduct the tournament.
Because of the competitive nature of the tournament, the All-City produced champions that also succeeded in competitions at both state and national levels. Among the junior champions, Bob Magie III and Gary Burton would subsequently win the Minnesota Golf Association’s State Amateur Championship. At the senior level, John Jenswold was a two-time NCAA National Golf Tournament runner-up and 1944 Big Ten Conference champion. Tom Maas was the 1962 NAIA National Golf Tournament runner-up. Bob Fretland became a PGA touring professional and Jim Nordine lost 1-up to Jack Nicklaus in the quarterfinals of the 1959 Trans-Mississippi Amateur – one month before claiming his second Duluth All-City title.
The last Duluth All-City Golf Tournament was played in 1963. Prior to its demise, declining interest had caused some of the golf clubs to struggle filling their allocation of participants. Quotas were juggled among the clubs and at-large entrants became a larger percentage of the field. North Lakes Golf Association (NLGA) officials blamed the declining interest in the tournament on its timing. Over the years, many other events had been added to the summer tournament schedule so that by late September - when the All-City was conducted - players were no longer interested in tournament golf.
In early 1963, local golf officials decided to merge the Duluth City Public Links and the All-City golf tournaments into one large event to be known as the All-City Championship. At the time, the Public Links tournament was one of the oldest tournaments in Duluth having been conducted for 35 years. As with the All-City tournament, it had been one of the more popular events attracting most of the area's better golfers. However, it too had seen diminishing appeal in recent years. NGLA officials hoped that one big tournament would renew participant interest. The Public Links tournament was canceled as planned but the proposed All-City Championship didn't get off the ground because of other preoccupations by the NGLA. Consequently, the NGLA made a last-minute decision to play the All-City tournament for 1963.
Having received a one-year reprieve, city golf pros and North Lakes Golf Association officials decided to end the All-City tournament in 1964 when it was concluded that they would have to increase the number of at-large entrants to more than six which no longer made it an “All-City” crown. Along with the discontinuance of the Duluth City Public Links Tournament, two of the four local "Grand Slam" tournaments were no longer contested and a significant chapter in the history of competitive golf in Duluth was ended.
Winners
* Won in a playoff