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January 14/15 2012 - best ever

Wet under foot but great weather and a great time!

A great weekend!

This was the second of the annual National Tour events at Rotorua's Scion Tree Nursery course.

Click here for all the pics and results from the inaugural 2011 tournament.

This report in from our intrepid Central reporter Tab Llyod.

WHEN IN VEGAS!

With the summer holidays resembling monsoon season, it was a hardy group of brave souls that ventured into the first NZFDA tour event of 2012 in Rota “Vegas”. With such an amazing introduction to the tour last year there were plenty of players ready for another rumble in the jungle!

The dynamic duo of Juan Unda and Marty de Haas arrived early on Friday to be confronted with the course looking more like the Polynesian spa pools that a Discgolf course. After some quick thinking, mountain bike scouting and ignorance of many a well intentioned snippet of advice, the Tournament Director had little option but to alter the course just to make it playable. So thankfully with some new terrain being unlocked due to the removal of some fences/ blackberry the trusty brain trust managed to get the course to be just as daunting as last year.

With the arrival of familiar faces on the course and the banter being at it’s impeccable best, the word must have got out about how great this tournament is as it managed to lure in four touring international disc golfers. Matthew Scott, Dan Watson, Nick Harrel all from the U.S.A and the Famous Forearm of Martin “MOE” Dorkin returning from Germany visiting New Zealand shores to partake in the opening tour event of 2012. Not to forget a notable mention for severe commitment from Riki Elston for driving up from Levin after midnight!

With the players paired up into their groups for the first round most eyes were on the two top seeds from both divisions. The return of Simon Feasey going up against defending champion Dean Marshall, and could Ming “Kaching“ Menzies avenge her loss last year to defending champion Karoline Jonsson. With testing conditions underfoot and a tough course the players got to jump straight in the deep end.  Sprinting out the blocks early was Jackson Sullivan with a birdie on his first hole while defending champion Dean Marshall looked on. Jackson started the year as he intends to carry on shooting an impressive 56 winning his group, while Marshall was finding the going a little tougher bringing home a 58 and only just holding off another powerful up and comer in Brad Muir hot on his heels producing a 59.  The lost tribe team of Blair Joines and Sir Peter Boyle bought in a solid 57/ 59 repsectively to put themselves firmly in the running and leading the Masters and Grand Masters divisions. Meanwhile the toughness of the course didn’t bother international Matt Scott shooting an impressive sub-par round of 56 to place himself in the top group.  However it would yet again be a case of catching The Fease who was leading the field after the first round  with 53 just ahead of leftie David Keene right on his heels with a 54.

The afternoon round saw most of the top 6 improve on their first round and continue to fight for the title. Simon Feasey produced something special, putting on a Disc Golf display shooting a -9 under 48. This despite shooting a double bogie on his first hole, and to then follow it up with a bogie on the very next hole the players in the top group thought maybe he is human after all. For the matter of one hole Feasey surrendered the lead to 'Speedo' Keene. However after taking a moment between holes you could see the switch being turned on, and his drive on the difficult hole 3 put him a mere 5 meters away with a gimmie putt for a rare birdie on that hole to take a two shot swing and back into the lead.   The front nine saw him card a solid 27but it was the back nine where he taught the rest of the field how to play on this challenging course. Producing 3 birdies in the first three holes on the back nine he decided to save his best till last stepping up to the tee on 18 after moments ago joking about an Ace.

In Babe Ruth like fashion he drove through his Excalibur getting it to fade out the right before locking on and following the tree line down the tight alleyway all the way into the basket smashing nothing but chains for an amazing 110 meter Ace. This saw Feasey producing a 21 on the back nine holes to card a course record 48.  This gave him a comfortable 10 shot lead over American Matt Scott while David Keene was stranded two shots behind on 113 after shooting a 59. 

The battle for the masters was heating up with Dean Marshall fighting back to a share of the lead in the masters division with Blair Joines both locked on 115 and the legend Pete Boyle had taking a stranglehold over the Grand Masters division on 116. Saturday night saw the last supper at the fantastic Redwoods Holiday Park for it’s discgolf community - due to be demolished over the coming months.

With the sun shining on beautiful Sunday morning the brave returned to go one more time around. Most players were hoping to get one back on the course and produce a personal best while de Haas just figured he would go riding and Tauranga's Brendan Love opted for the Sunday sleep in and beach with the kids.

The real banter was coming in from the Levin lads and who would take out the bragging rights for the tournament. With AB, Shano and Lawton only having 2 shots between them at the start of the round there was everything to play for. After another 18 holes there was only 2 shots difference between the three Levinites. It was Lawton taking bragging rights into the Nationals at Spa Park, Taupo with AB & Shane Sullivan both finishing 2 shots behind on 189.

In the Womans division Ming Menzies managed to hold off Karoline with a fine performance their wonderful contest set to resume at the Nationals as well with more competition in the likes of Levin's Gemma Sullivan set to make the woman’s race a major talking point.

There was no change to the placing in the top 6 after the final 18 holes with the status quo being in effect heading into the Super 6 while The Flexable Forearm of Martin “Moe” Dorkin was agonising close to the top 6 and finished a sold 7th place.

The Super Six

With Simon Feasey having one hand on the title most watched on just wanting to know how he makes it look so simple while interest turned to the minor placing’s for many. David Speedo Keene was attempting to hunt down the international flair of Matthew Scott who was three shots ahead and sinking putts from everywhere.

Also yet to be decided was who would be having the winning drink from the masters trophy between Blair Joines and Dean Marshall. While the ever youthful Pete Boyle combined to make up the Top 6.  As far as top 6 playoff goes this had a lot of intriguing battles going on, with a series of two shot swings across the board which saw Blair Joines get the jump on Dean only to have his drive on hole 17 fade five metes too early landing him in a tree ("nice TD toss off to decide the 2 metre penalty Juan, grrrr!") which handed the lead back to Marshall for which he didn’t relinquish to take out the Masters title for 2012 by one shot.

Meanwhile the battle for second was also down to the wire. With Speedo looking like he 'left' his run too late hitting a bogie on the second of the super 6 holes giving the American Scott a 4 shot buffer. That was until he stepped up and sunk solid 25 meter putt on the par 4 hole 5 to create a two shot swing and then backed it up with a birdie on hole 18 leaving Keene a tough task of needing to find another shot on hole number one to catch the international.  Being first off the tee he gave himself every opportunity Scott put his drive into the trees. A superb upshot by Scott looked to have secured outright second but a rare missed putt allowed Keene to share joint second an pick up valuable early tour points.

All this was happening behind a superb display from the overall winner Simon Feasy who made it all look too easy, especially when you consider his Doctor told him not to play due to a bad back (one wonders is there no way of stopping this man) shooting an 18 in the super 6 to win by a massive 12 shots over Keene and Scott, who both still managed to finish under par for the tournament.

Marshall managed to pip Blair Joines for the Masters title and fourth place overall, Pete Boyle rounded out the 6 with one of the quotes of the tournament being “ I can’t throw properly unless my bag's on my back “, while also winning the Grand Masters division in a canter.

An amazing weekend had by all and some amazing stories to be told along with some amazing shots. Congratulations too all the winners of their divisions: Toby Gentil (Junior) Simon Feasey (Open & Overall ) Ming Menzies (Womans) Dean Marshall ( Masters) Peter Boyle (Grand Masters), Nigel Barnwell (Senior Grand Masters). 

Also a special word up to our overseas players and of course to the tequila swilling Mexican and tournament director Juan Unda.

Story by
Tab Lloyd

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See you next time!