High winds complicate disc golf finals

GEORGE NEWS - Disc Golf George's first Disc Golf league series finals were held over the weekend at Rooirivierrif sports grounds, despite organisers cancelling the event on Saturday due to high winds.

The committee decided to postpone the event to Sunday morning, but some of the key players could not attend on such short notice and a follow-up final is being planned for the divisional players, particularly the group B and C divisions.

In addition to the final play-off for the male and female competitors, the final also had side-line competitions for distance, accuracy and putting skills.

Distance throwing record

The distance winner, Wayne Fairman, threw 100 metres, setting the first league distance throwing record. Accuracy was won by Leon Strauss (Men's Division), Bernadette Richter (Women's Division) and Heathe Hilbert (Junior Division).

The 16 top male competitors and 4 top women played in a shotgun round from 10:00 and were challenged by unpredictable winds. Disc Golf discs are very sensitive to wind and especially when there are different layers of air currents.

Chairman of Disc Golf George Leon Strauss said however that it turned out to be an even more exciting final with the players needing to use discs in different ways and especially discs with different flight characteristics.

Heavier discs, with less glide and that are more overstable (they tend to turn more to the left at the end of their flight when thrown backhand) become vital to combat the wind and hold a line.

The men's final resulted in a tie for 3rd place between Peter Robinson, Eugene Booysen and Johan van Aardt. They competed in a play-off on the 9th basket to determine the winner. Van Aardt did well in a nail-biting 3rd attempt tie-off to win 3rd place.

There has been a huge improvement in skill in all of the players this year and the course record holder, Ingo Hilbert, who only started playing disc golf this year, played an outstanding round to take 2nd place. First place went to Leon Strauss with a challenging 1 under par round due to the wind.

Disc Golf George thanked their generous sponsors who are helping to build the sport in George.

"We appreciate all the support as we get disc golf off the ground in George. The potential to develop an all-inclusive, fun, competitive, safe, family-oriented and fulfilling sport has been seen by everyone that joined us for our league series."

The sponsors are Paintsmiths George, Build-It Outeniqua, MMO (Miltons Matsemela Oosthuizen), Decor Hardware, Air-Fit Conditioning, George Ceiling and Drywall Supplies, Heather Park Spar, Safari, Flordis, Protea Kingdom Coffee Shop, Graze Café and Marshmallow Café.

Ingo Hilbert (front) is the course record holder. Behind him is Wayne Fairman.