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2011 Auckland Disc Golf Championships

Final Tournament of the Tour a Blinder

Monte Cecilia Park in Hillsborough is just a brilliant Disc Golf venue. Giant mature trees, plenty of wide open spaces, some areas you really don’t want to be in plus a good test of all of your Disc Golf skills from full power driving, hyzer and anhyzer approaches and of course plenty of short game required.

Despite the call to change the course layout for this year's Auckland champs TD Bob Gentil decided to stick with the tried and true for a couple of reasons. 1.] Players not only play each other but compete against the course so it’s kinda nice when players only play a course on the odd occasion they get to take on the same course each time and 2.] Give the locals the advantage of local knowledge! The results will prove that works! 

In saying that there were a few modifications to the original Monte course: holes 6, 7, 16 and 18 had been extended and 12 has been shortened.

At the Saturday morning players meeting it was great to see 5 juniors ready to play, including 2 under 10’s. Brilliant! The juniors were ready to go along with another 28 keen Disc Golfers spread across numerous divisions.

When the cards came in after the opening round both David ‘Speedo’ Keen and Damian Peters had shown their hands, both shooting 8 under rounds of 50, the challenge had be laid down. Another highlight of the opening round was Levin’s Abraham [AB] Hartley nailing an ace on the 17th which was worth around $213.28.

Nice one!

Following an impressive catered lunch of hot pies, filled rolls, cakes and fruit it was back to the course for the second un-seeded round of 18, as the wind picked up a little and steady-but-light showers saw towels coming out prior to every shot. The afternoon round saw little change to the leader-board with the parks most frequent visitors maintaining their dominance.

Sunday morning and the weather was fine and warm although a little cloudy for the final full 18 holes as the players picked up their cards for the only seeded round. The top 2 groups were stacked with locals; Speedo Keene, Damian Peters and Brad Muir who all learnt the game in Monte along with the GM who designed the course, and Marty de Haas and Nigel Hailstone who have probably played Monte more than anyone this reporter knows.

In the Womens competition it was all tied up between Levin’s Gemma Sullivan and the evergreen Ming Menzies from the Bay of Plenty, and in the J15 division North Shore’s Toby Gentil [13] held a 1 shot lead over local Harrison Youngson [12] with just a couple of shots back to Waiheke Island’s Jacob Hailstone [12].

As the cards came in and the hot pizza arrived Bob announced the ‘Super 6’; David Keene [O] on 155, himself [GM] on 163, Damian Peters [O] on 164, Marty de Haas [GM] on 165, Brad Muir [O] on 168 and Nigel Hailstone [M] on 171, and they would play 6 safari holes all viewable from the top of the course. The crowd wasn’t disappointed.

On hole 1 the GM hit a 15 metre down hill putt for birdie only to be followed by Marty de Haas not wanting to drop off the pace hitting his 11 metre up hill birdie putt. Damian Peters took a run but hit and rolled leading to a bogie so Bob extended his hold on second overall and Marty traded places with Damo for third.

Hole 2 saw everyone par.

‘Super 6’ hole 3 and Damian and Brad Muir birdie it with great drives, so Marty and Damo are now tied for 3rd again.

Hole 4 required a controlled straight drive down an alleyway of trees. Damian shanked his tee shot to the right and his up shot was short so Marty tried to cash in on the situation and took an aggressive run at the basket from about 14 metres away. It didn’t pay off as his shot sailed over the basket and he missed his putt back as well so third place stayed tied up albeit adding another buffer shot to the gap to the GM in second.

Hole 5 saw the Super 6 shooting right across the park, it looked long but everyone was there or thereabouts apart from Brad who was in fact under the basket to take the only 2, putting him just 1 shot off the battle for 3rd.

The final ‘Super 6’ hole was of course the signature hole of the Monte Cecilia Park course: the ‘Full Monte’, 228 metres from an elevation of about 35 metres above the basket. This hole is spectacular and the 6 still in the game didn’t disappoint. All launched impressive tee shots down the valley but none more-so than our eventual Champion David ‘Speedo’ Keene who took on the full 228 metres landing pin high and about 12 metres to the right of the basket, The crowd went wild.

All the interest was now on the battle for 3rd as Brad was just 1 shot adrift of Marty and Damo. Once again Marty went on the attack hoping to put pressure on the other two but as happened earlier it cost him with his 3rd and 4th shots missing their intended mark. His 5 on the final hole gave Damian Peters third place and saw him tied with Brad for 4th.

Congratulations to everyone who played over the weekend and to those that took home the impressive Auckland Championship trophies well done. David Keene Open, Nigel Hailstone Masters, Bob Gentil Grand Masters, Fiona ‘Ming’ Menzies Womens, Toby Gentil Junior and Talia Feasey J 10.

What a great weekend of Disc Golf!

The Results

See you next time!