A POTENTIALLY LUCRATIVE month-long hole-in-one challenge will soon play out at a number of golf courses in Sequim and Port Angeles.
Sequim’s Cedars at Dungeness, SunLand Golf and Country Club and SkyRidge Golf Course and Port Angeles’ Peninsula Golf Club will participate the weekends of Aug. 6 through Sept. 4, with a final event set for Sept. 10.
The event, a fundraiser for the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Olympic Medical Center Foundation, will give participants a shot at banking $500,000 offered by 7 Cedars Casino, Elwha River Casino, MV Coho ferry and First Federal.
There is also the chance of winning (cue “The Price is Right” announcer voice) a “brand new car!” from Wilder Auto Center.
The concept of the $500,000 Hole In One Challenge is simple.
A 100-yard hole will be set up on the driving range of each course each Friday and Saturday from “roughly 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.”
Using Callaway event logo golf balls, participants can purchase chances at a rate of $2 per ball, six for $10 or 14 for $20.
Anyone who knocks it in is automatically entered in the finals, which will take place at Peninsula Golf Club at 5 p.m. on Sept. 10.
If there are no aces on any of the qualifying days, then the person hitting closest to the pin that day goes to the final.
Prizes will be awarded daily at each course to anyone who does make a hole-in-one and also to several of the closest-to-the-pin shots.
The final hole-in-one challenge will be set up on a temporary tee box 150 yards out on the 18th hole of Peninsula Golf Club.
Contestants will have one attempt during the final at the $500,000.
The first to knock it in the cup will receive the big bucks and the remaining contestants will compete for that (announcer voice) “Brand new car!”
If nobody scores a single, prizes will be awarded to the six people who were closest to the pin during the final competition.
The $500,000 will be paid out as a 40-year annuity. Club or tour pros are ineligible.
For more details, event rules, participant restrictions, or to volunteer, visit www.portangeles.org, select “Events,” then click on “$500,000 Hole In One Challenge.”
If you shun the information age, call Russ Veenema at 360-452-2363 (ext. 13) or Bruce Skinner at 360-417-7144.
Rally For the Cure
The 68 participants in the annual Rally For the Cure Golf Tournament at Port Ludlow Golf Club raised $10,515 for the Susan G. Komen Foundation during a “gorgeous sunny day” on July 8.
Ray Grove and the Port Ludlow maintenance crew decorated the tee boxes with pink rose bouquets, pink tee markers and a teed up colored ball.
Carts were again donated by Jim Tipton in memory of his wife.
The group played Cha Cha Cha with the option to purchase as many mulligans as desired at $1 each.
Those buying the most mulligans could find themselves in the winners’ circle with top prize going to the team of Alice Chang, Delee Panasuk, Brenda Shea and Kathy Stainfield.
Runners up in the mulligan purchase were Barbara Aldrich, Bev Boucher, Arlina Brown and Burleigh Smith.
The Bay Club hosted a luncheon and raffle following play, and “Chairman Betty Cragoe and her committee did a fantastic job,” Sally Grything said.
Theme baskets and events were raffled off as well as numerous door prizes supplied by supporting businesses.
Kathy Snider drew the winning ticket for a night at the Inn at Port Ludlow plus a round of golf, while Sue Carlson won the two-hour dinner cruise on Beth and John Weaver’s boat.
Burleigh Smith won the No.1 prize and the KP and chose the putter donated by the Komen Foundation as her prize.
She also drew the winning ticket for a champagne lunch for four given by Laura Shisler, Karen Fyock, Joy Herring and Joanne Harrington.
Shannon McCaslin won the accuracy drive and was awarded a golf bag donated by the foundation. Diana Smeland had the longest drive, made all the more impressive because her tee was the stem of a plastic champagne glass.
Surprise, surprise, she won a bottle of champagne.
Grything reports that event bartenders, Ken Schawel, Jim Brown and Brian Cresto did a commendable job of serving wine and drinks and looked dashing in their “tip aprons” fashioned by Elvira Schawel.
Also raffled off was a “Susan G. Robin” birdhouse, decorated with bills totaling $100 donated by Cyndy and Joe Kelly. The winning ticket for this prize went to Barbara Berthiaume, who promptly donated the $100 to the Komen Foundation.
This year’s Rally Ambassador Carol Katuzny took the podium and brought attention to all the businesses and individuals that lend support to this event by sponsoring holes and donating gift certificates.
She then introduced the cancer survivors, presenting each with a pink carnation and reporting that Washington has one of the highest incidents of breast cancer but also has one of the highest survival rates.
More than $10,000 was raised while enjoying a good time, good fellowship and a great golf course.
Tournament organizers look forward to doing it all again next year.
Cedars golf camp
Cedars at Dungeness will host a junior golf camp Aug. 2-4.
The camp will cover putting, chipping, the full swing and golf etiquette during the first two days.
On the final day, a pizza party will be held for those 5-9 years old with a cookout barbecue for those 10-16. Awards will be given.
The children will also participate in a tournament on the final day, ranging from four to nine holes, depending on age.
Space is limited to 45 children per age group.
The cost is $74.
For more information, contact the pro shop at 360-683-6344.
Ladies team up
The Port Townsend Golf Course’s Ladies Club and the Discovery Bay Ladies Club will co-host their annual invitational tournament at the Port Townsend course Aug. 4.
Ladies from the North Olympic Peninsula area courses tee off at 1 p.m.
A dinner and prize ceremony will follow play.
Ludlow Demo day
Port Ludlow Golf Course will host product representatives from Ping, Nike, Adams, Callaway and Cleveland Golf from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Aug. 5.
The demo day is free and open to the public.
SunLand golf camp
SunLand Golf and Country Club will host a junior golf camp for kids ages 4-18 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Aug. 16-19.
Cost is $65 per student.
For more information, call the course at 360-683-6800.
U.S. Senior Open
Couples, Lehman, Watson, the Walrus . . . they are all coming to our neck of the woods for next week’s U.S. Senior Open.
Daily tickets for the four-day championship are $45.
If you have grandchildren staying with you for the summer, this is a great chance to involve them with golf, because children 17 and younger are admitted free every day with a ticketed adult.
A limited number of Daily Trophy Club tickets for the tournament at Sammamish’s Sahalee Country Club on July 28 through Aug. 1 are also on sale.
The Trophy Club is located adjacent to the 18th fairway in the festive Sahalee village.
Trophy Club ticket holders will have access to an exclusive hospitality tent and easy access to live championship action.
This climate-controlled pavilion includes amenities such as indoor/outdoor seating, television monitors, computer scoring terminals and telephone access for Trophy Club guests.
Tickets for Thursday to Sunday are $75. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday practice round tickets are $35.
Sales of the Fore Pack will end this Sunday.
This is the most flexible ticket option, allowing spectators to see golf whenever their schedule allows.
The Fore Pack includes four tickets for the price of three ($135) and can be used any day of the Open.
All public parking is free and located at Redmond’s Marymoor Park.
The British Open
Your winner Louis Oosthuizen? Yeah, I’d never heard of him either.
His plucky play down the stretch likely endeared himself to fans, but the announcement that he had purchased cases of champagne for scribes working hard in the media center after his final round surely bought him some journalist buddies.
Finally, here’s a link to an article by Alan Shipnuck which recounts a late night trip to a St. Andrews cemetery by tour pro Brian Gay, Gay’s wife, CBS Sports broadcaster Jim Nantz and Shipnuck.
It provides a little insight to the atmosphere during the tournament.
Check it out at http://tinyurl.com/2ctqdyv.
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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 at pdngolf@gmail.