Hacks and Blasts fill the spring air at Trap Club
ABOVE, EARLY-MORNING blast - teams lined up to hunt the mighty clay pigeon at Plains Trap Club’s 19th annual Hack and Blast May 18.
SHAWN “JUMBO” Bright gets a good swing from the infamous toilet seat. This was Jumbo’s 12th Hack and Blast, which he has attended since he was 18.
AT RIGHT, Plains’ Tim McKevitt asks his wife, Sarah, to pitch the golf ball to him for the infamous Hole #5 baseball bat drive.
SAM WILKINS wore the most colorful attire during the Hack and Blast tournament Saturday in Plains. He swings a club above, but got the award for the “Longest Drive with a Bat.” (Carolyn Hidy photos/Clark Fork Valley Press)
The 19th annual “Hack and Blast” tournament — Plains Trap Club’s light-hearted kick-off of both the shooting range’s trap season and the golf season — got off to a jolly start. Fifteen teams from Plains and surrounding towns lined up to take their shots at the doomed clay pigeons. Hours later, as they made their way around the golf course’s nine holes, they were still laughing. Flags, patriotic pants, silly team names and goofy golf drives brought friends and community together.
Tanner and Ty Colombo of Plains compiled scores and reported that, guess what, they won! Combining shooting scores from the doubles trap shoot with team golf scores, the local boys’ Plains Auto Parts team took home the gold. With teammates Beau French and Mike Holland, their combined score was 33 points, winning them $100 each.
In second place, awarded $75 each, was the Missoula NAPA team of Brian Green, Ryan Flink, Ethan Donaldson, and Kirk Frye, with a score of 35 points.
“Those Guys,” the Plains/Hot Springs team of Sean Ladeaux, Ricky Depoe, Luis Gonzalez and Andrew Leightnam, placed third with 38 points, winning $50 each.
Special holes are always a coveted distinction. This year’s “Longest Drive off a Toilet Seat” went to Jack Revier. Sam Wilkins made the “Longest Drive with a Bat.” Don Kunzer (“I only golf once a year — at this”) smoothly sailed to winning the “Closest to the Pin with Opposite Hand Drive. Kirk Frye won “Closest to the Pin” on hole #3, the only hole prize for a straight-up golf drive, without some wacky requirement. Special holes sponsors were Plains businesses Gamble’s Hardware, Gary’s Glass and Auto Body, Plains Auto Parts, Simple Simon’s Pizza, and Studs Building and Home.