It was officially the first weekend of Winter so there was every chance there would be southerly winds and icy rain coming straight off the snow capped mountains of National Park and across the lake to freeze the golfers playing the stunning Spa Park Competition course .. but .. to the contrary, Queen’s Birthday weekend, not to mention her Diamond Jubilee was a stunning weekend weather-wise with not a breath of wind and the temperature soaring to a beautiful 9 degrees both afternoons.

Spa Park had taken a bit of a hammering from what looked like a tornado that had ripped the tops out of trees and flattened a tract through the park making numerous holes of the 2012 Classic a bit of an obstacle course.

Thanks to the basket providers, Pete and Blair from LTD, Juan from Freaky Styley and Hayden from Woodhill all the baskets were installed by early afternoon so the course was ready to practice on as players arrived.

Saturday morning late registrations saw the field grow to 22 and come 10am we were under way in glorious conditions.

At the lunch break One Tree Hill golfer Brad Muir - on his first time on the Spa Park course - had ripped it up coming in with a 4 under the card 52, a score not to be beaten for the rest of the weekend. Joining him for the seeded afternoon round would be Blair Joines (M) on a 54, the GM on 55 and the rapidly improving Junior Toby Gentil (14yrs) tied with his Dad (a bit more than 14yrs) on 55.

At the end of the second Saturday round Brad had held on to his overall lead with an afternoon round of 55 but thanks to a 53 from West Auckland golfer Damian Peters the gap was just 2 shots.

Sunday morning and it’s another perfect day for disc golf as the players head to their starting Tees. The top group starting on number 1 were all in with a chance at over all honours. Brad on 107, Damian 109, Nigel Hailstone on 111 and Junior [off the shortened Tees] Toby Gentil also on a 111. The Lost Tribe’s Blair Joines and Levin’s Lawton Williams headed the second group also on 111.

As the cards come in after the last full round it seems the top group had all had a pretty average round, the best scores of the morning came from the second group with Blair Joines’ s (M) 54 seeing him tied for the lead with Damian Peters (O) on 165 and Pete Boyles 53 saw him jump into the ‘Super 6’ Final along with The Brotherhood’s Lawton Williams (O) from the second group as well. They joined Auckland’s Brad Muir (O) and Nigel Hailstone (M) for the ‘Super 6’ battle for the championship.

The first 4 holes of the ‘Super 6’ didn’t see too much change to the top of the leader-board, that came on the 5th Super 6 hole [15 on the course] when Blair’s drive slid out to the right of the basket, Damian’s was also on a similar route but clipped the tree overhanging the basket and dropped underneath, the rest as they say “is history.”

Congratulations to everyone who took part in the 2012 Taupo Classic and of course our winners; Damian Peters Open & Overall, Blair Joines Masters, Gema Sullivan Woman’s, Pete Boyle Grand Masters, Jenny Joynt Woman’s Grand Masters and Toby Gentil Junior.

Another Disc Golfing, Mountain Biking, coffee drinking weekend with a fantastic bunch of friends comes to a close.