Perfect weather and great scores for Credit Union Cup

The final four at the Cornerstone Credit Union Disc Golf Tournament in Springside turned out to be a five-man affair.

Duncan Holness of Percival, Sk. led the event after the opening 18, with a sparkling minus-eight 48 six stokes up on Yorkton’s Ryan Seitz with a minus-two 54.

When it came to rounding out the final four three Yorkton disc golfers; Doug Kerr, Trevor Lyons and Calvin Daniels were deadlocked at 55 (minus-one).

In the championship round Holness would repeat his minus-eight to finish the day with a minus-16 96 for first spot.

Kerr, in part thanks to an eagle on the par-4 number 12, would go minus-three in the championship round to finish second with an overall minus-four 108.

Lyons would throw par in the final for a third place minus-one 111, while Seitz would go plus-one to finish fourth at 111. Daniels with a bogey-three on number 9 would be plus-five to finish the day at 114 (plus-six).

Holness said the Springside course is unusual in terms of shorter holes and lots of hazards.

“My impression of Springside is coloured heavily by its use of trees,” he said. ”I always feel like I'm throwing into a wall of branches when I play here.

“To attack the course with the necessary finesse, I had to use heavy-fading discs with a much lighter touch than I'm used to. The results were pretty satisfying.

“The greatest challenge that I faced in throwing the course well was limiting the number of trees that I hit on approach shots.”

Kerr said he benefited from knowing the course.

“I'm very familiar with the Springside course, so the first seven baskets in the trees are not intimating to me,” he said. Using a putter on most gives me more control on the finesse shots.

The greatest challenge to playing Springside well is having enough patience and shot control. It's very easy to get into trouble in the long grass and bush. This is evident on hole number 9. A narrow and low ceiling path on the drive leading to a 90 degree dogleg and long grass and bush surrounding the tonal, creates immense frustration.”

But the course still needed to be attacked, added Holness.

“I think the key to winning the tournament was attacking the short, heavily-treed holes at the beginning and maintaining my advantage from the seventh hole on. I was already -5 at that point, and I played safe the rest of the way,” he said.

So what was the greatest challenge of the day.

“I feel like number eight was the toughest one for me today,” said Holness. “It was the first one after the short tree maze that comprised the opening seven holes of the course, and it forced me to refocus, which I found very difficult.”

That said no single shot stood out for the event’s champ.

“There was no one shot that I felt was key today, but a group of five; birdies, either via great drives/approaches or decent putts gave me a big confidence boost right off the hop,” said Holness.

Kerr said his eagle was huge for him.

“My key shot came in the final round when I hit an eagle putt on number 12, which helped my score and confidence,” he said.

Parkland Association of Disc Golf president Calvin Daniels said conditions were ideal.

“The Town (of Springside), had the course in great condition with the fairways cut neat, and even the ones in the trees well-manicured,” he said. “The day was bright, sunny, but not too hot. The only thing missing was a few more players.”

Overall, local course representative Debbie Banks said the event was generally very satisfying, and in terms of players, building the base in the community will be a priority heading toward 2018.

“We have the course in great shape now, thanks to the PADG coming out and pointing out a few things that needed to be trimmed up,” she said.

“Now we want to focus on developing players with some learn-to-play clinics, including hoping to work with the school to get youth involved. Next summer I’d like to see a half-dozen local participants so we can grow the event.”

Daniels said the PADG will help in any way it can.

“That’s part of our mandate, getting new players throwing discs so they can fall in love with the sport like we have,” he said. “When Debbie sets up a clinic or two in Springside we’ll be there to help out.”

The Cornerstone Credit Union Cup was a qualifier as a Parkland Association of Disc Golf (PADG) member, for the Farrell Agencies Champions Challenge to be held at the Asessippi Beach and Campground course Oct. 15. However the top-two finishers had already qualified into the Championship through an earlier event.

Rounding out the prizes at the tournament was Doug Kerr of Yorkton taking the Asessippi Beach and Campground sponsored closest-to-the-pin award, and the Yorkton Dodge best drive award went to Duncan Holness.