Former South standout Kane Hanson decides to end pro golf career

By Jeff Kolpack

July 28, 2011 at 11:00 PM

FARGO - Kane Hanson and his family were busy this week packing up and leaving Scottsdale, Ariz., behind. There's been a lot of moving in his life lately.

For one, he's coming home. Hanson and a partner from Scottsdale are opening a U.S. Private Insurance Group office in Fargo.

For two, the professional golf career for the former Fargo South standout is over. At 29 years old with his wife Randi, a 4-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl, it was time to do something else, he said.

He gave it a good run.

"The players are getting younger and better and there are fewer spots available out there," Hanson said. "It feels like it was the right decision at the right time."

He'll leave behind a career that was oh-so-close on a few occasions. He missed qualifying for the U.S. Open by a shot two years in a row. He played in three Nationwide Tour events, missing the cut by a shot twice and making the cut in another.

"You can only take so many of those before every part of your body is shot," Hanson said. "Those summers of '07 and '08, I felt like a world beater."

He spent most of his time on either the Gateway Tour or the Canadian Tour. The thought of spending seven weeks this summer on the Canadian Tour was probably the final straw, he said.

"I have the best wife ever who was so supportive in what I did, but family is important to me," he said. "I was getting a little bit of anxiety leaving them for the Canadian Tour. It didn't feel right at all, and that was a huge factor."

Hanson played in 12 events on the Gateway Tour this year and is 25th on the money list at $14,343. He missed the cut in his last four tournaments.

He said not one day has gone by this summer where he wished he was still playing competitively. The one hope was to make it to the final stage of PGA Tour qualifying school a few years ago, where he said he would have liked his chances to make it.

"I'm a little disappointed I didn't get to the highest level and test the skills out there," he said. "Other than that, I feel like I competed. It's helped now with the real world.

"I'm happier now. It's crazy, but I'm happier punching a time clock."

Forum reporter Jeff Kolpack can be reached at (701) 241-5546.

Kolpack's NDSU media blog can be found

at www.areavoices.com/bisonmedia

By Jeff Kolpack

Jeff would like to dispel the notion he was around when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, but he is on his third decade of reporting with Forum Communications. The son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, Jeff has worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he's covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995.
Jeff has covered all nine of NDSU's Division I FCS national football titles and has written three books: "Horns Up," "North Dakota Tough" and "Covid Kids." He is the radio host of "The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack" April through August.