STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
The Udders and Putters took their place among the Kings of Beer and a host of other fanciful characters Saturday as Ketchum turned into a city-wide miniature golf course for the annual Ketchum Wide Open.
The event brought out 254 golfers to play 10 holes created by Ketchum restaurants and bars, said Caroline Dayton, a member of the Environmental Resource Center's .
Among the many out-of-towners were Cathy DeHaven and Ron Alves, who came from Denver and Aspen where DeHaven works for the Limelight Hotel Aspen.
“If people wore more costumes more days of the week, we’d have more fun,” said Alves, who was decked out in an Indy 500 racing suit. “Instead of casual Fridays, we should have costume Fridays.”
The new Limelight Hotel in Ketchum took part in its first Ketchum Wide Open, creating a long twisting Rubik’s Cube-like apparatus made of parts employee Jennie Kaahui had salvaged from the nexStage Theatre’s yard sale.
She gave the Romeo and Juliet bench and other old sets to the hotel’s engineer Jim Cook who, as mastermind of construction, said he was determined to use every single piece.
By the time he was finished, balls had to wind through a Mr. Pineapple Head, under a windmill presided over by a monkey and through a Kon-Tiki lava monolith guarded by a blow-up Hawaiian doll.
That is, if you weren’t lucky or skillful enough to knock the golf ball through a long straight pipe for a hole in one.
“My 8-year-old daughter Keala got it through. It took her a few times, but she finally did it,” said Kaahui.
Among those who turned out was Kyle Green, who was celebrating spring after a busy winter providing skis door to door through his D2D Ski Rentals.
“It’s a great community event in the mountains,” he said.
Ronald Arnold took a cue from Scottish who are said to have invented the game of golf, by creating a handsome kilt out of a plaid bedspread he scored at The Gold Mine.
Those putting at Whiskey Jacques had to get their balls past a moving turntable. Jason “Train” Spicer had Jose Cuerva prizes, including T-shirts, caps and sunglasses, for those who sunk a hole in one. Those putting at the Cellar Pub had to drive their ball up the stairs.
This year’s beneficiary was the Environmental Resource Center, which created a golf hole that zig-zagged up to a bucket before sending the ball down two ski poles into a box holding the hole.
“Nine strokes!” said Jeremy Denhaugel, after he’d finally sank his putt.
“The worst effort of my entire life!” he exclaimed.
ERC Director Hadlee Debree said money raised from the event would be used to put on summer camps, among other things.
“We’ll also have a street party on June 10 between 4th and 5th street, during which we’ll have a deejay, some family-friendly games, and we’ll be raffling off a bike, a trip to the Pioneer yurt and a stand-up paddle board,” she added.
Linda Watkins of Twin Falls and her son--Conner Watkins of Ketchum--dressed up as the Kings of Beer, fitting since the family has had the local Budweiser distributorship for years.
“So fun to get everyone out,” Linda Watkins said. “I started with the big yoga event they had for the community at the Limelight Hotel this morning. Now, I’m doing good charity work.”
Whiskey Jacques was awarded Best Hole; Ronald Arnold and his team, the Drunken Scots,comprised the winning team. The Best Costume went to the Old Ladies, which was actually a group composed of three or four different teams.
The youngest player was 7 years old. And a player from Stockholm, Sweden, was honored for traveling the furthest.
"We had a runner up from Brisbane, Australia--we actually had to look it up, and found that Stockholm was farthest," said Dayton.