Kenai Golf Report: Great days for golfing

Golfers at Kenai Golf Course have been enjoying the warm, sunny, long days for the past week. Yours Truly has never seen so many knees out on the course in Kenai. The course is busy with golfers taking advantage of the incredible weather and long days. Let's hope it continues! Yours Truly enjoys checking in visiting or local golfers who are enjoying the long days as late as 9 p.m. or even later.

Pam and Felix Martinez checked in at 8:30 p.m. on June 21 and played 18 holes. The years have flown by, but it seems only a short while ago the couple who met at Kenai Golf Course had their wedding there too. They usually celebrate their anniversary playing golf!

Mixed Doubles

The mixed doubles golfers enjoyed the Monday evening event. There were 16 golfers in two-golfer teams who played in the highly non-competitive, just for fun event. The group continues to grow and all golfers are welcome to participate. All golfers play their own ball so the scores are entered in the computer, for those who do keep a handicap.

This week the teams played the usual nine holes, carded their putts and strokes, entered the clubhouse and then found who their scoring partners were. The partners were determined by a blind draw.

Taking the putting award were Janae Cork and Don Erwin. Taking the mystery hole award were Patty Rome and Dennis Cork.

Any combination of a guy and a gal is welcome to play. This week we had the youngest player thus far take part with her dad. Dacia Shier and Scot Shier have been a team in the event. Dacia is 8 years old and is enjoying her golfing. Dacia can be seen running to and from her ball. How wonderful to have so much energy!

Ladies Evening

The ladies are still looking to get started with a group who want to play on Tuesday evenings. Tee time starts at 6 p.m. We have about five ladies so far who are interested in playing each Tuesday. The tee sheet is marked for 6 p.m. and 6:10 p.m. each Monday. If we have more show up we will add more tee times.

I remember during the olden days, we had up to 28 gals and sometimes 32 gals show up with their bag of clubs and head out to the course in a shotgun start.

Kenai Cup

The winners in the Butch Anderson Division were the team of Ryan Harvey and Eldon Harvey, and the team of Jack Evans and Bruce Galloway.

The winners in the Donny Morgan Division were the team of Gordon Griffin and Doug Haralson, and the team of Felix Martinez and Pam Martinez.

The winners in the Aces Division were the team of Dave Ramsey and Ed Marsh, and the team of Joe Deveaux and Greg Horton.

The winners in the 19th Hole Division were the team of Dan Cabrera and Jeff Johns, the team of Tom Reese and Greg Duggin, and the team of Dustin Jung and Doug Jung.

Upcoming Events

On July 10 the Kenai Firefighters will have their annual Firefighters Tournament. The Butch Anderson Senior Tournament will be on July 17-18. July 24 the Alliance Golf Tournament will take place. On July 31 the United Way Tournament will take place.

A Birdie Told Me

What about that Jim Kimball! Recently, Jim shot a 71 playing with his golfing buddies from the gold tees. Golfers 65 and older may play from the gold tees. He then followed it up with a 75. Jim is certainly a steady golfer and spends much of his time on the practice chipping and putting green. He makes the game look so much easier than it really is. Jim started on the first green with a birdie and said, "It just continued to go from there." Congratulations on an incredible round!

Junior Golf Tournament

The juniors had a tournament of Tuesday. All juniors from 8 to 17 were invited to play in the event. The winners of the 8-9 year old girls: Jana Liedes took first, Leah Sandahl took second and Dacia Shier took third place.

The winners of the 8-9 year old boys: Josh Liedes took first, Tyler Yamada took second and Conner Haralson took third place.

The winners in the 10-11-12 year olds: Josh Kerkvliet took first, Josh Harvey took second and Zack Sonnichsen took third place.

The winner in the 17 and under was Debbie Duggin. Debbie also plays in the Junior Cup competition that takes place at the Kenai Golf Course and the Birch Ridge Course each week. Matches are played in Soldotna and then played in Kenai each week. The winners in match play are the golfers who win more holes than their competition. The total strokes taken do not necessarily determine the winner. Stroke play allows golfers to recover from a very bad hole.

Closing Thoughts

The weather and long days are a golfer's dream. The other day Yours Truly ended up playing 54 holes of golf at Kenai Golf Course. We started at 10 a.m. with a foursome, played the first 18 holes and then two golfers left to take care of their chores. Todd Eskelin and Yours Truly continued to play and completed the 54 holes at 10 p.m. We never meant to play that many rounds, but the weather and conditions were just too perfect to not play on.

For KGC golfing news, KGC daily activities, photos of Kenai golfers and wildlife, go to www.kenaigolf.com.

See you on the front nine.