2010 Gentil Sport Taupo Classic | Spa Park, Taupo, New Zealand July 3, 4 2010

Blair "TD" Joines played some awesome shots, Andrew "Five Finger" Taylor struggled at times, Brendon "Tough" Love pulled out all the shots and Mario "Kart" Cerniar was sorely missed. We invite you to enjoy this story provided by the event's Tournament Director Bob Gentil...

The general consensus was that it was a bit of a gamble shifting the 2010 Gentil Sport Taupo Classic to July, but with not many TD’s keen to hold their events over winter the decision was made to give it a crack, as the pumice under foot in Spa Park was never going to chop up and get muddy, and it all turned out great.

What a brilliant weekend of Disc Golf, 40 players including ‘5’ J12 boys and apart from the cooler start to the days even the weather came to the party.

What a thrill to see that many players gathered for the Saturday morning players meeting, a few suffering just a little from the brilliant Pink Floyd tribute concert at the Spa Hotel which ran until the small hours of Saturday morning. Nice touch who ever organised that! The meeting featured a lot of the usual suspects along with the Levin crew and a few faces this reporter hadn’t seen before, which after covering the sport for over 30 years is truly a thrill to see.

By the time half a dozen holes of the first round had been played the sun had burnt off the cool mist and jackets are gloves were being discarded all over the course; it was verging on tee-shirt weather, apart from in the cooler shaded parts of the park.

As the random groups came in for lunch Tauranga golfer Dean Marshall had the lead with an impressive 51 [5 under the card], BOP team-mate Andrew Taylor was second with a 53, West Auckland’s Simon Feasey 3rd on 54 and the GM’s Bob Gentil and Pete Boyle a shot back on 55.

After lunch TD Bob ‘GM’ Gentil announced the tournament would be seeded from there on in which may not be quite so social, but what it does do is encourage competition within the competition as players of a similar level take on the course and their group.

At the end of the second round Dean and Simon were tied for the lead on 106 with the GM just 2 shots back in 3rd, 2 up on the Taumarunui legend Pete Boyle. They would make up the top group on hole 1 in the morning for the final full round of 18. Not that there was a big gap on the second group starting on hole 3; Blair Joines, Damian Peters and Andrew Taylor were all in with a shot at the ‘Super 6’.

The Spa Hotel bar was a good venue for the NZDG Annual meeting on the Saturday evening with some constructive input from those attending, and even some that didn’t. Thanks to all. 2010 NZDG Meeting Minutes can be viewed here (pdf 96Kb, opens in new window). A pub dinner following the meeting was the call of the evening before heading back to the warmth of the chalets where Marty de Haas revelled in highlights of the Dutch World Cup win over Brazil (even cheering in his sleep - sleepy Ed.).

Sunday morning and the near freezing temperature saw players turning up to the course wearing multiple layers of cloths for the 8:45am players meeting. The mist was to stick around till the end of play making conditions a little testing as it was hard to keep any form of feel in your fingers.

When the totals were sorted following the 3rd round it was straight into the now familiar Spa Park ‘Super 6’ holes; 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 & 1. Simon Feasey on 158 had taken a 1 shot lead over Dean Marshall [159] with the GM and the Lost Tribes Blair Joines tied for 3rd on 165. Damian Peters came back well from a disappointing first round to nab a ‘Super 6’ spot on 166 with GM Pete Boyle just 1 shot back on 167.

But wait! There’s more! Pete Boyle played a blinder ‘Super 6’ shooting a 16 and improving 2 places over all and taking the Grand Masters Trophy, compatriot Blair Joines also played some great golf improving to take out 3rd over all and second in his Masters division. Dean Marshall held onto second over all and in doing so took out the Masters title with the GM and Damian fighting for the ‘Super 6’ scraps, with Mr Consistent Simon Feasey taking the over all and Open title for yet another 50 tour points.

The woman’s title went for the 4th year in a row to Fiona ‘Ming’ Menzies just 1 shot back from her son Henry Conway wining the J15 title. Toby Gentil played some beautiful golf to take out the J12 Championship ahead of Auckland’s Sheldon Antonio, Tyler Ambler and Tauranga’s Max Conway.

Congratulations to all. There’s no doubt about it .. Disc Golf was the winner on the day.