THE SUNBEAM INFUSION of the past week has provided more than a good dose of Vitamin D.
It’s given golfers no excuse not to hit up our North Olympic Peninsula golf courses.
I’m sure it’s also spurred thoughts of the coming spring for most, and especially spring break for local students.
Sequim School District students ages 6-15 can spend a portion of their spring break on the links.
SkyRidge Golf Course in Sequim will host a three-day Spring Break Junior Golf Camp from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Monday, March 29 through Wednesday, March 31.
Course staff will provide instruction for the camp.
Attendees will receive a camp T-shirt and group photo as well as snacks and drinks.
On the final day of the camp, youth golfers will venture out onto the links course to play some holes.
Cost is $50 per child, with additional siblings paying $30 each.
Entry forms are available at the SkyRidge Golf Course pro shop, 7015 Old Olympic Highway.
Bust a gut two ways
Continuing with everyone’s favorite North Olympic Peninsula links course, SkyRidge will host two tournaments that afford patrons the chance to bust a gut, one with tasty stew and the other with lengthy tee shots.
The club will host its St. Paddy’s Tournament on Saturday, March 13.
The four-person shotgun scramble will tee it up at 9:30 a.m.
Cost for the event is $160 per foursome with an optional honey pot.
There will be lots of prizes and a traditional Irish stew served for lunch.
A big break skills challenge will follow tournament play.
Players are encouraged to wear their best kilt and knicker outfit because there will be a prize for the best dressed hooligan.
You can fill up on Irish stew at that tournament, and then diet during the week in advance of SkyRidge’s signature Gut Buster Tournament that tees off with a frost-free 9 a.m. start on Saturday, March 20.
Each foursome will play from the tips in this event, with men playing the black tees on both nines and women playing from the silver tees each time around.
The green will have two pin placements, except for holes 9 and 18.
Gross and net prizes, the chance to claim four KP’s, range balls, long putt and lunch are included in the $55 per person entry fee.
Players should form their own foursomes.
For more information, phone SkyRidge at 360-683-3673.
What’s shaking in PT?
The good folks at Port Townsend Golf Club have a couple of events up their sleeves.
They’re warming up the coals, or if they are fans of the recently departed television show “King of the Hill,” making sure they have all the “propane and propane accessories” on hand for the first post-tournament burger barbecue of the fledgling golf season this Saturday.
The barbecue will follow a blind draw scramble tournament set for a 10 a.m. tee-off.
The $25 entry fee includes access to those burgers.
I shouldn’t write this column while hungry.
Port Townsend’s other upcoming tournament, its annual St. Patrick’s Day Scramble, will be held on Saturday, March 13.
The two-person scramble is limited to the first 50 golfers who sign up.
A traditional corned beef feast follows play.
Phone the clubhouse at 360-385-4547 to reserve your duo’s spot at the table.
On to state House
I mentioned in my column last month that golf carts may soon be a permanent fixture on some of the lower speed limit roads around the North Olympic Peninsula.
In the interim the state Senate has approved a measure that would permit golf carts on public roads in cities that allow it.
The measure passed unanimously recently and is now in the state House for further consideration.
It allows cities or counties to create golf cart zones.
Carts would only be allowed to travel on streets with speed limits of 25 miles per hour or below.
Golf cart drivers would have to be at least 16 years old and have to follow the same rules of the road as those driving regular vehicles.
I’ll keep you posted on the bill’s future.
If this passes, take care to remember what happened to “Caddyshack” star Bill Murray in Stockholm, Sweden in 2007.
The golf-loving Murray was popped for DUI in the Swedish capital after “borrowing” a golf cart from the Scandinavian Masters Golf Tournament and driving from a cafe to his hotel.
The situation is comical in retrospect but getting behind the wheel after drinking too much, even if it’s “only a golf cart” is never a good idea.
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Michael Carman is the golf columnist for the Peninsula Daily News. His column appears on Wednesdays. He can be reached at 360-417-3527 or pdngolf@gmail.com.