Keene Kohrt takes a crack at $30,000 Sunday morning during First Bank's annual golf tournament. For the 16th year in a row nobody won the tantalizing jackpot, though spotters near the green noted two golfers got their shots onto the green. Grover Mathis' landed just over, while Rocky Littleton's came the closest.
Intermittent rains and wind on Saturday prompted Muskeg Meadows Golf Course to cancel one of its two days scheduled for the First Bank Golf Tournament.
Twenty-six golfers from Wrangell and Petersburg still hit the links on a sunny Sunday morning for the best-ball, team play competition. Players vied for a number of prizes and for First Bank-related raffle items during the lunch to follow.
Golfing with a handicap of 16, Eric Koding, Faye and Keene Kohrt, and Tyler Eagle took first place overall with a team score of 20 points. They were followed with a score of 20 and handicap of 17 by Rocky Littleton, Marva Reed, Desi Burell and Ed Marsden. Netting 21 points with a handicap of 15, in third were Grover Mathis, Ed Rilatos, Joe Delabrue and Randy Littleton.
Additional prizes went out to Delabrue for "closest to the pin," at 27 feet, seven inches. Celsee Churchill won for straightest drive, a mere quarter-inch off.
A big draw for the 16th year in a row, the tournament's $30,000 jackpot for hitting a hole-in-one remains unclaimed. The hole in question is on the sixth, a 160-yard shot that is ordinarily a par three in play. Each year First Bank takes out an insurance policy on the prize, and a tent full of observers watch over the green during the weekend's competition.
Only two of the 26 golfers landed their balls on the green in one go, though at other times in the course's past golfers have made the sloping shot. One year former magistrate Terry Bissonnette made the shot during the Alaska Airlines Tournament, recalled club manager Bill Messmer, winning a pair of tickets in the bargain.
Weather-permitting, Muskeg Meadows' next tournaments are slated for 10 a.m. on Saturday and on Sunday, with nine-hole best ball play for both Bearfest on the former and for Senior Apartments' annual Al Kaer Memorial on the latter.
Saturday's cancellation was one of several so far this summer, with rainy, chillier than usual conditions disruptive for the golfing season.
"We've lost a day almost every weekend," Messmer reckoned.
Speaking with a meteorologist at the Juneau National Weather Service Forecast Office, that follows a wider trend in Southeast this summer.
The capital has so far had only three days registering 70 degrees or above since the summer started June 20. If that keeps up through September 22, it will be the second-lowest number of such days so far recorded, with a previous low set by two days in 1970. Meanwhile, rainfall has also been higher than average, by 1.75 inches in May and by 0.5 inches in June.
"It's been a rather cool summer," commented meteorologist Edward Liske.
Closer to home, Petersburg has also experienced slightly above-average rainfall and similarly lower temperatures. It has had only one day at or above 70 degrees so far this summer. Keeping that course would make it a record low, fewer than only two such days in 2008.
In Wrangell, climatological updates have not been recorded for NWS on a regular basis since 2012. Juneau Cooperative Observer Program leader Kimberly Vaughan explained the service would like to resume data collection, entering Wrangell's daily temperature and precipitation levels.
"It's definitely important," she said, helping to fill out the broader climate picture not just for the state but for the wider world.
The program would need a volunteer, either an individual or business with an adequate location for observation – someplace grassy and open would be most ideal. Those interested in learning more about the program can contact Vaughan by email at kimberly.vaughan@noaa.gov or can check out the NWS COOP page online at https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/land-based-station-data/land-based-datasets/cooperative-observer-network-coop
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