DULUTH — The 100th Northland Invitational is guaranteed to have a new champion and increasingly likely to see a first-time champion after two rounds of match play winnowed the contenders from 32 golfers to eight, only two of whom have previously won the event.

On a day of dawn-to-dusk golf at Northland Country Club, defending champion Alex Kolquist got caught from behind in a 1-up second-round loss to No. 17 Travis Hess.

Hess found himself 3-down to the defending champ, playing as the No. 1 seed, with eight holes to play, but made three birdies on the next five holes to even the match going to 16. There, both players struggled, failing to take advantage of the other's double-bogeying the par-4. Hess won the par-3 17th with a par and held on through the final hole to win the match and ens

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