THE THOUGHT OF starting my own kickstarter.com Internet funding campaign to ask for some sponsor assistance to attend next year’s Masters Golf Tournament has crossed my mind.
Truthfully, the cost of a flight, a week’s stay, a rental car and meals at Augusta prices (read: inflated) during Masters week is nowhere near as tough to manage as getting that press credential.
A press pass for the Masters is the toughest in all of golf and likely one of the toughest gets in all of sports.
Asking for a pass for the USGA’s Senior Open and U.S. Amateur was a walk-in-the-park, and after receiving the go-ahead I was even invited to attend and play at media days at Sahallee and Chambers Bay.
There’s no such easy application process for the Masters.
If you “make the cut,” Augusta National has a lottery for media day play, so even if I was granted acceptance it would still be up to the golfing gods to let me out on their perfect creation.
Enjoy your Easter dinner and your Masters final round this Sunday. I know I will.
We will see about a 2013 visit.
Kiwanis tourney a hit
Golfers who played in the 16th annual Northwest Kiwanis Camp Tournament at Port Townsend Golf Club raised $5,000.
Proceeds go toward Kiwanis’ Beausite Lake Camp, a location in Jefferson County for children and adults with special needs.
Four different sets of campers will spend time at Beausite Lake this summer, according to Kiwanis staffers.
Mark your calendar
Port Townsend will host a Spring Scramble and Steak Feed starting at 9 a.m. Saturday, April 14.
The tourney is a blind-draw scramble.
Port Townsend will also host a fundraiser tournament for Relay For Life on Saturday, April 28.
The Relay tourney is a four-person scramble where players pick their own teams.
For more information, phone the course at 360-385-4547.
Spring opener April 14
SkyRidge Golf Course in Sequim will host its Spring Opener tourney Saturday, April 14.
The two-person scramble event has a 9 a.m. shotgun start, and gross and net divisions.
Cost is $100 per team and includes honey pot entry, KP’s, range balls and lunch after play.
Phone SkyRidge to get in the game at 360-683-3673.
Sponsor/play in event
A benefit tournament to support the Sequim High School class of 2012 “safe and sober Grad Night Party” will be held at Sequim’s SunLand Golf & Country Club on Saturday, April 21.
The four-man scramble event will have a 1 p.m. shotgun start.
Cost is $65 per person.
If you want to help the cause but would rather not play, there are three levels of sponsorship available: Gold for $500, Silver for $250 and Bronze for a flat donation.
If you are playing or sponsoring, make checks payable to: Sequim Education Foundation in care of Jo Anne Estes, P.O. Box 1813, Sequim, WA 98382.
ESPN Best Ball
Sequim’s SunLand Golf & Country Club will host an ESPN Best Ball Qualifier on Saturday, April 28.
Entry is $45, including greens fees. Players must have a GHIN handicap.
For more information, phone SunLand’s Tyler Sweet at 360-683-6800.
Also, SunLand is offering a $34.95 golf and cart special for the public on weekends in April.
Hospice benefit set
The Cedars at Dungeness Golf Course’s Lady Niners will host a Memorial Scramble Tournament on Thursday, April 26.
Ladies groups from all four Clallam County courses and Clallam County lady golfers are all invited to participate.
The event will honor those lady golfers who have died in the last 10 years, and will also benefit Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County, which provides assistance to patients who need care and their families.
Registration is $20, which includes a light lunch. The bulk of this fee will go toward hospice programs.
Golf will cost $15 for walking Nine Holes or $25 for golf and cart, and will be paid directly to The Cedars of Dungeness Golf Course.
No cash prizes will be awarded but the pro shops of each of the four Clallam golf courses — Dungeness, Peninsula, Skyridge and Sunland, will provide awards to first and second flight ladies on their own designated hole.
These holes will be in honor of ladies from their club who have passed on.
Golfers need to have a GHIN number and handicap.
Registration is due by April 19.
For more information, phone Jan Boyungs at 360-797-1452.
Masters winner pick
My Chinese zodiac sign is the dog, and true to form I am blindly loyal even in the face of mounting evidence.
Such is my rooting interest in Tiger Woods. I have a feeling that he may be an insufferable cad of a human being and yet, I’m still rooting for him to win.
A profile in the May 2012 GQ magazine makes the claim that with his recent win, Tiger Woods may be “back” but that he “is still the same cursing, pouting, hermetically-sealed prima donna he’s always been, before the car wreck, before the affairs, before the fall.”
It’s a good read, one that goes into detail on someone who has always actively shunned the spotlight and who is now even more concerned about letting too much of his private life become public knowledge.
To read the story, visit tinyurl.com/88zsg8k.
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Golf columnist Michael Carman can be reached at 360-417-3527 or at pdngolf@gmail.com.