I KEPT THINGS civil in Southern California.
To be more accurate, I kept things municipal, playing golf twice at two different facilities: Balboa Park in San Diego and the par-3 track at Alondra in the lovely city of Lawndale near Los Angeles.
Balboa Park may not have the cache as playing Torrey Pines but it’s also about $65 cheaper and was three blocks from my vacation rental.
I was a single and was paired with an entertaining 50-plus German man named Klaus on an overcast and cool Saturday morning.
He was there to visit a niece or nephew (from what I could gather, Klaus had a bit of a trickster side to him) and I was there to watch my Washington State Cougars lose a very winnable football game later that day against San Diego State with an epic Coug-it collapse in the fourth quarter.
Balboa is short at 6,300 yards from the tips but this is no pushover.
The course punishes those who refuse to keep it straight and on a lot of holes lacks any sort of bailout room for errant shots.
There are also many, many small greens that require even more accuracy.
I’m more Jake Locker with my irons than Tom Brady, so I was a bit all over the place all morning long.
It’s also a hilly little bugger, drawn across the canyons and draws of Balboa Park.
It wasn’t hot, but a cart was a good choice on that terrain.
Had to save my strength for the tailgate, you know!
And I was able to top off the morning with a fish taco and shrimp ceviche lunch at the German Mariscos taco truck on the way back to the vacation rental.
Palm trees, epic shots of the downtown San Diego skyline and tasty Mexican food . . . now that’s a morning well spent.
To quote former rap star Ice Cube “I gotta say it was a good day.”
A few days later I made it up to Hermosa Beach for some beach time in the South Bay area of Los Angeles.
During my time there I managed to get nine holes in at the par-3 at Alondra, which is right next door to El Camino College, the community college alma mater of University of Washington coach Steve Sarkisian before Sark transferred to Brigham Young.
I had only played a par-3 course once before, at Interbay in Seattle.
The course is a bit nondescript, flat, some tall palm trees, tall fences to keep your ball from ending up on a main avenue.
The best compliment I can give it is that it provided me with a break from that great Los Angeles past-time: being stuck in traffic.
Rotary tourney a hit
Sunrise Rotary’s sixth annual Driving in the Dark Golf Tournament was held recently at Port Townsend Golf Club.
The event was a smash success, raising about $5,000 for Rotary projects like administering the SAT test in Jefferson County, the Port Townsend High School Interact Club and hosting and sponsoring international exchange students each year amongst many other community-minded projects.
Rotary is also huge on the polio eradication front and supports shelter box programs in areas hit by natural disasters.
Five-player teams competed in a scramble format with each player responsible for furnishing a drive and a second shot.
Teams started their rounds at 4:30 p.m., took a break for a dinner of lasagna, apple pie and cake before heading back out to play the final nine holes in the dark with glowing golf balls.
Tourney organizers lined the fairways like an airport runway along with lights around the tee boxes and greens.
LED lights lit up the flag sticks to provide teams something to aim for.
Nobody was able to win the hole-in-one prizes, a scooter from Gary’s Autos and $10,000 on hole seven, but like Chicago Cubs baseball and increasingly, Washington State Cougar football fans, just wait un til next year!
Winning the event was the team of Denyse Tonan, Gabriel Tonan, Andy Benedict, Chris Holloway, Ronnie Harrell with a 57.
SunLand champions
SunLand Golf & Country Club in Sequim recently held a three-day Club Championship.
Champions included Men’s Club gross champion Jay Tomlin with a 231; net champion Len Hirschfeld with a 202; SunLand Women’s Golf Association (18-hole players) gross champion Witta Priester with a 254 and net champion Nan Godfrey with a 213.
Lady Niners gross champion was Susan Elvert with a 151, and net champion Patricia Palmeri with a 99.
Mark Warren claimed the Men’s Niners title with a net 34.
ESPN Best Ball
SunLand General Manager Tyler Sweet passed along that two pairs from the North Olympic Peninsula have qualified for the ESPN National Best Ball Tournament in Las Vegas in October.
Representing Sunland in the Senior division is Jay Tomlin and Brad Littlefield.
Representing Sequim’s Cedars at Dungeness Golf Course in the gross division is Gary Kettel and Sid Krumpe.
Good luck gentlemen, have fun down there and enjoy yourselves.
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Golf columnist Michael Carman can be reached at 360-417-3527 or at pdngolf@gmail.com.