Benefit Glow Ball tournament yields crowd

PLAINS – The Wild Horse Plains Golf Course held the 2013 Benefit Glow Ball tournament on Saturday. The event, which started out much like a normal tournament, later turned into a dark frenzy lit up by glow sticks and glow in the dark golf balls.

The tournament got off to a late start around 6:30 p.m. because of last minute registrations. The front nine holes were completed in the daylight and the back nine holes were finished in almost complete darkness, with only a few small lights for illumination on the poles of the course and in the different holes. Three different glow balls were used, Night Flyers, Twilights and Nitelites, all varying in their performance and quality. Some of the golf balls used, included a chemical agent that caused the ball to glow in the dark, while other balls had a clear casing with a small glow stick stuck in the middle of the container.

As the back half of the tournament ensued after a pork belly dinner with a variety of sides, the hilarity of the tournament could be heard as the golfers competed against each other, leaning a little on luck with the encompassing darkness.

The golfers were able to use a flashlight while teeing up, however, the light had to be turned off before the golfer went to chip or putt the golf ball.

According to General Manager and Superintendent of the course, Sean LeDeaux, the tournament was a success, in great part due to the recruiting effort taken on by Jack Revier, the vice president of the Wild Horse Plains Golf Association.

Revier also co-sponsored the event under Gary’s Glass & Auto Body and Ben Bache co-sponsored the event through his business of Stageline Pizza.

“Jack’s recruiting effort is meritorious given the fact that his business, Gary’s Glass & Auto Body has been very busy lately, and both him and his wife just welcomed their second child recently. Jack along with many other volunteers and donors have helped the golf course tremendously this past year,” said LeDeux in an email.

The event was an 18-hole, four-person, scramble event and included 62 golfers in total – 15 teams of four golfers and one partial two-golfer team.

LeDeux said the turnout was great, with a typical tournament capped at 72 players.

“I’ve golfed here since July 2000 and that is the most participants I’ve ever seen in a glow ball golf tournament,” said LeDeux.

Golfers reined from all over, including local areas but spanned from as far as Anaconda, Butte, Post Falls, ID, Auburn, WA, and Seattle.

The last teams completed the tournament nearing 3:30 in the morning, stretching the tournament early into Sunday morning.

Two teams were awarded with a $200 cash prize. Scott Brown, Lisa Brown, Kyle Brown and Aaron Brown golfed 12-under par score of 60 to win the first place-gross. The Brown team had one of the lowest tournament handicaps assigned.

Gary Revier, Jeff Revier, Scott Rice, and Brian Taylor golfed an 8-under par gross score of 64, posting a net score of 54 to win first place-net. The team had one of the highest tournament handicaps with -10.

A variety of different hole contests were held throughout the tournament, in which teams had to utilize a specific shot for the scramble in order to qualify. Various prizes from the University of Montana’s Bookstore were awarded.

The hole contest winners were as follows: Long putt – men: Scott Dicken (24’); closest to the pin – men: Dusty Burgess (10’2”); Long putt – women: LeChel Hegge (7’); Long fairway drive – men: Justin Terrell (350’); Closest to the pin – women: Tonya Revier; Closest drive to the fairway bush – men: Kevin Felix (30.5’); and Closest drive to the beer box – men: Tim Schrapps.

Although, it is unknown when the annual glow ball tournament began, LeDeux said the event had been on hiatus in years past due to lack of sponsors and liability concerns of past board members. Even with a few years off in the past, the tournament was in full swing this year and was deemed a good time by all.