Sports
Four Places to Lose a Golf Ball This Weekend
A Meetup foursome in Bradenton, a family scramble with bratwurst in Sarasota, a charity outing with a car on the line and one for the officers' families. Tee times for Oct. 3 and 4.
Rec league golf has one rule I respect: the ball goes where it wants, and everybody buys the first round anyway. If your swing looks like a man fighting a folding chair, this is your weekend. The fairways of Sarasota and Manatee County are open, and nobody is keeping score of your feelings.
Here are four ways to get out there on Saturday, Oct. 3 or Sunday, Oct. 4. Check each page before you go, because sign-up rules change.
Saturday, Oct. 3
Oktoberfest Family Golf Cup, Village Green Golf Club (Sarasota). Nine o'clock shotgun start on the Village Green event page. Your family is the team, a scramble for two to four players, juniors get age-appropriate tees, and lunch is brats and German sides. It is $30 a player, carts $20 extra, and there is a prize for best-dressed family. Lederhosen are a gamble in this humidity. I respect the gamble.
Bonnie Jean Golf Tournament, The Preserve at Tara (Bradenton). An 8 a.m. shotgun start for the first annual outing benefiting Nate's Honor Animal Rescue, with a hole-in-one contest for a car, a 50/50 and a silent auction. It is $250 per foursome, per The Suncoast Post's write-up. Nobody's sure the car is a stick shift. Nobody cares.
Law Enforcement United Team Golf Tournament, Pinebrook Ironwood (Bradenton). The Bradenton Police cycling team's fifth annual fundraiser for families of officers who died in the line of duty. Registration opens at noon, shotgun at 1 p.m., $150 per two-person team, lunch included, with raffles and putting games. Details are on the event listing. A good cause, and you'll get a decent putting game out of it.
Sunday, Oct. 4
Tampa Bay Golf & Social, Heritage Harbour (Bradenton). This one is a Meetup, so it is the closest thing to a beer league with a tee time. The group's event page has a 10:30 a.m. start at 8000 Stone Harbour Loop. It is a makeup round after a rainout, $59 unless you kept your rain check, plus $5 for prizes, with lunch at the restaurant afterward. Meetup lists it for 32 players, so sign up early.
The wine note
A 9 a.m. scramble and a bottle at sunset is the correct order of operations. Golf is a young red: a little rough, better with time and better with friends.
— Kevin
