DELLWOOD, Minn. — It was survival of the fittest at a United States Senior Open qualifying tournament here on Monday.

Fort Dodge’s Judd Gibb almost let the elements and the enormity of the mission get the best of him. A simple message from his wife, Mary, put him on the right track and mentally prepared him to repeat as a major qualifier on the Champions Tour.

Gibb carded a one-over par 73 to secure the top spot at the Dellwood Country Club. The win advances the 53-year-old Gibb to the U.S. Senior Open at Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem, Pa. next month.

“I tend to get kind of panicky and fatalistic,” said Gibb, a 1987 Fort Dodge Senior High graduate who also played in the 2021 U.S. Senior Open. “After the practice round (on Sunday), I thought I was going to be in trouble. This was honestly one of the hardest courses I’ve ever played. There were 13 holes with water on both sides of the fairway, and the holes without those hazards had out of bounds to deal with.

“Mary kept telling me, ‘you know how to play and what to do. You’ll be fine.’ I just thought to myself on the first tee, ‘maybe she’s right.’ And thankfully, she was.”

Gibb recorded three birdies and four bogeys on the course just north and east of White Bear Lake — 20 miles from the Twin Cities. The scoreboard was what Gibb described as a “total mess,” with 32 players in the 49-man field shooting 80 or higher, two reaching 100, and six withdrawing altogether.

“Thankfully, I drove the ball really well,” said Gibb, who also secured berths in the 2019 Senior PGA Championship and the 2020 PGA Championship. “You can’t afford to hit wayward tee shots here. I can’t really explain it, because I hadn’t been particularly steady off the tee (in recent rounds). But during the practice round, I found something that felt a little more familiar after struggling and fighting my swing for a while.”

Gibb admitted that last November, he had a crossroads moment with his body and decided to get back into shape.

“I’ve been trying to do a better job of controlling my weight, exercising and watching what I eat,” Gibb said. “With a ‘new’ body comes a new swing, though. It hasn’t felt right or the same since, but the last two days, it finally did.”

Gibb noted that in addition to the difficulty of the course itself — with slick greens and torturous pin placements to go along with penalty danger and blind shots everywhere — winds were gusting at around 20-25 miles per hour.

“It’s a wonderful club and a beautiful course,” said Gibb, a six-time Iowa PGA Section Player of the Year and an Iowa Golf Association Hall of Famer. “But I thought to myself if you played here every day, you’d either end up being really good or quit the game forever. I sat in the hotel (on Sunday night) and went over my gameplan. I just wanted to get to the middle of the greens and give myself a chance, but getting there was going to be an issue if I didn’t have my driver (working).

“I birdied the last hole, which is always a great way to finish. You just try to do as well as you can, and at my age, forget less about (strategies and the course itself) than everyone else.”

Gibb now joins “my good buddy Dave (Sergeant)” as the only local golfer in city history to reach multiple U.S. Senior Open fields. Sergeant advanced in 1998 and again in 2003.

“I always tell people the easiest time (to qualify) is the first,” Gibb said. “It’s a lot tougher to try and get back. This means the world to me. Before last year, I’d never qualified for a USGA event.

“When you get to be in your 50s, you appreciate every opportunity that comes along even more. I don’t take any of this for granted, and as always, I take a great deal of pride in representing the Fort Dodge community and its rich golf history.”