The Lewiston-Auburn Golf Tournament of Champions — it’s such a natural, that one wonders why it has taken until 2014 to be held.

Four club champions from Fox Ridge, Martindale, Poland Spring and Fairlawn will compete Sept. 27-28, with nine holes of play at each course. The teams will comprise each club’s women’s, senior, ‘A’ and club champion for the two-day event. Total score for the 36 holes will determine the team champion.

“We are hoping to create a quality rivalry between the clubs,” said John Lever, who proposed the tournament over the past winter to the Fairlawn Men’s Golf Association, of which he is president. When his association bought into the idea, he presented it to the other three clubs.

Lineups for the event are tentative. Fairlawn has Lever, its two-time club champion, playing with senior champ Bob Grenier, women’s titlist Patti Griggs and an ‘A’ player to be named. Poland Spring’s probable foursome is champion Matt Gallagher, women’s champ Janet Nelson, senior titlist Tom Schultz and ‘A’ winner Dave Venne. Fox Ridge is sending its club crown winner Josh Jones, women’s champ Lydia Havey, senior champ Rocky Copp and ‘A’ titlist Dan Lavoie, who happens to be a three-time past Fairlawn club champion. Martindale has Brian Bilodeau as its champion and Melissa Johnson as its women’s winner with the senior and ‘A’ representatives to be announced.

Will this become a popular event in greater Lewiston-Auburn? It should be for the four representatives of their respective clubs. And playing for area bragging rights certainly is not going to hurt its popularity.

Unique opportunity

If you are in to a unique golf experience, you might want to talk to Nolan Sullivan, vice president of Fox Ridge.

He is starting a program called “Fling Golf,” which combines skills from baseball, lacrosse and Jai Alai.

While in a New England Owners Association earlier this summer, Sullivan was introduced to Fling Golf by Walter Lankau, a fellow board member from Stowe Acres in Stowe, Mass. Lankau told Sullivan that Fling Golf, which uses a “fling stick,” is the brainstorm of former Jai Alai player Alex Van Allen, who “invented” the fling stick.

That stick has a grip on its end which holds the golf ball, which players can throw like a baseball, and toss like a lacrosse ball.

“The one-pound stick allows a maximum throw of about 200 yards for the average player,” Sullivan said. “You need just one club (the fling stick) for an entire foursome. You do not hit it, you throw it.”

Sullivan thinks fling golf is far easier to learn than hitting balls with golf clubs, so the game can be fun almost immediately.

“The ball goes straight, and you do not lose many,” he said. “Plus, you have to carry just the one club.”

Comparing the new golf ball sport to regular golf, Sullivan said: “It’s like snow boarding is to skiing. And where would all these ski resorts be without snow boarding?”

Fox Ridge is planning to conduct a fling golf tournament Oct. 10 on its Fab 5 holes with the enlarged cups on those greens. Anyone can enter, but they must consider one factor — Nolan Sullivan.

“I’m the Maine state champion,” he said smiling, “because I am the only person in the state who has played the game, and I am the only person with a fling stick.”

He has a box of fling sticks, which will be available for the tournament players.

More information on this new sport is available at flinggolf.com.

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