A (new) tradition unlike any other

Dreams seem to fade from your memory — or subconscious, or whatever — not long after you wake up.

But one I had a few nights ago has stuck with me for a few days, for some reason.

I dreamt that the Masters golf tournament, the unofficial sign that spring was here, had to be moved from its longtime home at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga., for one year for some reason. The exact reason wasn’t part of my dream.

Its new home for that one year — Sandpoint Elks Golf Course, just outside Sandpoint.

Now, when I lived in Sandpoint, I loved playing Sandpoint Elks — easy to get on, quick to play, and invariably you also knew the people coming up the adjoining fairway.

But as a potential replacement site of the Masters ...

I guess that’s why they call them dreams.

ANYWAY, IF you’ve ever played Sandpoint Elks, you would agree that The Elks, as the locals call it, for all its charms, by itself might not present, shall we say, a stiff enough challenge for the best golfers in the world.

It’s short, and it’s flat, and it’s a nine-hole course, for starters.

So the folks who run the Masters, even though the event was being held some 2,500 miles away from Augusta National, felt the need to “toughen up” The Elks for the world’s best players.

In fact, in my dream, one of the tee boxes was in one of the rooms inside the clubhouse at The Elks.

Whatever fans they could fit in the room sat on metal folding chairs surrounding the edges of the room. Meanwhile, the golfer had to hit his tee shot off a carpeted staircase, with his left knee perched on one of the steps below, choking up on an iron because of the tight fit.

Not only that, he had to hit a cut shot to maneuver the tee shot through the narrow doorway.

As I recall, he shook his head a little bit, but like a good pro, he then assessed the situation, figured out what shot to hit, and executed it.

(Hey, no one said dreams were realistic!)

I WOKE up before I could “see” what else they did to “toughen up” The Elks for the Masters.

But I can only imagine ...

One way to make the course longer is to tee off on one hole and finish on another green — say, tee off on the 10th tee, hit down the adjoining fairway of either hole No. 5/14 or No. 4/13. Your approach shot would have to go over or through the trees to land on the second green — also the 11th green.

They call that cross-country golf — at least that’s what I’m told.

Each hole at The Elks has two sets of tees — one set makes the hole play a little longer than the other.

The seventh hole is a short-ish par 5, so that one would also need to be “toughened up.” On the front nine, golfers had to tee off through the open door of a boxcar, sitting on the train tracks next to the tee.

On the second time through, to make the hole play longer, the tee was back on the Sand Creek Bypass, near the Cedar Street Bridge.

Holes No. 4/13, with the tee boxes near the edge of the property, near Highway 200, could be lengthened. One tee could be left where it was; the other tee could be moved across the street — into the parking lot of the Co-Op Gas & Supply Co.

The possibilities are endless.

Anything to challenge the world’s best golfers.

At least in my dreams.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.