THE LEADERS HIT the back nine at Augusta National for the Sunday final round at the Masters and every year I head for my golf bag, pulling out my putter and plopping three balls down on the carpet “to practice.”
Even if rain is pelting down at home such as this past weekend, Augusta’s splashes of color, the lush green fairways and putting surfaces, pastel pink azaleas and flowering dogwoods all combine to send a message to pick up the clubs and hit the links.
And golfers respond on the North Olympic Peninsula by heading out to play.
“Absolutely,” Cedars at Dungeness Head Golf Pro Garrett Smithson said.
“And Mother Nature plays a huge part in that, but after the Masters is when we begin to see more players come out. We run some events in February and March, but after the Masters the greens are healed from aerification, the weather starts to improve hopefully and the season really starts to get going.”
Smithson said the 1997 Masters, Tiger Woods’ breakthrough, convinced him to pursue the sport seriously.
“That’s pretty much my exact time frame,” Smithson said. “I thought, ‘There is something about this game that I want to be a part of and here we are.”
Me too. Within an hour of Wood’s historic win I was downstairs dusting off my grandfather’s set of 1950s-era woods (actual woods) and chipping balls around the back yard.
If you know of a youngster interested in taking up the game I’ll have more details in next week’s golf column on a youth program that teaches the basics of golf and allows kids a chance to have fun playing the game together out on the course.
SkyRidge opener
SkyRidge Golf Course will hold its Spring Opener, a two-person scramble event, Saturday.
The event will have a 9:30 a.m. shotgun start from the course’s green tees.
Players will compete in gross and net divisions using 30 percent of the team’s combined handicap — a maximum 10-stroke differential.
Three drives must be used by each player per nine holes — six in total.
The cost is $80 per team and players will receive range balls, lunch and a shot at KP prizes. There’s also an optional $10 honey pot per player.
Carts are $12 per seat.
For more information, phone SkyRidge at 360-683-3673.
Disco Bay active
Discovery Bay Golf Course head pro Jeff Kent checked in to let me know what’s happening at the beautiful course near Port Townsend.
The course’s nine-hole league will begin play in mid-May. Kent said the course will accept as many teams as are interested.
Weekly golf clinics led by Kent also will start up next month.
In the interim, players can get a tune up for spring play by practicing at Discovery Bay’s covered driving range. Kent said players can tee off real grass tees to get as authentic as feel as possible or use some newly purchased mats, which provide “a more forgiving feel” than the course’s old versions.
Discovery Bay’s Men’s and Ladies clubs are back playing on a weekly basis and Discovery Bay members and Kent have been competing in some pro-am events.
Kent also said the course is offering a Players Club deal where golfers can join and receive 20 percent off golf all year for $125.
Play with a pro at Ludlow
Port Ludlow golf pros will offer Play with a Pro rounds for ladies and men this month.
Kathryn Simerly will instruct ladies golfers with a session on tee shots today from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Three other ladies clinics are planned on consecutive Mondays, April 16 (bunkers), 23 (putting) and 30 (approach shots) — all from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Tyler Sweet has two men’s sessions left this month: bunkers from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday and putting from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 24.
A limit of 10 players is allowed for each on-course session and sessions are $20 plus green fees.
To get in on the game, RSVP in person, call Port Ludlow at 360-437-0272 or email tsweet@portludlowresort.com.
PT Golfers step up
Port Townsend Golf Club recently hosted the annual Kiwanis fundraising golf tournament with proceeds going to help kids with special needs attend Camp Beausite Northwest near Chimacum.
“Tee signs from sponsors and a portion of the entry fee donated by Port Townsend Golf Club helped raise over $10,000,” said Port Townsend head pro and general manager Gabriel Tonan.
Two player teams played a best-ball stroke play format for 18 holes.
Doug Collins and Zackari Glover teamed to win the Gross division with a round of 70.
Terry Berge and Al West topped the Net division after teaming to shoot 57 and Duke Rhodes and Steve Kraght won the no-handicap Callaway division with a 72.
Congrats to Reed
Augusta patrons didn’t seem too enthused about Patrick Reed claiming the green jacket at the Masters on Sunday. It was one of the more subdued rounds of applause given a champion in recent memory — fans and announcers seemed to be decidedly pro-Rory McIlroy in the early going and on Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler’s side down the stretch.
Reed, accused of cheating on the course and allegedly stealing from teammates at the University of Georgia, eventually ended up winning two NCAA titles in 2010 and 2011 down the road from Augusta National at Augusta State College.
He’s been estranged from his family since 2012, so any mention Reed or announcers’ made about his family or Team Reed during the telecast was in regard to his wife’s family. Golf.com writer Alan Shipnuck spoke to Reed’s mother as they celebrated their son and brother’s greatest triumph on the outside looking in at a small party Sunday at the Augusta house Reed lived in during college.
It’s a hard, emotional piece to read, but I encourage golf fans to do so at tinyurl.com/PDN-Masters18.
It also was a hard story to report as Shipnuck acknowledges he knew the piece would be polarizing and had misgivings about it complicating the greatest professional accomplishment of Reed’s career.
Shipnuck also goes into the details of how the piece came about Sunday at tinyurl.com/PDN-Masters18reporting.
