There was a time when the Perth Disc Golf Club was disc golf in WA. So much so that early on, when forming a WA Disc Golf Association was discussed, it was assumed that the PDGC would just metamorphize into that role. Then came Mundaring and now Sunset Coast and a few years down the track the PDGC is just one player in a scene in Perth that expands every year. Once the biggest club in Australia and the only show in WA, the PDGC has had to make an adjustment and settle in to being part of the scene. The question the club has had to ask itself is – which part of the scene? In the recent 15th anniversary of the Rob Hancock Memorial tournament held on the 35-year-old course that bears the same name in Cockman Park, there lay a few clues.
It’s an unusually emotional occasion, the Rob Hancock. For years Rob’s dad Sam would come down and watch the tournament, first with his wife Margaret and then on his own. Sam was still playing tennis in his nineties, so it looked like he was going to be around for ever. But there’s a time limit on us all and when he passed it’s been other members of the family like Sam Jnr and this year Rob’s nephew David who’ve kept the Hancock family connection to the tournament. It’s been the driest 6 month in Perth in 150 years and there must be a bit of dust about because when David spoke about his uncle and then Brian Vanallen shared what he knew of Rob as a man, some of that dust got in a few eyes.
Around a decade ago I can remember us getting excited the first time we had 36 entries. There were a few extra holes added on in those days, like the one in the SW corner, the mando hole, the shot through the tunnel of love; and the dreaded island hole which, while looking quite benign, is one of the nerviest and touchiest shots you’ll ever throw and not the sort of final hole you want to meet with the tournament on the line. But now, through some disc golf version of advanced tetris, TD Patrick Willson with the help of Paul Noesen, have managed to squeeze 17 holes into the L-shaped park. The 70-plus field seemed to flow well all day despite the tight arrangement, with minimal bottlenecks.
The tournament was tightly contested as well as being tightly packed too. With four holes to play in FP40, Sue Summers and Joanne McCamish were level, before Jo hit a 25m putt on hole 8 to go one ahead, then went two strokes up a hole later before Sue brought it back to one stroke at the finish. MA50 came down to the last hole after Mick Canci had snuck ahead on the back of back-to-back birdies before a double-bogey to Del Batey’s bogey on hole 9 had them going to the last hole dead level – then Mick missed the mando and Del was able to lay up for the one stroke win. Caleb Powley had a one stroke win over in MA3, while most of the other divisions weren’t as close. In MA1 Aiden Ditewig built on his one stroke lead over Sean Dobbs in round one to blast away to a five stroke win. 2023 MA3 Australian champ Jake Kaufmann continued to ride the steep part of his improvement curve to a two stroke win over Beau Wright in MA2. Rupert Marklew had a four stroke win over Kevin Peel in MA4. Matt Beard pulled away from Dave Briggs in the final round of MA40 with a score that was good enough to land him a spot in the super-7 final reserved for the best scores for players 40-and-over for the day. While Leah Manning (FA1), Tania Leanne (FA40) and Julie O’Donoghue (FA2) all dominated their divisions mercilessly
Thanks to a 15-strong MPO field and with the help of sponsors Galan Lithium and Damiani Cabinets, there was some decent cash for the pro players to chase. Blake Houston shot the tournament hot round of 9-under-par 42 in round one to clear away from Jacob Davies by three stokes and with a chasing pack of Alex Kynaston, Damon Williams and James Halderman a further stroke behind him. Even if he had won the big cash, it looked like Jacob wouldn’t have been able to buy a birdie with it in round two and he fell away as Shaun Batey, Damon and Alex kept charging. None of them could reel in Blake though, he maintained his three stroke buffer despite Alex acing hole four on his way to second with Damon in third and Shaun in fourth.
But the Rob Hancock Memorial has always been a masters focussed tournament to honour the sort of divisions that Rob would have been playing were he still with us. In MP40, Cockman kid and past winner Chris Finn finished level with another legend in Rob Cinquini: both seven under par after two rounds. On the playoff hole, Rob threw one of his deceptively slow-flying shots that look like that are going to drop short but keep on trucking fuelled by lots of spin and old frisbee throwers mystique to park it close. Finny pulled his drive into the rough on the right, which is easy to do on the uphill hole, missed his long bid and allowed Rob to putt out for the win.
The super seven final, made up of the best scoring 40-and-over players on the day, was made up of Chris, Rob, last year’s champion Paul Noesen from MPO all on 95 strokes, and Matt Beard from MA40 one stroke back on 96. With four holes to play, Finny and Noisy were dead level before Finny threw a shot that will go down in Rob Hancock folklore – a preposterous backhand cut roller that held its arcing track all the way to the basket, ran up the stump the basket was sitting on and almost went in for an ace. The small gallery roared like a footy crowd. Noisy clipped an early tree and had to settle for a bogey. The two-throw swing with just three holes to play looked like it’d be enough. Both players birdied the next hole before they faced the penultimate hole, the tunnel of love. Again, Finny pulled right when trying to hit a gap and scrambled for his par while Noisy went straight up the middle for a birdie. They faced the final island hole with Finny holding a one throw lead. But crucially Paul held the box and was able to put the pressure on by landing his forehand 8m from the basket. Finny needed to park his shot to avoid a playoff but pulled it right again, this time straight into the trunk of one of the trees before the island. Chris needed to run the basket from about 16 metres to stand any chance, but his attempt sailed high, went long and back into the hazard. Paul could have laid up for the win but hit his tester putt anyway. As he raised his arm and turned to acknowledge the crowd, Noisy’s expression held very little joy, he looked as shocked as anyone else at what had just happened.
“I kinda figured, you know what? Let’s give it a bit of a run. Let’s run this a bit, but make sure it’s a bit of a safe run,” said Paul after the win. “So I popped it good. It looked decent, it died a little early but it was fine. It was about 4m out. Cool, well. Now it rests in Finny’s hands and it happens to the best of us, the pressure, I dunno, there’s a lot of people watching. Talk about make the heart race though. It was a lot of fun to have that level of competition.” So Paul has his name engraved on the Rob Hancock memorial for a third time. He’s a worthy champion for other reasons too; in June he graduates as a fully qualified teacher and the significance of his career choice has not been lost on him when thinking about Rob Hancock’s legacy. “It’s been an emotional week,” said Noisy.
I can remember early on at one of the Rob Hancock memorial tournaments that I directed;Dean Cushing, who had only been playing a year or so, came up to me and said “so this sport is like a thing? I mean it’s got a history and a past and all that. I never knew. I thought it had only been around for a few years.” It’s tournaments like the Rob Hancock Memorial that keep that history alive and while it doesn’t pay to be too backward looking, preserving a legacy is one of things that builds a strong social movement that keeps a sport going regardless of how in fashion it is. To me that’s part of the role that the PDGC can play in WA Disc Golf.
Thanks to the Rob Hancock Memorial Event Sponsors
— Written by Kingsley Flett, Photography by Kingsley Flet