PORT ANGELES — Lyn Lawson and Diane Hood met for the first time by accident Friday when they both sought last-minute putting advice at Dungeness Golf Course.
Neither of the women, nor the third contestant, Steve Johnson, sank a 50-foot putt Saturday that would have earned them $10,000.
But that didn’t spoil their enjoyment.
“Aww, it was fun anyway,” 49-year-old Johnson, a construction foreman for M & E Trucking who lives in Chimacum, said after missing the putt.
The contest, a Peninsula Daily News promotion, took place Saturday afternoon on an artificial green set up in front of the Port Angeles CrabHouse Restaurant, 221 N. Lincoln St.
Each contestant had a chance to win $10,000 if they made the putt.
The contestants could also win a $100 prize for making a 10-foot putt if they missed the longer shot.
Although no one sank the 10-footer either, all three still walked away with $100.
The contestants were drawn from more than 1,000 entries collected over 10 weeks.
Practicing for the big putt
Hood, 54, a former real estate agent who’s lived in Sequim almost 10 years, had not golfed since a high school physical education class but went in search of practice and coaching Friday at the Dungeness course, she said.
There, she ran into 44-year-old Lawson, a former nanny from Port Angeles with no golf experience who was also trying to gather some pointers before the big putt.
On Saturday, the women brought borrowed putters and both sent the ball several inches too far to the right of the cup.
“Way off, way hard,” Lawson said of her shot.
Johnson, who grew up on his parents’ golf course in California and has a prosthetic left foot — he lost his foot in a logging accident — came closest to the cup but sent the ball beyond the edge of the green.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be short,” said Johnson, who brushed up on his swing at home Friday night and Saturday morning.
After they missed their shots, the contestants and their companions took more turns trying to sink the ball.
“I’m never going to golf again as long as I live,” Hood said. “Unless I get into another contest.”