STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
They whacked giant marshmallows down the fairway. And they drove a tennis ball to the brink of Hole No. 9.
They even donned oven mitts to putt the ball on the second hole.
It was all golf and giggles as 40 women took part in the second Ladies Night Out on the Range golf scramble at Big Wood Golf Course in Ketchum.
And the proceeds, including sponsors’ money, went to the Residential Construction Academy at Wood River High School and Carey High.
“This is a kick,” said Lesley Andrus, as it sank in that this would not be an ordinary jaunt around the greens.
“No excuse,” said Susan Passovoy.
“I’ve never taken part in a golf tournament before. And I’ve certainly never done anything like this,” added Anndel Kininmonth.
The only requirement is that you absolutely must have fun and laugh often, said Sue Woodyard, who organized the scramble with the Wood River Building Contractors Association. “It’s just silly fun games. All golf and giggles.”
And there were plenty of giggles to be had.
The game started out normal enough as Andrus, Woodyard, Kininmonth and Mary Rolland drove towards the seventh hole. There, per instructions, they picked out a brown bag from a collection of bags.
“Remember: If you lose your sock in the dryer, it will come back as Tupperware lid that doesn’t fit any of your Tupperware,” the instructions in their bag read. “Subtract four from your score.”
“Wow! We scored big there,” said Rowland as she whittled their score to one.
On the next hole they had to use a driver to putt. Then it was on to the tennis ball.
“That’s not easy,” said Rolland, despite giving it a wallop.
The team putted between potted flowers. Then they donned oven mitts to putt, which was actually easier than it might have seemed.
Then it was on to marshmallows the size of tennis balls.
“I’ll show you how not to do it,” said Mary Jo Helmeke as she affixed hers to the tee.
“It felt amazingly light and airy,” said Kininmonth after she’d taken her swat.
Their final hole involved a nail board. Each player had to pound one nail flat, adding the number of hammer strokes they took to their score.
Most had to hammer the nail three of four times. Andrus, a lawyer, showed that she had missed her calling as a builder as she drive her nail flat with one stroke.
Bonnie Hovencamp gave the tail of her gator golf cover a tug every time her drive didn’t go exactly as planned.
“I named him Katrina Ali,” she said recounting how her former golf course in New Orleans was inundated with several feet of water in the hurricane. “I supported causes like this when I lived there, as well. Programs like this give kids who don’t go on to college and way to make a good living. And we all need them—and their skills.”
The Residential Construction Academy program, now in its 20th year, provides advanced, hands-on-training in such skills as carpentry, framing, electrical wiring, HVAC, plumbing and other trades.
The program started in 1999 at Carey where students built their first house on a parking lot at Carey High School. The program expanded to Wood River high School in 2004 with students building homes for the school district’s teachers.
This year 13 Carey High School students—15 percent of the school’s 90-member student body—are building their school’s sixth house under Greg Carlson.
Greg Urbany oversees 50 Wood River High School boys and girls building a home in Hailey’s Woodside neighborhood.
The school district puts the money it makes from the sale of each house into materials for the next house. Money raised from the scramble goes to buy things like waterproof wear for the youngsters to wear while building during winter.
Three Wood River graduates have gone into the custom cabinetry building program at College of Southern Idaho and one is already putting cabinets into his own home. Two are in the sophomore year of construction management program at Boise State University. And a couple have gone into the construction program at Boise State university.
Several have gotten jobs with Power Engineers.
“This program has opened eyes to what’s out there,” said Woodyard. “This summer every kid who wanted a job in construction in the valley had one. And these kids are learning lifetime skills that they will use whether they go into construction or not.”
When the scramble had ended, Happy Hawn, Lynn Campion, Julie Potter and PK Murphy had edged out the other women, marshmallows and all. And a handful of women had volunteered to help organize a third tourney next year.
“It was great fun,” said Sherri Meeks, who is new to Sun Valley. “I liked hitting the tennis ball. And the fact that we got to take off three strokes at the hole with the bags was great.”
Woodyard called the women all winners for supporting “an incredible cause.”
“This program teaches real world work,” added her co-organizer Jenny Linch. “Everything from what we drive to what we live in is all built. And the Construction Academy teaches kids how to build. It’s electrical, it’s plumbing, it’s landscaping, it’s everything. These kids get good skills to take them to a good job right out of high school or on to higher education.”