MOST 21st BIRTHDAYS are later remembered in bits and pieces.
Judging from his post-tournament comments, 2010 U.S. Amateur champion Peter Uihlein’s recent birthday may not have been any different.
The Oklahoma State University junior won the Theodore Havemeyer trophy on his 21st birthday last Sunday at Chambers Bay Golf Course in Tacoma with a solid 4 and 2 victory over David Chung.
Uihlein, a member of the winning 2009 USA Walker Cup Team, was the equivalent of 8-under par with the usual match-play concessions through the match’s 34 holes.
Chung was 2-under par.
“Yeah, it’s definitely the best birthday present I’ve ever had in my life,” Uihlein said.
“I’m looking forward to going back home tonight and seeing the boys and hopefully having a good time.”
Uihlein joins select company, including current alpha dog pros Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson and legends like Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.
An unrelated but still good omen for Uihlein’s forthcoming pro career?
U.S. Amateur 1997 champion Matt Kuchar won his third PGA Tour event, The Barclays, on Sunday as well.
Good luck to Uilhein in his future. He was fun to watch battle Chambers Bay, but I wish for nothing but a bad result for his alma mater on Saturday.
His Cowboys take on my Washington State Cougars, who are 14- to 16-point underdogs if sports gambling was legal in this state, in the season opening college football game for each team on Saturday.
Boeing Classic
The state of Washington was a golfing mecca last week with the Amateur filling up hotels and restaurants in Tacoma, and the Champions Tour’s Boeing Classic doing the same over in the North Bend area.
Results were nearly identical to the last time the senior players came to the area, all the way back in late July.
Bernhard Langer won the tournament in precise, calculating fashion just like he won the 2010 U.S. Senior Open.
His win reinforces my belief that European Ryder Cup Captain Colin Montgomrie should select Langer for the upcoming 2010 Ryder Cup.
Langer is a winning machine right now, gobbling up large chunks of each course he plays and spitting out a host of birdies, a few eagles and many par-saves.
He has five wins on the year, including two consecutive majors in consecutive weeks on different continents.
Langer did miss a five-foot putt to tie the 1991 Ryder Cup, but that was almost 20 years ago back when Langer was languishing with “the yips” on some of his shorter putts.
The Euro team might have four rookies, so Langer’s 10 Ryder Cups as a player and one as a non-playing captain would certainly come in handy, missed putt or not.
Crescent High School grad Tommy Farris interned for the Boeing Classic all summer.
I should have some information on what he was up to all summer in a future column.
SkyRidge scramble
SkyRidge will hold a three-person scramble tournament on Saturday, Sept. 18.
Fees are $120 per three-man team.
This includes greens fee, lunch, kp’s, and a team long-putt competition.
The fun gets underway at 9 a.m. for the first 22 teams that sign up.
Call SkyRidge at 360-683-3673 or stop by the course to get in the game.
Patriot Golf Day
Port Ludlow Golf Club will participate in the fourth annual Patriot Golf Day, a joint initiative of The PGA of America and the United States Golf Association.
Golfers who mention Patriot Golf Day and donate at least $1 to the Folds of Honor Foundation from Friday through Monday can play with a cart for $49.
Folds of Honor provides post-secondary educational scholarships for children and spouses of military service men and women killed or disabled while serving our country.
A great event for the greatest cause, helping the survivors of those who have given the ultimate sacrifice so we can be safe to play a silly little game.
For more information, visit www.foldsofhonor.org.
Hole-in-one challenge
We are heading into the final weekend for the $500,000 Hole-in-One Challenge .
The event — a fundraiser for the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Olympic Medical Center Foundation — gives participants a shot at banking $500,000 offered by 7 Cedars Casino, Elwha River Casino, MV Coho ferry and First Federal.
The competition is open Fridays and Saturdays until this Saturday at Cedars at Dungeness Golf Course, SunLand Golf & Country Club and SkyRidge Golf Course, all in Sequim, and Peninsula Golf Club in Port Angeles.
Prizes are awarded each day of the event at each course to the three golfers who hit it closest to the pin.
These are some solid prizes: gift certificates to restaurants like MichaelSSRqs and Wildfire, Callaway gift certificates, 7 Cedars Casino gift cards, Elwha River Casino merchandise and assorted golf equipment.
The final event will be a 150-yard shot on Peninsula Golf Club’s No. 18 on Sept. 10.
For more information, call Russ Veenema at 360-452-2363 (ext. 13) or e-mail russ@portangeles.org.
Big Blue benefit
The Chimacum Big Blue Booster Club will hold its Penny Creek Invitational at Port TownsendSSRqs Discovery Bay Golf Club on Sept. 11.
Proceeds benefit Cowboys athletics.
The four-person scramble begins with registration at noon. Play kicks off at 1 p.m.
Cost is $100 per person with greens fee, a boxed lunch and a dinner-and-drinks coupon thrown in.
The event will include a long-drive competition, KP’s, team prizes, raffle prizes, mulligans and “buy-a-drive.”
Event sponsorship is available.
For more information, call Sabrina Hathaway at 360-437-9653 or 360-531-0461, or e-mail hathaway@cablespeed.com.
The New Media
If you have a Facebook account online you can check out photos and get information from Port Townsend Golf Club, Cedars at Dungeness, Port Ludlow Golf Club and SunLand Golf & Country Club.
Each course’s account has photos of the course, photos that prove the oft-mentioned line that “the course has never looked so good.”
Sometimes I shrug this statement off but after looking through some recent pictures from Port Townsend, I have to agree.
I remember growing up with the annual mid-summer browning and drying of the fairways at Port Townsend Golf Club to a rock-like consistency during drought years.
That browning isn’t allowed to happen any longer.
The course is lush and in immaculate condition as the photos at www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=137862192891551 attest.
But don’t take my word for it for Port Townsend or for any of the courses on the North Olympic Peninsula, go out and see for yourself.
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Michael Carman is the golf columnist for the Peninsula Daily News. He can be reached at 360-417-3527 or at pdngolf@gmail.com.