For Kirk Triplett, coming home to the Pacific Northwest is always fun.

The PGA Tour veteran and Champions Tour rookie is playing this weekend in the Seattle area at the Boeing Classic.

And on Monday Triplett — a Washington native who grew up in Pullman but now lives in Arizona — will make a stop in Central Oregon to host a benefit golf clinic at Pronghorn Golf Club in Bend.

“It definitely has a back-home kind of feel,” Triplett said in a phone interview Thursday of his personal Northwest swing. “Pullman is not like Seattle. But just being in the Northwest is just very nice. I am enjoying it.”

Triplett is actually helping out an old friend, Rick DeLuca, a 64-year-old Bend resident. DeLuca’s charity, the Bend nonprofit Devin’s Destiny, hosts birthday parties for homeless children in Central Oregon.

Triplett and DeLuca met in the 1980s in Reno, Nev., where Triplett was an ace golfer at the University of Nevada and DeLuca owned a real estate company.

After Triplett’s graduation in 1985, DeLuca sponsored his fledgling professional career until he made the PGA Tour in 1989.

“I was just so impressed with Kirk that I decided to throw some money (behind him),” recalled DeLuca, who has lived in Bend since 1989 and hosts real estate seminars across the U.S. and beyond. “So we (DeLuca and his wife, Robin) were Kirk’s original sponsor. … He got his PGA Tour card and off he went.”

Rick DeLuca and Triplett have stayed in touch ever since. Once, Triplett even had DeLuca caddie for him in a tournament, DeLuca said.

A consistent player who won three times in his PGA Tour career and earned more than $14 million, Triplett had played sparingly on the PGA Tour in recent years.

Like so many other golfers who turn 50, Triplett has seen a rebirth in his game since he reached that milestone this past March.

In his first season on the 50-and-older Champions Tour, he has earned four top-10 finishes. And in July, he won the First Tee Open at Pebble Beach.

“When you turn 50 you see all those other guys that you used to play with and compete with, and you do get rejuvenated,” Triplett observed.

For a $30 donation to Devin’s Destiny — named after the DeLucas’ son, who took his own life at age 23 in 2009 — the public is invited to attend Triplett’s clinic. This will mark the second such benefit for Devin’s Destiny. Last year, former British Open champion Ian Baker-Finch spoke at Pronghorn.

Triplett will talk less about fundamentals of golf and more about how to play the game and execute shots, he says, and impart some of the wisdom gained in his 23 years of playing major professional golf.

“Our technique kind of stays the same and maybe drops off a little bit physically,” Triplett says. “Hopefully you can make up for that with experience.

“I’m just going to try to share some things I think help people play better golf, tell some stories and answer some questions.”

Want to go?

What: Golf clinic hosted by Kirk Triplett, three-time winner on the PGA Tour

When: Monday, 5:30 p.m.

Where: Pronghorn Club; 65600 Pronghorn Club Drive, Bend

Cost: $30 donation to local nonprofit Devin’s Destiny, and includes beer, wine and bottled water

Register: 541-317-2324

On the web: For more information, visit www.devinsdestiny.org