This year’s team tourney ran smooth as silk right on time and the weather cooperated perfectly. Several dozen people showed up on Friday before the tourney putting contest to get autographs from some of the disc golf luminaries. They weren’t disappointed.
This year’s tourney saw the return of 4 time world champion Paul McBeth after a 4 year hiatus from this event. He led the Huntington Beach team to their second win ever in the 35 year history of this event held each year the first weekend in December here at Morley. McBeast punctuated their victory by throwing and ace on hole 13 in the finals while throttling the Steve Rico lead team from Sylmar.
Sylmar won the prelims 6-1 beating Huntington Beach 7.5-4.5. Huntington Beach after a slow start won both their Sunday morning matches and secured the second seed with a 5-2 record going into the finals. They then carried their momentum into the finals beating Sylmar 9.5-2.5.
Team San Diego had an off year. Several long time members were unable to play this year and the team had its’ worst showing ever. Finishing next to last in the eight team event with a 2-5 record in the prelims. On a positive note for team San Diego rookie member Jonathan Maki, Am winner of the Spring Fling and long time team pro member Mike Slonim both had a marvelous 5-1-1 record to lead the beleaguered locals.
This event is a marathon of disc golf on Saturday with each player playing 5 matches and completing 60 competitive holes between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Lunch is provided at the noon break each year by Amplified Aleworks formerly known as Cali Kebab. Players nosh on chicken, lamb, pita bread and falafels along with salad while recounting the shoulda, woulda, coulda’s of their morning matches.
Innova Champion, Discraft, Dynamic Distribution, Gateway, Legacy and Millennium again donated discs and free drawing swag for the players. The winning team gets $250 per player a nice custom plaque from NP Trophies and 5 discs per player. Second place gets $120 and 3 discs per player. The team captain keeps the big perpetual trophy and adds their name to the plaque. Finally, The Spirit of the Event trophy went to Team Oak Grove for the first time ever plus they received 5 discs per team member.
Big thanks to all the staff: Mac, EJ, Jesse, My wife Joanne, Tommy, Mike, Mitch, Tyler, Chet, Garrett, Angel and of course Scooby. Special thanks to Chris Dilloway who provided the art this year and played on the team as well.
Till next year…
Z ya