Saturday was a glorious day for a bit of disc golf: conditions for Perth Disc Golf Club’s annual Chick Flick consisted of sunshine, gentle winds, and (mostly) empty green, grassy fairways at Curtin University Disc Golf Course, thanks to Tournament Director Karl ‘Rokk’ Voloczi. To be clear, Rokk is a rapidly-evolving TD but he isn’t God. The first two elements were more than likely due to the workings of nature. The third, however, should be credited to Rokk’s decision to book the entire course area this year. This made for a less stressful time for participants (and especially Rokk) compared to 2018, when disc golfers were competing for fairway space with other sports groups. While this meant a more costly registration fee for Chick Flick participants, no-one was complaining.
41 players joined this year’s tourney, part of the Professional Disc Golf Association’s Women’s Global Event, with just over a fifth of the field being women. A few local regulars were missing, but there were quite a few new faces. For five it was their first ever disc golf tournament, local women Kate Winter and Emily Colman among them.
The day was high-spirited and fun, but competitive: round one saw some red-hot 20-hole rounds from Joy Crosswell, Ben Newman, Kim Holmes, Charlie Apps and Joshua Kirkham. A fiery contest was lit in the Novice Women’s division with Claire Batey and Maggie Matich heading to lunch tied on 74, and in the Open division Chris Finn’s 51 while amazing was only one better than relative newcomer Gurteaj Atwal’s score.
In the end, Dave Bandy threw a Dave Bandy Molotov cocktail at the second round to take the Open division by 1 throw, while most other division leaders held their leads. Maggie Mattich snuck ahead of Claire Batey in the Novice Women, resulting in the delightful situation of mother-daughter combination Emma and Maggie Matich joining Joy Crosswell and Sue Summers in the Women’s Final Four playoff. As is Chick Flick custom, the four women were followed by a gallery comprising the rest of the remaining players as they played holes 10, 2, 3 and 4. It’s that part of the day where the celebration of women in disc golf is best displayed, and with the positive feelings and enjoyment of the moment bearing out amongst the entire group, the tournament came to a close truly a success for Rokk and the Perth Disc Golf Club.
Tournament Director Karl Voloczi
Story by Sue Summers
Photo by Chris Himing of Fly Free Disc Golf www.fryfreediscgolf.com