2008 Auckland Disc Golf Championships 6/7 September 2008 Three days ahead of the weekend and for the first time in weeks, probably months the television weather map shows a big ‘H’ coming off the east coast of Australia and heading our way, fingers are crossed it will sit over us for the weekend. After weeks of wet winter weather the Disc Golf gods are on our side, fine weather! 32 players turned up for the 2008 Auckland Champs held once again in the beautiful Monte Cecilia Park. For the two opening rounds on the Saturday the breeze was from the southwest, which means for Monte all but a couple of holes are protected from the wind on the nor-eastern side of the hill. On the Sunday it was a totally different golf game with the stiff breeze coming from the northeast so pretty much every hole was wind affected. After missing the previous two Auckland Champs, Simon Feasey just back from World’s in Kalamazoo was going to be the man to beat. For the women it was their chance to take on Ming Menzies who had also just got back from attaining the fantastic result of second place in the Am GM Woman’s division at the World Championships. After the opening round Simon had a 1 shot lead over the GM with Mario Cerniar from Christchurch, local golfer Damian Peters and Ultimate convert Jo ‘Fish’ Seebeck another 3 shots back. In the Woman’s division Ming was showing her class, it was evident the race for Jenny, Alice and Robyn was going to be for silver. After the first of the seeded rounds Simon had increased his lead over the GM to 3 shots with Damian 8 shots off the pace 1 ahead of Marty deHaas who was starting to hit his straps. Sunday morning and the stiff breeze is from the N/E which was as good as playing on a whole new course, as the cards come in Simon has increased his lead to 5 shots with the GM and Marty now tied for second, they would be joined in the ‘Super 6’ final by Jo ‘Fish’ Seebeck, Mario Cerniar and Damian Peters. After a hot pizza lunch the crowd follow the ‘Super 6’ contenders to the 18th tee, with the now strong north-easterly pumping up the course it was going to be hard to impress the gallery. Hole 1 and Simon makes an impressive birdie to nab another 2 shots on the super 6 as both Marty and the GM Bogey. Hole 2 and he’s at it again, another birdie and another shot up. Hole 3 was an extended version of hole 1 and this time most of the super 6 par but Simon bogeys [he’s human]. Super 6 hole 4 was number 2 on the course and some drama unfolded with Marty shooting a birdie, Simon a bogey and the GM catching his bogy putt as it bounced off the basket and straight back at him from just a metre away. Good to see his reflex reactions are still working but a bit embarrassing. The TD had to penalise himself 2 shots for interfering with his shot. Ops! Hole 5 saw Marty’s confidence grow as he’d just gained a 5 shot buffer on third as he hit an amazing 12 metre down hill putt. Hole 6 of the Super 6 was the 221 metre signature hole 10 ‘The Full Monte’, but with the strong wind blowing straight up the fairway once again it was hard to impress the gallery. Congratulations to Simon Feasey who took the Open Auckland title with a tournament total of 180, second equal was Jo Seebeck tied with Mario Cerniar on 192; Martin deHaas took out the Masters on 184 followed by the defending champ Barry Keene and Nigel Hailstone. The Grand Masters Trophy will have Bob GM Gentil’s name on it for the third year in a row, followed by Waiheke’s Paul Cohen, the Woman’s title went to Ming Menzies who played some beautiful golf with Robyn and Alley picking up silver and bronze. Jenny Joynt took out the Woman’s Grand Masters and the best Rookie finisher was Nathan Moore. In the unofficial locals only Saturday competition Conrad Hoskins pulled off a PB to take the rubber chicken, picking up the closest to the pin comp on hole 1 in the process, it was great to have you guys taking part. Now as I sit and write on the Monday morning it’s dumping down again outside .. how lucky were we?
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