A team of Mountain Lion alumni took the top prize at the 20th Cove Classic Golf Tournament on July 16 at Windhaven Golf Course.
Captain Robbie Sigler and team members Andrew Carr, Riley Dickinson and Silas Shaw put together a nine-hole score of 26 in the four-person scramble to wrest the trophy and top spot from last year’s winners, Twisp River Tap House.
Sigler, Shaw and Carr all played golf as Liberty Bell High School Mountain Lions a few years ago. Dickinson, while a Liberty Bell student, played high school golf under the banner of Manson High School as the Mountain Lions did not have a golf program for the 2014 Liberty Bell graduate.
The defending 2021 champs tied with two other teams for second place at 28. Clint Estes’ Quality Lubers and Sal Bankaitis’ team joined the three-way knot at second place.
Sigler’s team will have their names permanently engraved on The Cove Classic trophy, and they each received a complimentary lodging package donated by Sun Mountain Lodge. The second-place teams received prizes donated by The Cove, Bear Creek Golf Course and Twisp River Tap House.
The longest-drive contests were won by Dickenson for the men and Megan Casey for women. Closest-to-the-pin honors on Hole No. 5 went to Bernard Wathen. Tim Lewis was awarded the most unique shot of the day, leaving at least 10 discernable rings in the water as his ball skittered across the mirror-like pond, coming to rest in a clump of shoreline reeds. Each were awarded a gift certificate for a large pizza, donated by Hometown Pizza in Twisp.
Sixty-four golfers divided into 16 four-person teams competed in the Classic, up from a dozen each of the past two years. Raising about $8,000 in support of The Cove’s Methow Valley Food Bank, Friday Food and Neighbors Helping Neighbors programs, the tournament is a popular annual event in the Methow Valley golfing community.
“I never had the worry growwing up about where my next meal was coming from,” said participant Stuart O’Farrell. “To be aware of the need, and be able to support The Cove, and have this much fun is what makes this such a great event.”
Cove Executive Director Glenn Schmekel was all smiles. “We had the largest field of teams in the 20-year history of this event,” said Schmekel. “It shows there is a lot of support in the community for the efforts of The Cove, and local golfers are a big part of that support. It was fun, a great day.”
The Classic is played each year at Windhaven, a privately owned, executive-style course near Winthrop. Management has donated use of the course for the local nonprofit each year since 2003.
