AT ONE TIME hoisting the Theodore Havemeyer trophy as the year’s top U.S. Amateur was the pinnacle of the American golfing experience.
The amateur, being conducted right now at Chambers Bay Golf Course in Tacoma, is still a pretty big deal.
An old cliché about the stock market tells us that past performance is not indicative of future results.
That idiom doesn’t apply to the U.S. Amateur.
Tiger Woods won the tournament three times in a row in the mid-1990s, Jack Nicklaus won it twice and Arnold Palmer, Phil Mickelson and a host of other current professionals at the PGA and Champions Tour level have all raised the hardware.
The stars of tomorrow are teeing it up in Tacoma through Sunday in match-play competition.
Chambers Bay and the Home Course in DuPont shared the first two days of stroke play competition on Monday and Tuesday.
Discovery Bay Golf Course owner and back-9 (and some changes on the old Farm 9) architect Michael Asmundson designed the Home Course.
It yielded the second-lowest score in the 110-year history of the U.S. Amateur on Monday when Jeff Wilson finished eagle-eagle for a course-record 62.
Tickets are $25 plus $4 for the Narrows Bridge toll on the way down.
The tournament will be on the Golf Channel until Saturday when NBC picks up coverage at 1 p.m.
The final match will also be shown on NBC at 1 p.m. Sunday.
For more information, visit www.2010usamateur.com.
Relatively spoiled
Golf fans in the Northwest can take their pick this week: watch the future stars at the amateur or head to the TPC Snoqualmie Ridge for the Champions Tour’s annual Boeing Classic.
Fred Couples, Bernhard Langer as well as Tom Kite, Loren Roberts, Mark O’Meara and Fred Funk are all back in the area again after their U.S. Senior Open visit in July.
Admission is free to all spectators on Friday, and $40 on Saturday and Sunday.
TV coverage will be provided by The Golf Channel.
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 Sept. 3-6 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.
Get in the game
The $500,000 Hole-in-One Challenge keeps on rolling for another pair of Fridays and Saturdays.
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 Saturday, Sept. 4, 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 gift cards, Elwha River Casino merchandise and assorted golf equipment.
The final event will be a 150-yard shot on Peninsula’s No. 18 on Sept. 10.
Qualifiers so far include Allan Stewart, Steven Loerlein, Gary Thorne, Dominick Debari, Jeff Avellak, Jeff Anderson, Dave Hire, Shawn Harris, Mike DuPuis, David Peterson, Jacob McMenamin, Richard Baughn, Chris Szczepczynski, Larry Klinefelter, John Raske, Mark Leffers, Jeremy Copeland, Silas Fuller, Bob Madsen and a mysterious golfer named Al Q.
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.
Busy weekend
SkyRidge Golf Course will hold two tourneys this weekend.
Owner Jeff Pedersen would love it if you would register early for both of them.
Here’s the details.
SkyRidge Golf Course will hold a four-man, 18-hole scramble benefit for Sequim girls basketball at 2 p.m. on Saturday
Cost is $40 per person, with carts an optional $20, and lunch $5 more.
SkyRidge will host the annual Washington State University North Olympic Cougar Golf Tournament on Sunday.
This is a four-person scramble with a 1 p.m. shotgun start.
Cost is $50 per person and includes a barbecue lunch before play, range balls, prizes and KPs.
You don’t have to be affiliated with the school to participate.
For more information, phone SkyRidge at 360-683-3673 or Peninsula Golf Club pro Chris Repass, a Cougar alumni himself, at 360-457-6501.
Go Cougs! Sorry, it’s a learned response, conditioned by ample college-age infusions of Busch Light.
State of the union
One week from today my 52nd consecutive golf column will grace the pages of the Peninsula Daily News.
Yep, it’s been a year since I took the reins from Billy Sallee.
To paraphrase a certain rock band, “I hope you have enjoyed the show.”
I’ve tried to keep it light and broaden our golfing spectrum a little bit but still keep the focus on all the local golf happenings.
If you have comments on how I’m doing, or suggestions, tips and topics to write about, I’m all ears.
Literally, I have always had jug ears and I used to get teased when watching Dumbo as a kid.
I’m not running out of ideas by any stretch, but I’d like to keep the chatter up.
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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.