MORE CHAMPIONSHIP trophies are hoisted over the next month than any other time this year.
Think about it: Chelsea just bagged the Champions League title (European soccer); we’ll soon have an NBA champion hold up the Larry O’Brien Trophy (anybody but Oklahoma City, please!); the traditional triumphant raising of NHL’s Stanley Cup, plus countless NCAA and high school champs in a myriad of sports.
Why not a good old-fashioned championship raising on the North Olympic Peninsula?
A 12-member team from Peninsula Golf Club in Port Angeles did just that on Saturday, repeating as champions after claiming the fourth annual Peninsula Cup in a big way.
Playing at home, Peninsula lapped the field in winning by 57 strokes, 688-745, over second-place Discovery Bay Golf Club.
Peninsula’s Gary Thorne notched low gross honors with a 68 and teammates Rick Hoover, Gene Ketchum and Gary McLaughlin shared low net honors with 66 each.
Other team scores were Port Ludlow in third with 748, Cedars of Dungeness fourth with 751, SkyRidge Golf Course fifth with 752 and SunLand sixth with 753.
Some 70-plus players enjoyed sunny skies, some delicious food and a golf course in great condition, according to event organizer Ray DeJong.
This year’s tourney honored Billy Sallee, the long-time golf columnist for the Peninsula Daily News.
Billy passed away earlier this year, and was instrumental in developing this tournament as well as promoting golf on the Peninsula.
Pirate tourney slated
Registration is underway for the Peninsula College Pirate Athletic Association Golf Tournament at The Cedars at Dungeness Golf Course in Sequim on Saturday, June 9.
Funds generated from this tourney provide scholarship opportunities to Peninsula student-athletes.
The four-person team scramble will tee off with a noon shotgun start.
An awards banquet will follow play.
Cost is $100 per player or $300 per four-player team, and includes greens fee, cart, awards banquet and a tee gift.
Singles will be paired according to handicap/average score.
Sponsorships are available.
For more information on the tourney, phone Lance Von Vogt at 360-417-6467 or email LVonVogt@pencol.edu.
SunLand high note
SunLand Golf & Country Club general manager Tyler Sweet checked in with an anecdote on SunLand member Don Leslie.
Leslie, 90, recently fired an 86 to beat his age by four strokes.
Leslie also holds the amateur course record at SunLand, shooting a 65 on July 5, 1988 . . . when he was 66.
Two fantastic rounds by Mr. Leslie.
CPOA tourney set
SunLand will host the seventh annual U.S. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officers Association tournament on Friday, June 8.
This four-person best ball tourney is open to the public, and will tee off at 1:30 p.m.
Entry is $65 per person, and includes greens fees, cart and dinner catered by Famous Dave’s BBQ.
A free golf club is also available if players wish to pay shipping and handling fees.
There are four hole-in-one prize opportunities, including a shot at a cool $10,000, a Sharp LCD TV, a set of Callaway Diablo irons and round-trip domestic airfare for two.
Sign-ups are due May 31.
For more information, email Stephen.C.Prysock@uscg.mil.
Port Ludlow events
The Callaway Golf Tour Fit Van will trip to Port Ludlow on Friday on its lone visit to the North Olympic Peninsula this year.
The Tour Fit Van has the ability to fit golfers using Callaway’s TrackMan technology, and then build the clubs on-site for customers.
Players can be fitted and walk away that same day like a tour pro with a new set of golf clubs.
You’ll get the properly fitted head model and shaft with the right lie angle(s) for your game.
Take advantage, this is one of just three visits the Tour Fit Van will make in the entire state this year.
Golfers who attend the Callaway Day and mention the Peninsula Daily News will receive a two-rounds-for-the-price-of-one golf coupon for Port Ludlow.
Anybody who makes a purchase of $200 or more will receive a free round of golf.
If you go Callaway, you’ll get a perfectly fitted set of clubs, a free round, and mention the PDN, and you get two more rounds for the price of one.
Port Ludlow will also host an ESPN Challenge event Saturday, June 2.
The tourney has a 10 a.m. shotgun start.
Cost is $69 and includes entry, golf, cart and range balls.
To sign up, or for more information on Port Ludlow, phone 360-437-0272.
Discovery Bay info
Longtime Discovery Bay member and retired Chimacum teacher and football coach John Martin will be the honored guest at a four-person scramble tournament on Saturday, June 2.
The event is called Moon in June as a nod to coach Martin’s nickname.
Players will tee off in a 1 p.m. shotgun start.
A gathering for food and story-swapping will follow the round at Rosa’s Delicia Mexicana at Discovery Bay.
Cost is $25 per person and includes golf and a sample of Rosa’s dishes.
Players can form their own team or call the course at 360-385-0704.
Prizes will be awarded for best team, closest to the pin and closest to the moon (accuracy drive).
Discovery Bay has a two-for-one Tuesday deal where two golfers can pay one greens fee all day Tuesdays or two players can have the run of the place all day with a cart for $60.
Twilight rates apply every day starting at 2 p.m.
SkyRidge ESPN event
SkyRidge Golf Course in Sequim will host the ESPN/Callaway Golf Challenge on Sunday, June 3.
The event will have divisions for 54 and younger and 55 and older golfers.
It’s a two-person better-ball event and cost is $45, which includes play and lunch.
Carts are $15 per seat.
One gross and one net team will advance to the ESPN Regional competition at Washington National Golf Club in Auburn, the home of the University of Washington golf team.
Ninth anniversary set
Golfers can join SkyRidge in celebrating its ninth anniversary with the SkyRidge Chapman Tournament on Saturday, June 16.
The Two-Person Modified Chapman tourney will have a 9 a.m. shotgun start.
Cost is $60 per team and will include 18 holes of golf, range balls, lunch after play, KPs and long putt.
An optional honey pot is $20 per team.
In this format, each player hits a tee shot, and then hit each other’s ball for the second shot.
From there it becomes alternate shot, using the better of the two second shots.
The player whose second shot was not used would hit the third shot.
Players continue alternating until the ball is holed.
Rhody Open a hit
The 19th annual Jim Caldwell Memorial Rhody Open was held at Port Townsend Golf Club last weekend.
More than $1,500 was raised for the Rhododendron Festival during the tourney, including a substantial donation from the Caldwell family.
The event and the Rhododendron Grand Parade that followed had great weather on Saturday, some rain and windy conditions for a time on Sunday.
Hazli Katsikapes’s 73 edged Chimacum golf coach Mitch Black by a stroke for first place in Saturday’s gross division with Rick Gore beating out Brian Lux for first place in the net division, 61 to 62.
In Sunday’s two-person best ball, Black and Chris Holloway edged my former golf coach and math teacher, Jim Kerns, and his son, Mike, 65-67 in the gross division.
Doug Collins and Russ Jerabek, and the duo of Kurt Lake and Aaron Thacker tied for first in net after carding 57.
Port Townsend alumni
The annual Alumni Golf Tournament will be held at Port Townsend on Saturday, June 9.
Proceeds benefit the Port Townsend High School Alumni Association.
The four-person scramble includes KPs, long putt and a chance at a hole-in-one prize on No. 7.
Players will tee off with a 9 a.m. shotgun start.
Cost is $40 per player, $25 for current high school students and 2012 graduates.
A bragging-rights duel between Chimacum and Port Townsend alumni is also a big part of this tourney.
Sign up teams or individuals by phoning the course at 360-385-4547.
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Golf columnist Michael Carman can be reached at 360-417-3527 or at pdngolf@gmail.com.