Several
greens and tees were looking good for a bit of wake
boarding as the casual doubles round commenced on
the Friday. Delightful Des was sure
that he and Brutal Blair would hold
the Taumarunui Gumboot advantage;
"You'll have wet feet by 10 o'clock," remarked
the grizzle faced freak, "I'll be testing my
Skellerups with a couple of practice rounds in the
morning."
Sure enough, as most players roused
from their beds at the local Holiday Park (just metres
from the course), Des was heating up Baked Beans after
three full rounds of practice from 6am!! Surely there
must be a penalty...
But Des' predictions were to be unfounded
as the weather held back to greet the field with slightly
overcast conditions. And as far as the wind was concerned,
it was as if Gandolf had strode through
on his stallion and waved a wand of magic protection
upon these throwers of round plastic things to keep
back the gales.
Tournie Director Dylan Cooper
had done a sterling job motivating a strong field
for the 2004 running of The Fury. We were all missing
the creator of this fine disc golf facility, Mark
Dakiv (missing The Fury for the first time)
and you could see a tear in Dylan's eye as he introduced
himself and welcomed everyone along. Play started
promptly (Fijian time that is) as the various groups
teed off in a shotgun start.
With this being the sixth round of
the New Zealand Tour for 2004, players
were wary of this possibly being their last chance
to consolidate positions or even make a run for glory.
With tour favourite Simon 'Big Arm' Feasey
sunning in Rome, a few players saw this as an opportunity
to stake a claim as a Kiwi Force t'be Reckoned With.
None so much as The Scarb, who promptly
fired off an impressive round of 6 under 48 for the
first round.
The Closest to the Pin
competition was of major focus to most players, as
they knew that just about anyone could take that one.
The comp was held on the middle distant hole of the
14th with the basket tucked under a smal grove of
trees. Pundits could see that this was a job for a
nice S-bend of an Eagle and sure enough the Greek
Mexican Juan Unda has proven himself
to be the Eagleman and he promptly laid an early claim
with a nice birdie in the first round.
By the end of the day Steve
Scarbrough had cemented his position at the
top of the field with anther fine round of ??. All
the players settled back after a fine day's golf for
a pint or two, some getting together for a Harcourt
BBQ that evening. Lies were told, stories were shared
and the odd comment was made about the expected bad
weather for Sunday. Was the Wellington Met. Office
to be any better at predictions than the rest of the
country?
The answer was no. Players woke up
Sunday in various states of disrepair, opening their
curtains to bright sunshine and very little wind indeed.
And so it was with much delight that the field (if
somewhat smaller than the previous day) congregated
upon the Harcourt stage to await the arrival of the
illustrious Tournie Director who was still on Fiji
time.
Dylan informed the crew of the placings
after two rounds and sent everyone on their way to
see if they could improve on their Saturday efforts.
The sun continued to shine and everyone made sure
they placed themselves outside the shadows of the
trees so as to enjoy the best that the Upper
Hutt skies offered.
At the lunch break before the final
round, most people thought The Scarb
would have it in the bag, but most were impressed
to see a fantastic round from the Gumboot Guru, Basher
Blair, who had fired off 8 birdies for an
impressive 46. If he could do that again, he might
just have a chance...
The final round can often bring out
both the best and the worst of players. The enthusiasm
of firing of a top round fights against the nagging
pain of tired muscles and feet. The sun had decided
to hide behind the clouds, leading to colder conditions
and it was a sturdy few who actually scored their
best rounds that afternoon.
There were a few new players in the
field that really should be congratulated for surviving
4 full rounds of golf. Local boy Si Squonk
Butcher was playing his first tournie ever
and hadn't thrown a disc since the inaugural Freaky
Styley Classic in Auckland 3 years prior.
He fought the urge to disappear and partake in his
number one sport, mountainbiking, to complete the
full 4. Down in the placings, but points on the board
- well done Squonk.
And then there was Squonk's MTB mate,
the Northern Lunatic Spankie McFarland.
The Spank was also playing his first tournie and had
to shed his reputation for beating himself up when
doing well. Sure enough, after a couple of fives in
the 3rd round, he was trying to convince Squonk to
go riding, but Squonk would have none of it, forcing
Spankie to play on through to the 4th. It must be
said that the scrawny youngster did very well - enough
to take out Freaky Styley's own Dakar Trophy.
And then there was Debbie
Natural, reputed partner of the Iranian Cypriat
Juan Unda, in the Womens Division.
She was very new to the sport, but did have a reputation
for being the complete athlete. She survived 72 Harcourt
holes to take out the title for 2004 and was presented
with an enormous box of Roses chocolates for her efforts.
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