Canada Day was the grand opening of the Asessippi National Disc Golf Course and it was a successful event by every measure.
The day included the official ribbon cutting for the course which was installed earlier this year, after a spring design by Calvin Daniels and Trevor Lyons.
The course, located at Asessippi Beach & Campground north of Russell, MB., also hosted its inaugural tournament, the Dynamic Discs 2 Disc Challenge.
The event attracted a full-card of 24 disc golfers, many involved in the sport for the first time.
“That was amazing to see,” said Trevor Lyons, Tournament Director with the Parkland Association of Disc Golf. “We are trying to build the grassroots of disc golf throughout the region, so seeing 17, or 18, new faces out for the tournament was just what we hoped for.”
Lyons said the new players all seemed to enjoy themselves.
“The Asessippi National Course is not an easy one. There are some difficult tee shots, and lots of long grass out-of-bounds, but the new players took it all in stride, and had fun in the process,” he said.
And, the great thing about an event like the 2-Disc Challenge is that players received two discs as part of the entry fee which they can play the game with in the future.
“That’s a key aspect of an event like this, beginning players go home with discs they can keep playing the sport with,” said Lyons.
But, as with all tournaments, the ultimate goal was to win.
Chris Istace of Moosomin threw a first round 65 on the par-57 course to hold a three stroke lead over his son Josh, the youngest player in the event at 11.
Calvin Daniels with a 73, and Doug Kerr with a 74 rounded out the lead card who headed out for the final 18. Both players are from Yorkton.
Riley Maloney, who took the ‘Closest-to-the-Pin Award’ just more than 24-feet from the #17 basket in the first round, also shot a 74, but started the final round on the second card.
Chris Istace threw a 67 on round two, to tie for the best score of the round with Maloney. Istace would top the tournament with a 132, a plus 18 over 36.
Daniels would make a bit of a charge in the second round throwing a 68, the second best score of the round, and two strokes better than Josh Istace, but Istace held on to second place overall carding a 138, plus 24.
Daniels finished in a tie for third with Maloney, both carding a plus 27, 141.
Kerr threw a 72 in the second round, for a plus 32, 146.
“The scores tell you just how difficult the course plays,” said Lyons. “Chris Istace kept his game under control, and threw two steady rounds for the win. It was a deserved win.”
With the tournament win Chris Istace will be invited to the PADG’s ‘Champions Challenge Tournament’ which will pit the top golfers from events throughout the Association region this summer.
I loved the course. It has a picturesque layout in a quaint, little valley. We'll be camping there at some point. The track itself has some terrific challenges like holes 4 and 15, mixed with some short, simple holes like 2, 12, 16 and 17. This combination allows you to both develop different aspects of your game on the tough ones and build your confidence once you've encountered a straight foreword, short par 3. It's great fun.
Both Josh and I played the course two weeks before and went into the tournament knowing the biggest challenge was going to be working with Asessippi 's tricky baskets. I stayed with my plan to play par-golf due to that; get a decent drive inbounds, layup with an upshot under the basket, then just drop in the putts. I tried for birdies on 1, 2, 9, 12, 13, and 16, but otherwise stuck to getting my pars and did not get frustrated when I went OB and got a bogey.
My performance did not surprise me, since I stayed committed to the way I had planned to attack the course. What did surprise me was the end result. I didn't think a 65/67 would be good enough to win, but on that day they were. I thought someone could post a 4 to 6-over par fairly easily. I did the previous time I played the course with my own discs.
I realized early that the putter wasn't going to work for me on long up shots to the basket. I found I was grip locking it and pulling it right. Once I switched to the River fairway driver for approach shots, my game improved vastly. I really got a handle of what it would do and my approaches turned out to be the best part of my game that day. They saved me a ton of strokes by leaving me short putts.
PADG Tournaments
July 23 - Birtle Tournament (Daredevil Disc Event)
July 30 - Sandy Beach Open (details to be released soon)
July 31 - Carlton Trail - Tentative
Aug 28 - Yorkton 2nd Annual Trilogy Challenge
Sep 3 - Fort Qu'appelle - MVP Circuit - Tentative
Sept 10 - Moosomin Tourney - Tentative
For details contact padg.yorkton@gmail.com
