A CHANCE TO showcase additions to the course and the new clubhouse at SkyRidge Golf Course awaits on Saturday, May 4, when the links-style layout hosts the sixth annual Peninsula Cup.
The Cup moves up a couple of weeks this year, in a bid to avoid a schedule clash with the annual Rhody Festival/Jack Caldwell Memorial Tournament at Port Townsend Golf Club and get full representation from all seven North Olympic Peninsula golf courses.
Eight-man teams from each course will compete. If you are a top-tier player at your home club, I suggest talking with your head pro and bending their ear about a spot on the team.
Everybody should start practicing: Peninsula Golf Club used some home cooking (or at least expert knowledge of their home course) to repeat as champions of the 2012 Peninsula Cup.
Can Peninsula retain their title or will a new slate of champions win out?
More information on the tourney will follow.
Prison for course thief
Eric Orville Waldenburg, a 46-year-old Kingston man that Port Townsend Police caught in the act of stealing $9,000 from the Port Townsend Golf Club on July 1, faces a recommended sentence of 80 months in prison.
Clallam County Superior Court Judge Ken Williams found him guilty of second-degree burglary, first-degree theft and possession of burglary tools, according to a statement from the Port Townsend Police Department.
Jefferson County Superior Court Judge Craddock Verser, a longtime member at Port Townsend Golf Club, had recused himself from the case and Judge Williams stepped in to hear arguments.
Chris Ashcraft, Jefferson County deputy prosecuting attorney, said he will seek a sentence of 80 months in prison — a little more than 6½ years — which is close to the maximum the law allows in this circumstance.
Police found several bank-money bags inside Waldenberg’s duffel bag that belonged to the golf club and a pry bar that the man used to gain access to the clubhouse.
Good job by Port Townsend Police Officers Luke Bogues and Ryan Smith, the Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney’s office and Judge Williams.
27-hole Winter Links
SkyRidge will hold a 27-hole Winter Links event on Saturday.
Tee time (barring frost) is 8:30 a.m.
“It’s a little technical but a really fun tourney,” SkyRidge’s Jeff Pedersen said.
Here goes: form a four-player team with a total handicap index of 24 or higher.
Divide the team into two squads for nine holes of scramble play, then switch partners and play nine holes of two-person best ball. For the last nine, switch to the final partner and play alternate shot.
Each team will end up with a 54-hole score after 27 holes of golf: the two scramble scores for the first nine holes is one 18-hole score, the two better ball scores after a partner switch for the second nine holes gives you another 18-hole score, and both alternating shot scores with the final partners for the last 18-hole score.
Then combine these scores for your 54-hole total.
A total of 216 is par for the 54 holes.
Cost is $160 for each four-person team, with lunch from Soren’s Grill at the new clubhouse, range balls, four KP’s and an LP contest. Optional honey pot is $80 per team.
Carts are $15 per seat for the 27-hole event.
Get in the game by phoning SkyRidge at 360-683-3673.
Sixkiller Super Bowl
Cedars at Dungeness in Sequim is offering a chance to play golf with University of Washington football Hall of Famer Sonny Sixkiller.
The Sonny Sixkiller Super Bowl Scramble will tee off at 9:06 a.m. (a nod to the No. 6 Sixkiller wore for the Huskies) on Sunday.
The four-person scramble event is limited to 18 teams.
Why so few teams? It’s set up so Sixkiller can join each group for one hole and play as a fivesome.
Entry fee is $76 per player with $1,006 available in competition prizes, based on a full field of 18 teams.
If every member of a foursome wears football jerseys, that foursome will have two strokes deducted off their score.
And don’t worry, the tourney will wrap well before the Super Bowl kicks off at 3:30 p.m.
If the event is full and you want to visit with Sixkiller, he is hosting 7 Cedar Casino’s “Big Game” party on Sunday.
I’m more excited for my once-a-year bacon-wrapped, brown-sugar baked lil’ smokies and figuring out a crockpot dish for the “big game” party I’m attending than I am for the game itself. In my best Russell Wilson impression: Go Hawks!
Arctic Open signups
A format change has been made for Port Townsend Golf Course’s 27th annual Arctic Open golf tournament set for Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 9-10.
Port Townsend’s “major” tourney is popular with course regulars and golfers around the Peninsula.
This year, the format will be a two-person scramble for 18 holes followed by 18 holes of two-person best ball.
Entry fee is $200 per team and includes a Friday practice round, play on Saturday and Sunday with lunch both days.
Players will also compete for hole-in-one and KP prizes.
Golfers are encouraged to bring their all-weather gear and be ready to play since this tourney goes on regardless of snow, sleet, rain, freezing temperatures or wind.
Stop by the Port Townsend course or phone the pro shop at 360-385-4547.
Wide world of golf
After Tiger Wood’s won his record-breaking eighth tournament at Torrey Pines on Monday, a media member asked him “Are you back?” and Wood replied with “Never left.”
I love that confidence and I enjoyed seeing Tiger play like his old self, dominating par-5’s, dropping intermediate putts, dialing in his wedge shots and getting up and down from trouble.
With a big lead and swirling winds, Woods played a little Dean Smith-esque “Four Corners” style over Monday’s final holes, protecting the lead and brushing off some bogeys to cruise to the win.
“It got a little ugly toward the end,” Woods said. “I started losing patience a little bit with the slow play. I lost my concentration a little bit.”
The slight stumble didn’t matter, Tiger had it wrapped with his impeccable performance over the first 67 holes of the event.
Here’s to much more of that the remainder of the year.
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Golf columnist Michael Carman can be reached at 360-417-3527 or pdngolf@gmail.com.