| |
| The
Crater Cup 2004 - Auckland, New Zealand
|
|
| Some wicked new pics have just come through!
Click here. |
Click here
to drop to Results |
|
As the 2003 winner, Steve Scarbrough
embraced one of the main traditions of the Crater
Cup: he who wins organises the next year. And
what a grand job he and his henchman Wim Tim Fatang Fatang
Ole Biscuit Barrel (better known as Chris Kingsnorth)
did for 2004!
Due to the Crater Cup's new status as
a premium tour event, Steve found himself having to run
the tournament right in the middle of winter - on the
maori New Year in fact. So the locals felt sure the weather
conditions would play a major part on the scores of players
- more so than any festivity hangover might throw at them
- more than any lack of training - more than the loss
of a favourite disc. These concerns were highlighted with
a few sneak rounds leading up to the Crater in high winds
resulting in a few 'better forgotten' scores along the
way.
Come the eve of the tee off, Auckland was subjected to
one of it's more violent Pacific storms, with thunder
and lightning welcoming some of the disc golf travelers
as they strode into town.
|
|
Many a
midnight candle was burnt as golfers neatly packed small
towels into plastic bags for wiping their discs dry during
Saturday's storm rounds. One towel for every 3 holes.
2 rounds = 36 towels...run out of towels - oh well, that
one marked 'HERS' in the linen closet will have to go
[rip!] |
ON ITS WAY!
Mark Hamilton drives to the green on
the 2nd |
Imagine
everyone's surprise as they got up for some pre-Crater
Weetbix ( Jim can do 3!) to see blue skies
and very little wind!
Yes! The disc golf gods are certainly shining on the NZ
Tour this year. And as if to welcome the players especially,
One Tree Hill had the only cloud around lurking over the
summit. Shaped like a mushroom, it seemed to be sending
a message to the Lost Tribe: this was going to be one
special tournament.
Steve and the lads were most impressed to see golfers
from just about every disc golf location in New Zealand
appear. Dylan and co. made the big trip
up from Wellington ("don't forget the Harcourt
tournament in September lads!").
|
And it's really not an event without
the fearsome forehand fortitude of the Lost Tribe
of Taumarunui. Dave Routley
and the lads arrived ready to roll, Blair Joines
with plenty of 'sponsors' product in hand. There were
also a few players new to the sport and even one of the
original Freaky Stylists all the way from England to throw
golf discs for the first time - Bob 'Let's Play'
Collington. |
As
the final mist of that welcoming cloud burnt away to reveal
beautiful baskets in the distance, the players were nervously
taking position at their designated tees, limbering up,
catching up with old friends that were in their group
and all the other 'warm-up' routines that we are so affectionately
familiar with.
|
OH TO BE STRAIGHT!
The 3rd punished a stray drive - left OR right |
The conditions were proving
to be ideal, with the wind that normally drives around
One Tree Hill calmer than a Routley putt.And
it's really not a kiwi disc golf event without the fearsome
forehand fortitude of the Lost Tribe of Taumarunui. |
TWANG!
The sound we all wanted to hear on the tricky pole holes.
Matt shoots for birdie on 16 |
Steve and
Chris had made yet another re-design of the Crater Course
for the 2004 event - this time turning back on itself
to stay pretty much on the Nor-Western side of the mountain.
This made for some very interesting sections where the
lefties could no longer complain about unfair advantages.
John 'The Beast' Helmink found himself
starting his round on hole 13 - the start of the leftie's
run. He knew he needed a good score on this part of the
course and he didn't disappoint, showing more form than
the All Blacks on a non-World cup year.
The Beast was on 1 under after 4 - great
stuff. He never did want to tell us what happened after
that, though... |
By the time the first 18 holes had
been played, the towels were well and truly stored away
as the sun shone upon some happy golfers. As the scores
were etched into the scoring sheet, it was evident that
Simon Feasey, the current New Zealand
Disc Golf Champion, was going to be tougher to beat than
a player's pack chocolate egg. |
As others
struggled to keep the bogies and doubles bogies away,
he had fired off a super impressive 8 birdies to clock
was to be the course record - a 7 under 50. Players compared
notes over some yummy pizza and a few bevies - stories
of cruel rollers prevailed. This certainly wasn't one
of those namby pamby flat American courses! In fact Freaky
Styley Elevation expert Al T Chude
calculated that even a good same round required a player
to walk up and down a total of 1 vertical kilometre per
round!* |
"I SHOULDA BEEN A VULCANOLOGIST!"
FS weatherman Dave Serf watches in disc-belief
as his recovery shot stops, turns, and then rolls back
past him into the depths of the crater. |
Pretty soon Steve was
urging everyone to get their butts out for round 2 - he
knew we were only 2 days away from the shortest day of
the year and that a slow round could result in some low-light
putting. As 'The Scarb' walked up to
the first tee with the rest of the top group, he knew
he had quite a task ahead of him - he was next best behind
Simon by a whopping 5 shots. Mind you
- on the Crater, a triple triple bogie run via a vicious
roller with double tree grab is only a hole away. As long
at it happened to Simon and not him! |
WHAT A TAN!
Canadian Aucklander Matt takes a break
from a mid-winter sunbathe to drive the tricky 14th |
Speaking
of legends that MC netball games, Grand Master
Bob Gentil started the second round where he's
used to - at the top. Having fired an even round of 57,
the handsome supporter of The Force looked
good to take out the ever-strong Masters Division, even
threatening the Open Class yet again.
It must have been an emotional Bob who played the 'Later
Crater' as this new course is to be known - it was at
least 100 years ago that he stood at the kiosk steps of
One Tree Hill and said to Sir Campbell;
'Johnny boy, this area would be the coolest disc golf
course.'
|
'Well Bob,' said the then Mayor
of Auckland, 'I doth bequeath the park you thou
and thou allies for the extensive tossing of said circular
objects made of this strange strong yet pliable product
you call "plastique"' And here was Bob - 100
years on and holding his own against the best golfers
in the Southern Hemisphere. And a full head of hair! Unlike
recent love bird Jim Gabb who threw a
surprisingly good round despite having his mind on other
things - namely his new bride-to-be, Leigh (congrats fellas).
When asked to comment, the often dodgy golfer simply grabbed
another lager and said 'I'm alright mate - I just want
the DAKAR back!' |
Weather-wise
the second round was a welcome continuation of the morning
- warmer than John's rum and less wind than a Marty fart
when the inlaws are around. The golfers took it all in,
not minding if the field was backing up - that just meant
a moment to relax in the rays and spin some more shite.
However, there still was some serious disc golf to be
had and as these lop-sided, big armed athletes took the
tee, you could see that this was a competition and a good
result would mean an even warmer feeling after the sun
has gone down.
And down it went - the dusky horizon saw the last of the
discs gliding towards the final targets for the day. It
was a happy crew that re-grouped at the kiosk to compare
scores and organise a bit of night-time mayhem, what with
the All Blacks ready to kick some pommie
arse in Auckland that night. |
HAVE ANOTHER WOODSTOCK!
The Hill Champion Blair Joines has a
birdie denied on the 8th as the chains spit his disc out. |
Dreadlocked disc golf hero Myles
Darrell was one of the Crater players at Eden
Park that night. Unbelievably the television people that
night didn't even approach the jovial rastafarian for
comment on the day's golf. Some people just don't get
it! |
FISH IN A FLASH!
No, we're not talking efficient takeaways, we're talking
Auckland Disc Golfer Fish Seebuck and
his strong arm on the 11th |
The Crater
Cup has quite a reputation for erratic weather,
especially during the final round. That is why many of
the golfers were expecting to don the raincoat and woollies
on Sunday for the crucial final round. But as the group
of cruisey competitors convened cheerfully, it was apparent
that we were in for another nice dry round of golf.
The only factors that may challenge the Sunday run for
a better score were the signs of a slightly higher wind
around the hill - however it was unlikely this would alter
the lead: Simon Feasey had an incredible
8 shot lead on Steve and would no doubt
play a safe game to ensure a 100% record for events he
has graced in the NZ Tour of 2004.
Meanwhile, back in the pack, there was some decent golf
going on. It's just that this course can up and bite the
nicest people - litefooted Liz continued
to show many of the lads how it's done, but the only female
competitor got no favours from the mountain of the solo
podocarp. |
If wasn't plastic rotating cruelly
across the ground in the wrong direction, it was shifting
air lifting her disc away from the intended objective.
Youth got no favours either - improving golfer Quan
Weston from the Central North Island related
a few stories of birdie turning to bogie simply because
of a freak gust of wind. |
Up
in the Top Group, Simon was playing the
predicted safe game - after all, the Crater Cup
Trophy is a major notch on any disc golfers belt
and Simon knew as much as anyone how a good round can
turn bad with a few harebrained drives. And as 'The
Fease' strode down the 18th fairway to the applause
of the gallery (both of them), he was still a safe 4 shots
in front - a convincing victory worthy of much praise.
So that's 3 out of 3 for The Fease -
it is already looking like a Feasey romp for the 2004
Tour. Like many sports in New Zealand, we appear to have
one player who is unbeatable and like those other sports,
that player may need to go overseas to search for real
competition. |
THERE'S HOPE YET
After two rounds of indifferent putting, Norwegian Mexican
Juan Unda finally started to pot the
long ones. Like this beauty on hole 17 |
Young-but-getting-older disc golfer
Dean 'Hack' Marshall was keeping his
own with the rest of the top group, having fired an impressive
53 in round 1. Entering the last round, he had a 1 shot
lead on The Scarb which he held all the
way until the short 16th hole. Like Mark Hamilton
before him, Hack was hurt bad by this
deceiving hole and clocked a tough double bogie to let
Steve hold 2nd place by a single shot until the end. And
we won't mention your disc abuse on the second that resulted
in 2 half circles of plastic, will we Hack?!!
Fiery Chris 'Wim' Kingsnorth has positioned
himself as a contender this year and was playing the sensible
sort of game that keeps one in the Top Group.
That was until hole 14! At the tee, Wim
lined up the shot - he knew what he had to do - just fire
it out there and let the wind do the work - yep, just
fire it out there...Wham! Straight into the fence 5 metres
in front of him! Just shows: there's still a bit of middle-of-the-pack
in all of us, huh? |
KA-WHAT?
Round 3 and the baskets just didn't want to know about
Blair's putts - his final putt of the
tournie on hole 12 and out it bounced! |
In fact, a conversation with Feasey fan Juan
Unda confirmed certain rumours that Super
Simon may indeed be taking up a professional
career in the USA. "We have funding organised to
send our greatest player of this millennium to the States
and show them what Kiwis can do."
"He's done it before as the 2002 World Mini Disc
Golf Champion and we know he can do us proud over the
rest of this decade - we can send Simon and his entire
family to travel America in style."
|
When asked where this 'funding' was coming from, the
Iranian Mexican produced a crumpled up lotto ticket
- "I'm fairly certain that this ticket will be
Simon's ticket to professionalism - and with the left
overs I'm going to buy One Tree Hill and convert it
into a 4-course disc golf resort, with 3 lakes, 4 hotels
and a statue of the Grand Master..."
We chose to end the interview at that stage - a babbling
Unda didn't even see us leave as he rambled on and on
and on.
And so the Crater Cup was over for
another year - the tour continues, hopefully with more
lucky weather, with the infamous Gumboot
Open on 10-11 July in Taumarunui
- don't miss this one!
Well done to Steve and Chris
for organising a good event and a good course. And thanks
to Auckland City for permitting these
strange yet friendly athletes pursue their chosen sport
in the middle of New Zealand's biggest city.
Oh, and Marty Pants retained the DAKAR
in a tense play off with Gabb - it
has now been decided Marty will have no say in future
handicaps!
| More wicked pics down below! |
*
+/- 1km |
|
1st Place,
Open Division
Simon Feasey - 156
Round 1: 50
Round 2: 51
Round 3: 55
|
|
 |
1st Place,
Masters Division
Bob Gentil - 174
Round 1: 57
Round 2: 57
Round 3: 60
|
1st Place,
Ladies Division
Liz Borburg - 221
Round 1: 74
Round 2: 71
Round 3: 76 |
1st Place,
Junior Division
Quan Weston - 209
Round 1: 73
Round 2: 69
Round 3: 67
|
| Name |
Division |
Rnd1 |
Rnd2 |
Rnd3 |
Total |
| Simon Feasey |
O |
50 |
51 |
55 |
156 |
| Steve Scarbrough |
O |
53 |
57 |
57 |
167 |
| Dean Marshall |
O |
53 |
56 |
59 |
168 |
| Chris Kingsnorth |
O |
54 |
58 |
62 |
174 |
| Bob Gentil |
M |
57 |
57 |
61 |
175 |
| Dylan Cooper |
O |
56 |
61 |
61 |
178 |
| Dave Routley |
M |
57 |
59 |
62 |
178 |
| Marty de Haas |
M |
57 |
60 |
62 |
179 |
| Blair Joines |
O |
59 |
60 |
61 |
180 |
| Mark Hamilton |
O |
61 |
58 |
62 |
181 |
| Fish |
O |
61 |
60 |
63 |
184 |
| Juan Unda |
M |
62 |
60 |
63 |
185 |
| Des Cooper |
M |
63 |
66 |
65 |
194 |
| Jim Gabb |
M |
60 |
68 |
71 |
199 |
| Brett Hailstone |
M |
66 |
70 |
68 |
204 |
| Gene Tutaki |
O |
71 |
65 |
70 |
206 |
| Dave Serf |
M |
63 |
74 |
69 |
206 |
| Nigel Barnwell |
GM |
69 |
65 |
72 |
206 |
| Quan Weston |
J |
73 |
69 |
67 |
209 |
| John Helmink |
M |
71 |
70 |
72 |
213 |
| Liz Borburg |
W |
74 |
71 |
76 |
221 |
| Myles Darrell |
O |
76 |
77 |
79 |
232 |
| Rick Allen |
M |
DNF |
|
|
|
| Matt Byrne |
O |
DNF |
|
|
|
| Bob Collington |
M |
DNF |
|
|
|
| No Sleep Pete |
M |
DNS! |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
