Disc golf champions to glide into history books

Ryan Nicholson Dsc 0168  TBW Newsgroup
FINAL FLING: Mount Gambier Disc Golf president Ryan Nicholson is ready for the season finale of the association's 2019-20 season at the Crater Lakes Park this Sunday. Picture: THOMAS MILES

Ryan Nicholson Dsc 0168 TBW Newsgroup
FINAL FLING: Mount Gambier Disc Golf president Ryan Nicholson is ready for the season finale of the association’s 2019-20 season at the Crater Lakes Park tomorrow.Picture: THOMAS MILES

MOUNT Gambier Disc Golf will glide into its final event of the 2019-20 season tomorrow at the picturesque Crater Lakes Park venue.

The June League Day will be held on tomorrow morning and is the last chapter in the competitors’ journey towards a disc golf title.

At the end of proceedings, the final scores from both the scratch and handicap competitions will be tallied before crowning the respective 2019-20 champions.

Looking set to claim the scratch competition is Joseph Quinn.

However, the frontrunner is based in Warrnambool and will not be able to enter the season finale due to the current border restrictions.

This could open the door for Limestone Coast’s Lachlan Wookey to make a move at the final post.

But Mount Gambier Disc Golf president Ryan Nicholson believes Quinn will be tough to catch.

“Even without competing, Joseph is a good chance to hold on and take it out anyway,” he said.

“Lachlan is probably the closest local, but he would need to win with a massive turnout of competitors to overtake Joseph.”

In the handicap competition, youngster Harrison Ellis is in “prime position” to take home the honours, while Michelle Schulz is the favourite to secure the women’s scratch title.

The 2019-20 season resumed at the beginning of the month after a long break due to the coronavirus pandemic.

With the experience of already running an event in the COVID-19 world, Nicholson said the final round should be much easier to run.

“We completed a lot of the hard work to get the initial competition up and running again,” he said.

“But now we have gone through the process and a lot of the players are aware of what is required, so it should be a lot smoother to run moving forward.

“We just have to adhere to the local government and social distancing guidelines.

“It has now been extended to 70-75 people and we expect between 20 to 30 players in total, so it should be reasonably easy to manage those numbers during competition.”

As the return event went ahead without dramas, Nicholson noted the enthusiasm among the competitors was at an all-time high.

He said playing numbers have increased after discs were thrown around the Valley Lakes precinct once again.

“We have so many players who are super excited to be back competing,” Nicholson said.

“We even started off with new faces entering the competition post COVID, while all of the existing players were keen to get back into it as well.”

Action is set to begin at 9am and players can register at the Disc Golf Metrix website, with entries to close at 4pm on Saturday, while season presentations will be held at a later date.