‘The Island’ 2009
It’s always interesting to see who turns up to the opening event of the year, everyone’s keen to grab some early points not to mention spend some time at the summer holiday destination of beautiful Waiheke Island out in Auckland’s Waitamata Harbour. Mario Cerniar was up from Christchurch; Des Cooper from National Park took the long anniversary weekend off and joined Blair Joines and Gene Tutaki from Taumarunui’s Lost Tribe. Tauranga’s Ming ‘Caching’ Menzies stayed on after spending the Friday in the ‘mosh-pit’ at Big Day Out and Andrew and Karoline did a road trip in Andrew’s new spaceship. Jenny Joynt came up from Tokoroa along with a very pregnant Allie and Josh Smith from Hamilton, add to that a reasonable turnout from the Auckland regulars thanks mainly to the Ultimate golfers, a good dose of locals and even an American Brian Weisman. from Washington State on his second trip to ‘The Island’. Saturday was a stunner, 27+ degrees blue sky and sunshine with very few clouds for relief. The new ‘long course’ was played first up followed by the old course in the afternoon. At the end of the day it had become obvious that the race, as per usual when Simon Feasey is on form, was going to be for the second and third spots on the dais. Most players stayed overnight on the Island to be entertained by the locals who laid on a feast of Kai Moana and a beach cricket session down on Onetangi beach. I suspect it was the beach cricket that saw Josh Smith doing a knee in and heading back home to Hamilton early on Sunday morning. The format for the Sunday was one more round of the long course followed by a cut to a ‘Super 6’. There had been heavy showers over night and these were still persisting as TD Brett Hailstone sent the fours to the course, but by hole 4 the showers had cleared and the conditions were ideal for Disc Golf. The cut to the ‘Super 6’ saw Simon Feasey with a 13 shot lead over Joe ‘Fish’ Seebeck, one shot back to the Grand Master followed by Mario Cerniar, local Siep Van Vliet and Taumarunui’s Blair Joines. The scene was set for the battle of the minor placing’s.
Going into the final hole second and third sports for the weekend were still up for grabs, but thanks to 3 missed putts the result stayed as it was on the tee with the GM improving his super 6 score to take second overall and the Grand Masters Title, Fish hung on to third place overall and second in Open with Mario fourth after a run of two’s closed the gap to 1 on third. New 'Mastermind' (now he's in the Masters division, he'll be hard to beat! - ed) Blair Joines took the Masters Title, Ming ‘Kaching’ Menzies the Woman’s, local Nigel Barnwell was our first ever Senior Grand Master and Jacob Hailstone took the bubbles on offer for the Junior title. >>> Congratulations to TD Brett Hailstone and the Waiheke locals for a great start to the 2009 NZDG Tour. Pictures
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I’m loving the ‘Super 6’, whether you’re one of the players or one of the gallery it’s great to hear the oooooing and aaaaaaing as the tournaments top performers entertain. 
