IT ISN’T TOO often that North Olympic Peninsula golfers have the chance to cheer for four of their own in a Professional Golf Association (PGA) of America championship but that is indeed the case just before Halloween this year.
Sequim’s SunLand Golf & Country Club PGA professional Tyler Sweet added $2,500 to his coffer after teaming up with club members Mike Phelan, Fred Smith and Clark Walter on Aug. 26 to win the Pacific Northwest PGA Sectional Championship at Illahee Hills Country Club in Salem, Ore., and earn a berth in the 2009 McGladrey Team National Championship.
The McGladrey Team Championship is a nationwide grassroots best-ball amateur championship conducted by The PGA of America, and its third edition will take place Oct. 26-28 at the famed Pinehurst Resort in Pinehurst Village, N.C.
The local linksmen earned their spot after winning a sudden-death playoff against teams from Meriwether National Golf Club (Hillsboro, Ore.), Pumpkin Ridge-Ghost Creek (North Plains, Ore.) and Inglemoor Country Club in Kenmore.
SunLand’s foursome combined for a 13-under par total, and the three amateurs all earned $600 apiece for their efforts down in Oregon’s capital city.
SunLand will compete against 41 other teams at the National Championship, and will have a chance to play one of their three rounds on the renowned Pinehurst No. 2 course, best known for Payne Stewart’s final-hole U.S. Open victory over Phil Mickleson in 1999.
Pinehurst No. 2 designer Donald Ross called the course “the fairest test of championship golf ever,” after designing the course with wide fairways and no water hazards or out of bounds markers.
What Ross chose not to mention are the course’s many sand traps, nor the greens, most of which look like an upside-down cereal bowl and collect only the softest of approaches.
Besides Stewart’s sartorial splendor and final putt, I remember plenty of excellent-looking approach shots falling off of the steep-sided greens and leaving treacherous chip shots.
Best of luck to the crew from SunLand, they’ll need it against No. 2.
Benefit for schools
Interested in combining a leisurely Saturday morning of golf with a good cause?
Then The Citizens for Sequim Schools Golf Tournament is just for you. It benefits education programs in the Sequim School District.
Scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 26 at Cedars at Dungeness Golf Course in Sequim, the tournament is a four-person scramble format with an 8 a.m. shotgun start.
Participants will have the opportunity to win a new car from Price Ford Lincoln Mercury of Port Angeles, and $10 raffle tickets will be available for an EZ Go electric golf cart with heater.
Price for the 18-hole round is $75 and includes lunch, tee prizes and a golf cart with GPS navigation.
By coupling the scramble format with GPS navigation systems, you have a recipe for some low-scoring rounds.
Sign up at Dungeness or by e-mailing E. Michael McAleer at emichael@olypen.com or by phone at 360-460-2839.
A worthy cause, good prizes, a great time of year to play and a great golf course all come together in what should be a fine time that day.
Peninsula Golf Club
In local women’s club play, the Peninsula lady golfers of Peninsula Golf Club in Port Angeles played Medal Play on Sept. 2.
Barb Thompson won the 18-hole group with a 71 while Sandy Granger fired a 35 to lead the nine-hole group.
Post-play the Peninsula ladies had a send-off for Hilda Stinar, who is moving to California. The ladies will miss Hilda’s friendship on and off the course.
Peninsula will host the Red, White and Blue Invitational today with ladies from Dungeness, SunLand, Port Townsend Golf Club and Port Ludlow Golf Club attending.
PT, Port Ludlow women
Over in Jefferson County, the Port Ludlow 18-hole Women played a Medal Play game last Thursday with Bonnie Vahcic earning first place in first flight low gross with a 77 while Linda Aho and Cheri Wright tied for first with a 68 in first flight low net.
In the second flight, Sally Grything was first in gross with a 100 and Teddy Conover was first in net with a 74.
At Discovery Bay Golf Club in Port Townsend, the ladies played Three Clubs and a Putter last Thursday.
Barb Aldrich and Lynn Pierle tied for first after firing net rounds of 73.
Full results are available in today’s Scoreboard on page B2.
A final note, area holes-in-one will not be included in this column in order to report all aces in the same area of the newspaper.
Those skilled enough (or lucky enough) to record an ace will be featured in a separate sports brief in order to give the golfers and their shots their own time to shine.
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Michael Carman is the golf columnist for the Peninsula Daily News. He can be reached at pdngolf@gmail.com or 360-504-0181.