Normally when you talk about ‘green’ with action sports stars you’re thinking more Tanner Hall than Tiger Woods, but yesterday Oakley held their annual ‘King of Greens’ action sports golf event, giving professional wake, surf, skate and of course snowboard riders the chance to unwind and hit a few for fore.
We were lucky enough to score an invite to join in with the action, which took place at a rather more mellow pace than we’re used to. Pedestrian in fact, but after a hectic winter season it was a great chance to catch up with a few of our favourite pros (plenty of interviews dropping for your viewing please later in the year.)
Amongst the invited surfers, skateboarders and base jumpers a few familiar names were on the invite list – Heikki Sorsa, Jenny Jones, Marco Grilc, Jamie Nicholls, Ben Kilner, Scott McMorris and Sparrow Knox to name a few, all more than pleased enough to let their hair down and knock a few balls around with the invited golf pro, Rafa Cabrera-Bello (nope, us neither).
As well as a basics clinic (read as smashing infinite balls down a driving range) and a special putting event (blindfold, switch and skate balance putting) all the invited athletes took part in a full eighteen holes.
The first surprise of the day was when our sister online publication MPORA’s intern placed joint second in the gross score category (we have no idea what that means) but then after a mix up with the scoring methods in turned out that our very own Ben Kilner was tied in first with French surfer Alain Riou for the net score category (again, no idea).
This meant an extra hole needed to be filled (in on their cards), after which Ben was crowned champion of the day and walked away with a new club, a one of a kind Nixon watch and an invite into a special pro-am event over the next two days.
That was a close shave! I never thought I would get this far but then I became really ambitious and definitely wanted to win that thing. Now, I’m just super happy!
Ben Kilner
Stoked on ya Ben! The guys so cool he can even make golf look good.
