Junior League Event Brings Golf’s Best To Spokane

It’s the 18th green at the Spokane Country Club. You face a tricky 12-foot putt. Sink it and you win the club championship … or at least clubhouse bragging rights and the first round of beverages.

And there’s a new local rule: you can pick someone to take that putt for you. Who would you pick?

Annika Sorenstam - U.S. Women’s Open winner and two-time winner of the World Championship of Golf.

Tom Weiskopf - 1995 winner of the Senior U.S. Open, and a golf legend.

Peter Jacobsen - a Northwest favorite with six PGA tournament titles and three international tournament wins.

Tom Lehman - PGA Tour champion two years running, and one of the few pros who can capably “tame the Tiger.”

The fantasy is having one of these four golfing greats step in to drain that putt for you.

The reality is you can watch these players yourself on Monday, Sept. 15 at the Country Club in the eighth Junior League Golf Exhibition. A clinic at 11 a.m. precedes a lunch with sponsors and patrons. The 18-hole exhibition tees off at 1:30 p.m.

“The format will basically be the same as in recent years, but we will have a few new wrinkles,” said event chair Jan House of the Junior League.

“There will be a chipping contest at the 18th green for anyone in the gallery who wants to play and chances will be sold for two hole-in-one contests,” House said. “The pros will pick a name and if they score a hole in one at one hole, that winner will get to pick one of three new vehicles. If a hole-in-one is made at the other hole, the prize is $25,000 in furniture.”

The clinic is limited to 800 spectators and the gallery is limited to 3,300. Plenty of tickets remain, House said.

The Junior League has sponsored a golf exhibition every four years since 1971, when Arnold Palmer, John Brodie and Rod Funseth joined local pro Pat Welch. The 1993 event - featuring Fred Couples, Nancy Lopez, Nick Price and Chip Beck - raised more than $250,000 for community projects and volunteer training, said House.

This year’s event will benefit a variety of charities, including the Foster Family Support Program and Teen Career Connections.

Getting pro golfers to participate is not a problem for the Junior League, House said.

“The pressure is low and the players can have some fun with the gallery,” she said.

Given the Junior League’s successful staging of these events, she adds: “We have a real good reputation with IMG (International Management Group) in Cleveland, which represents a lot of players, including Sorenstam and Weiskopf.”

House said 240 Junior League members plus 60 spouses will work on staging the event.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: TICKET INFO Tickets for the clinic and exhibition are $155 and $75 for the exhibition only. Tickets are available at all Hamer’s outlets and at the Junior League Office. Call 328-2801.