THE ASSOCIATED PRESS reported Tuesday that Tiger Woods has finished a week of family counseling in Arizona and has been spotted hitting range balls at Isleworth Country Club near his Orlando, Fla., home.
Good. Please hurry.
I may have a biased opinion (he did, after all, dominate much of my 2009 year in review wrap-up column) but I hope these activities lead to his imminent return.
I’ll return to the Tiger topic later in the column but I must shine some light on North Olympic Peninsula golf happenings first.
PT Golf Club
It may have been windy but Port Townsend Golf Club’s Men’s Club was able to get a round of golf in before being treated to a lunch of barbecued burgers prepared by Vicki Handyside.
It was the first competition of the year for the men’s club.
Results for the day are available on Page B2.
Port Townsend will hold its St. Patrick’s Day Best-Ball and Feast with a shotgun start at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 13.
A full St. Patrick’s Day meal will follow play.
A chance to combine playing golf and doing good for hundreds of kids with special needs is available with the Northwest Kiwanis Camp Fundraiser Golf Tournament on March 27.
The tourney raises funds for the camp out on the shores of Beausite Lake near Chimacum.
That camp provides a lot of smiles and positive memories for children, so don’t miss out on a chance to have some fun and make a positive impact.
For more information, phone the course at 360-385-4547.
SkyRidge happenings
Sequim’s SkyRidge Golf Course will host its St. Paddy’s Tournament on Saturday, March 13.
The four-person shotgun scramble will tee it up at 9:30 a.m.
Cost for the event is $160 per foursome with an optional honey pot.
There will be lots of prizes and a traditional Irish stew served for lunch.
A big break skills challenge will follow tournament play.
Hooligans are welcomed, or at least golfers dressed in their best kilt and knickers outfits because there will be a prize for best-dressed hooligan.
The next weekend golfers can participate in the club’s annual Bust a Gut tournament.
Each foursome will start from the tips in this event and stay there, playing the full-length of the course each time around.
The green will have two pin placements, except for holes 9 and 18.
Gross and net prizes, the chance to claim four KP’s, range balls, long putt and lunch are included in the $55 per person entry fee.
Players should form their own foursomes.
SkyRidge will also host a Spring Break Junior Golf camp for students ages 6-15 from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday, March 29 to Wednesday, March 31.
Course staff will provide instruction for the camp.
Attendees will receive a camp T-shirt and group photo as well as snacks and drinks.
On the final day of the camp, youth golfers will head out onto the links course to play some holes.
Cost is $50 per child, with additional siblings paying $30 each.
Entry forms are available at the SkyRidge Golf Course pro shop, 7015 Old Olympic Highway.
For more information on any of those events, phone SkyRidge at 360-683-3673.
. . . back to Woods
Tiger still has time to get his game going to compete for his fifth green jacket at Augusta National April 8-11.
The schedule works in his favor for a return in time to compete at The Masters.
A prime location for his comeback is Arnold Palmer’s tournament, the Bay Hill Invitational, set for March 25-28.
He’s had a smidgen of success there, having won the event six times in total and four times in a row from 2000-2003.
Woods is the two-time defending champion of the event, sinking birdie putts on the tournament’s 72nd hole in both 2008 and 2009.
The pair of famous golfers, Palmer and Woods, have had, if not a friendship, at least a mutual admiration since a 1995 dinner conversation in Napa Valley during Tiger’s senior year at Stanford University.
The young Woods queried the aging champion on “what to expect out there” on the PGA Tour.
Circumstances have changed since Palmer told the Orlando Sentinel’s Jeremy Fowler in 2008 that “I admire the golf he plays, and I think he’s done a very good job of conducting himself properly.
“I think there are a lot of similarities in our relationships with our fathers.
“We both respected and loved our fathers.
“That’s part of the reason we both enjoyed success.
“We’ll always have that together.”
Besides their golf accomplishments and strong paternal relationships, the pair may have something else in common as well.
Palmer’s reputation as a ladies’ man was bandied about for years.
His friend and former tour pro, Bob Rosburg, even quipped about it in a 1988 newspaper interview.
Rosburg’s tale was recounted in Howard Sounes’ 2004 book The Wicked Game: Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and the Story of Modern Golf.
In his defense, Palmer disputed that and other similar rumors, telling Ian O’Connor, author of Arnie vs. Jack, “That was more the talk than it was an action.
“It was a myth.”
Again selfishly, I hope these rumors of Tiger’s return prove to be the truth and not mere myth.
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Michael Carman is the golf columnist for the Peninsula Daily News. His column appears on Wednesdays. He can be reached at 360-417-3527 or pdngolf@gmail.com.