Hoyt hot at Stockholm

A fine June Sunday welcomed disc golfers to the annual Stockholm Tournament recently.

The Living Skies Realty Ltd. Tournament, which attracted players from around the region, would see Chris Hoyt emerge the winner after an initial 18, and a final round that sent the top four golfers out in pursuit of the title.

In the end Hoyt, from Regina, would record a stellar minus-9, 81, through 27, for a comfortable six-stroke win over Duncan Holness of Percival, SK. Holness shot an 87.

Chris Istace of Moosomin finished third with a minus-two 88, one better than his son Josh Istace at 89, minus-one.

Hoyt said even with a nice day the Stockholm course is a challenge.

“The course is very technical for Saskatchewan,” he said. “In Regina you can throw a disc and even if you miss your line by 30 degrees you can still save par pretty easily.

“In Stockholm if you miss your line by that much you are hitting a tree or going OB, (out-of-bounds), meaning your shots have to be much more accurate. Hole 8 in particular there is a tree at the tee box that makes the throw much harder than the hole would otherwise be.”

So Hoyt played the course relying on his strengths to carry the day, and that means the ability to throw long; he also took home the Yorkton Dodge Best Drive award with a throw of 375-feet on number-four.

“I have become notorious for my long drives, and I think the rest of my game has benefited from that,” he said. “I think a fair statement to say that when you can throw longer, it makes those shorter distances easier to hit and I think that showed through today.”

And the rest of Hoyt’s game followed as he quickly took the tourney lead and held it throughout.

“I was on fire at the tournament, my putting was really dialled-in and let me make those shots from 20-25-feet that I normally would have missed. The less windy weather this year helped too,” he said.

The top two finishers at the Living Skies Realty Ltd. Tournament, as PADG members, earn spots in the Farrell Agencies Champions Challenge, to be held at Asessippi Beach and Campground Oct. 15.

In addition to the final four, a number of other special awards were handed out.

The Asessippi Beach and Campground Closest to the Pin award going to Holness.

Josh Gregory also had a chance at the Fountain Tire Putting Award, but missed all three tries to get a disc putter through a tire.