Six Girls Vie for Pioneer Pass Title

YUCCA VALLEY – Six photogenic candidates for “Miss Pioneer Pass” along with the competing shutterbugs and their photographic entries and gathering gold enthusiasts, will participate Friday night in the Pioneer Pass Golf Challenge “Press Night” held at the Yucca Valley Golf Club.

A full evening’s activities, actually the culmination of the Pioneer Pass Camera Cavalcade, get under way with a social hour at 6 p.m., dinner at 7 and the judging and main program at 8. Radio announcer George H. Osborn will be the master of ceremonies.

The candidates, all of whom were photographed along the famed cattle and mining trail last Aug 1, are Marsi Sipherd, Darla Stephenson, Twentynine Palms; Dorothy Davidson, Joshua Tree; Susan Miller, Gretchen Yaeger, Yucca Valley; and Marlene (Mike) Wellman, Morongo Valley.

Included in the special program, co-sponsored and hosted by the Hi-desert Foto Fans camera club and the Yucca Valley Park and Recreation District, will be a one-time-only showing of the color film now in production by Travel – World Productions, depicting the highlights of four past PPGC events filmed during actual play along the grueling 28-mile “World’s Longest and Only (Playable) 19^th Hole.”

The winning color slides, taken by the competing photographers at the cavalcade, will also be shown. Photographs will aid the judges in selecting “Miss Pioneer Pass” from samples of photographic potential and poise as the girls will appear in bathing suits and formals and speak to the gathering before a microphone for a maximum of three minutes.

The PPGC Press Night is open to the general public and tickets may be purchased at the Yucca Valley Chamber of Commerce, Foremost Men’s Wear or reservations may be made at the Yucca Valley Golf Club or the Yucca Valley Park and Recreation District, Box 666 Y.V.

Meanwhile, plans for the Oct.1, 2, 3 classic Pioneer Pass Golf Challenge are taking definite shape as Leo A. Higgins, PPGC committee chairman, has announced that a one-week vacation for two at the Dorado Beach Hotel on the island of Puerto Rico has been officially selected and confirmed as the grand prize for the Challenge’s Flight A winner.

The winner will spend seven days and six nights at the resort hotel which has been the scene of the annual “Amateur of the Americas” Invitational Golf Tournament and the special Shell Oil Co.’s “Wonderful World of Golf,” said Higgins. The Dorado Beach Hotel covers 1,500 acres which includes five tennis courts, two swimming pools, a private airport and, of course, two championship 18-hole golf courses. The PPGC award includes unlimited golf on the championship courses during the winner’s stay.

Other prizes, for Flights B and C, are a trip to Las Vegas, third place prizes for all flights, special trophies, and awards and a souvenir award for all contestants.

The three-day PPGC program starts Friday, Oct. 1, at 11 a.m. when contestants will play 18 holes of regulation golf at the Yucca Valley Golf Club. That evening the kick-off dinner will be held at the club at 7 p.m.

Saturday morning, Oct. 2, the 19^th  Hole Buffet Breakfast will take place at the Golden Stallion, Pioneertown, at 6:30 a.m. Tee off for the 28-mile 19^th Hole is scheduled for 8 a.m. in front of the restaurant on Mane Street. Transportation will be provided between points of play in the pass and lunch will be served somewhere in the pass.

Sunday at 8 a.m. the tee off will take place at the “check-point” selected by the head field judge. Hold out for the 19^th Hole will be at the Peter Pan Woodland Club at Big Bear. From there the contestants will return to the Yucca Valley Golf Club for the victory-award dinner at 6:30 p.m. Special guests and entertainment have been planned for the occasion.

Entry fees, which include the kickoff dinner, buffet breakfast, victory-award dinner for players and green fees and golf balls for the 19^th Hole are $100 for Flight A and $35 for Flights B and C, Higgins concluded.