BEAR WITH ME.
I “see” a lot of similarities between Whistling Straits, the site of the final major of the 2010 season — this week’s PGA Championship — and Chambers Bay, site of the upcoming U.S. Amateur.
I’ve never set foot in Wisconsin, but I have played the course numerous times on the most recent PGA Tour video game and I played Chambers Bay as part of a media junket in June.
I also remember watching Vijay Singh methodically putt his way to a win there in the 2004 PGA Championship.
They are similar Scottish-style links courses with waterside settings, Whistling Strait on Lake Michigan and Chambers on Puget Sound.
Both tracts were repurposed from its former lives as an abandoned anti-aircraft testing range (Whistling Straits) and a former sand and gravel pit (Chambers Bay).
Whistling Straits’ builders did have to truck in the sand needed to create the same Scottish-links feel that came naturally to Chambers Bay’s designers.
I hadn’t played on a course with greens as large or with as much contour as Chambers Bay.
Two-putting was a victory for me on many of the holes.
Whistling Strait also has big targets with lots of undulation.
TV coverage of the PGA Championship will be split between TNT and CBS starting Thursday at at 8 a.m.
The U.S. Amateur begins Aug. 23, with later round play running Aug. 27-29.
Tickets are still available and range from $65 for the whole week to $25 for single-day passes.
For more information, visit www.2010usamateur.com.
Get in the game
The $500,000 Hole-in-One Challenge started last Friday at three area courses.
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, SunLand and SkyRidge golf courses in Sequim, and Peninsula Golf Club in Port Angeles.
The final event will be held at Peninsula on Sept. 10.
Businesses and nonprofit organizations are welcome to volunteer as a group, with three to four people needed at a time from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (unless otherwise specified).
Promotional materials can be set up and giveaways conducted during the event by the volunteer groups.
For more information, call Russ Veenema at 360-452-2363 (ext. 13) or e-mail russ@portangeles.org.
SunLand golf camp
SunLand will hold a junior golf camp for children ages 4-18 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Aug. 16-19.
Cost is $65 per student.
For more information, contact the pro shop at 360-683-6800.
Big Blue benefit
The Chimacum Big Blue Booster Club will hold its Penny Creek Invitational at 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.
Soroptimist scramble
Soroptimist of Port Townsend/East Jefferson County will hold its Scramble for Service golf tournament at Discovery Bay Golf Club on Aug. 21.
The tournament benefits foster families.
The mixed scramble will have divisions, including a high school group.
Cost for the tournament is $275 for a foursome, which includes cart, appetizers and lunch. The price for a single is $75.
Registration begins at 11:30 a.m. with the tourney starting at 1 p.m.
Players will have the chance to compete for a $15,000 hole-in-one prize.
Registration forms are available at www.soroptimistpt.org/golf.htm or by phone at 360-379-1602.
Hoops scramble
SkyRidge Golf Course will hold a four-man, 18-hole scramble benefit for Sequim girls basketball at 11 a.m. on Aug. 28.
Cost is $40 per person, with carts an optional $20 and lunch $5 more.
There’s no need to pre-register. Just show up on time to play.
I’ll have more on this one next week.
Nine-holes are plenty
I get tired after walking nine holes and am pooped after a full 18, so an article extolling the virtue of nine-hole courses is right up my alley.
Look for it at http://tinyurl.com/24k2qw4.
Peninsula residents are lucky to have two such courses in the stalwart Port Townsend Golf Course and the links-style SkyRidge Golf Course in Sequim.
They are two of the SDLq4,441 nine-hole golf courses left in the United States, a figure that represents 28 percent of all courses,”according to the National Golf Foundation.
Whether you like playing nine or 18 at a time, keep patronizing our local courses!
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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
