Tournament Season Launches into Full Swing
Trevor Phipps
Now that the weather is in full-blown summer mode, golf fever has officially struck the Pikes Peak region.
And for those who wish to avoid the high temperatures down the Pass, the Shining Mountain Golf Course in Woodland Park has become a favorite.
With cooler temperatures and thick, green grass, linksters have recently flooded the local golf course. During the recent Greater Woodland Park Chamber of Commerce Golf Tournament nearly 100 players tried their luck out on the course during a perfect sunny day. This tourney is an annual tradition and a favorite among the slew of regular summer tournaments at SM.
The next big tournament for the area will be the annual Law Enforcement Week Golf Tournament, hosted again by Shining Mountain, on August 15. This tournament, similar to the Chamber tourney, features a scramble (best ball) format, with a shotgun start at 7:30 a.m.
Both tournaments feed the golfers and give them a chance to win prizes while supporting a local cause. The Chamber of Commerce Golf Tournament, which took place on July 10, went towards the local chamber that assists businesses in the region. The Law Enforcement Week Tournament helps support the Honorary Sheriff’s Deputy Association (HDSA) that provides funding for training and equipment for the first responders and supports the community through projects like the Shop with a Hero and the HDSA scholarship.
The most recent tournament welcomed golfers at 7 a.m. The early birds got to mow down on breakfast burritos, drink some coffee and then practice their shots out on the SM driving range and putting/chipping area.
The shotgun-style tourney started at 8 a.m. during a beautiful sunny morning. In fact, the weather held up and stayed in the 70s for most of the day with some sprinkles occurring during the tournament. But luckily, the tourney ended before a massive rainstorm struck, coupled with lightning.
At the end, lunch was provided from Board and Barrels in Woodland Park while donated prizes were raffled away and the winners were announced. During the 2025 Greater Woodland Park Chamber of Commerce Golf Tournament, the SSR Mining Cripple Creek-Victor team took the gold with a score of 59 or 12 under par. Affordable Excavating came in second with a 62 or nine under par.
Golf Cart Crashes and Water Shots
For another year, the TMJ brought some representatives. In fact, this year we found enough people that weren’t embarrassed by our lackluster golf skills to form an entire team. Our 2025 tournament team consisted of myself, TMJ Editor Rick Langenberg, local real estate agent Bill Camp and his golf buddy Alex.
The day started out a little rough for our team as we started on hole 17, SM’s signature par-3, with the green guarded by a brutal water hazard, and high rough lingering all over the place. To start the day off, Langenberg took the first drive to show us all how it was done only to end up in the water with a splash. But hey, at least that was the one and only “water ball” of the day.
Continuing the course with the difficult hole 18 also proved to not be very lucky for our team. Even though I nailed a nice mid-range shot, the team still started the day on a lackluster note.
The day continued about the same with our team staying right around par, struggling to get a birdie even on the easier holes. Like many teams in the chamber tourney, we struggled with our putts. In the end, we finished at two-over par, well back of the pack, but not near the cellar.
Overall, the team took turns on holes as to who would get the best shots. Alex seemed to be the best when it came to driving, often striking 250-yard-plus tee shots, whereas Langenberg and Camp did well with chips and mid-range shots. My golf game was pretty horrible most of the day, but I did come in clutch when I was able to sink a couple key puts.
Personally, I was excited that this year may have been the first golf tournament that I didn’t slam a house with one of my shots. In fact, I was happy with only losing a handful of balls versus going through 15 to 20 like I normally do. The only person who has lost more balls than me at a local tourney, according to numerous reports, is Charlie Chambers, a former member of our TMJ crew, who is now the leader of the Ute Pass Historical Society.
Similar to past tournament outings involving TMJ, mishaps and bizarre accidents can’t be avoided.
This time, we became the victims of a cart crash. How many cart crashes do you experience at a local golf course?
While we were all putting out on the 15th hole (our official last hole), which we should have birdied, a golfer from another team (we won’t mention the company’s name) came racing by in a wild frenzy and crashed into Rick’s cart. Unfortunately, several of his Ping drivers, which are apparently lighter than most models, didn’t survive the impact.
The fellow golfer tried to go around our cart but couldn’t handle the steep embankment. The culprits, who definitely won’t be competing in next year’s Pikes Peak Hill Climb, were nice and offered to replace two of Rick’s drivers that got annihilated during the mishap.
Rick was a little upset when the accident first occurred, but he later laughed at the matter, saying he never suffered a loss due to a reckless driving cart accident. Mishaps always follow the TMJ team. At the sheriff’s tourney several years ago, Sheriff Jason Mikesell almost was almost forced to possibly bail us out for hitting a house head-on at the 6th hole.
Luckily, the sheriff’s head commander and media advisor intervened. The trail of disasters always seems to follow TMJ on the golf course.
