The 2021 Perth Open – The Ghosts of 2014
Stories and pictures by Kingsley Flett.
For the eighth year since 2013, the Perth Disc Golf crew (plus some Queenslanders, South Aussies, Tasmanians and a few from New South Wales) made the trek up Toodyay Road, through the Gidgegannup townsite, down Mayo Road (if that’s the way you go), past where the bushfire from this past summer still showed its intimidating destructive power, before making the turn down the narrow country lane that leads to Pine Lines.
It’s been two years and most of us hadn’t realised how much we’d missed it. Like a space shuttle losing its thermal tiles on re-entry, I could feel my non-disc golf worries peel off and go spinning into the slipstream of my commodore as I (and this dodgy metaphor) cruised towards the course on Friday afternoon. Visiting Pine Lines for a weekend of Disc Golf is like disappearing to an island. Since we first said ‘On the Far Side of The Darling Scarp…. Nobody Can Hear You Scream’ in 2013, the Pine Lines Perth Open has been one of the best examples of a full immersion disc golf experience you could get anywhere. There is an element of the ‘temporary experiment in community’ that festivals like Blazing Swan and Burning Man create. It isn’t a full slide into the heart of weirdness anymore, but the ghost of 2014 still lingers; Richard Jones was still wandering around in his dressing gown.
Like most other tournaments in the country this year, the PDGO filled up quickly and was looking at having to shut the doors at the 100 player limit set by TD Reece Vellios for the event. Then Covid-19 reared its head. Seven Victorians had to stay home, and a few others were discouraged. Still, we arrived with a new record of 78 huddled around the campfire and the coffee van on Saturday morning as smoke rose through the branches of home tree.
Facing them was two rounds of 27 holes on a new layout for the property. Some bemoaned the loss of Three-Day Log as they walked past the old pin placement (which is on a log) and made the savage left turn uphill on Three Day Slog. Some felt the same on Free Rider as they made an equally savage right turn uphill; but both are real golf holes now, where placement is everything. Deep Throw was shortened, Ring of Fire lengthened, ScarJo became Jabba, Danny DeVito was lengthened into Dianabol Danny…and people reading this who haven’t been to Pine Lines will be wondering what the hell I’m talking about so let’s just move on. Disc golf holes are like characters and some people missed the old ones, but by the end of the weekend a host of new characters were being talked about around the campfire.
The ghosts of 2014 were also there in the way we watched the weather forecast for the week. Some of the most epic Perth Opens have been played in torrential rain and cold wind and 2014 was one of the wildest. It’s karma really; Disc golfers in Perth spent a lot of the year gloating about their weather and posting social media pictures of themselves playing in glorious sunshine. Then the one week when we get some interstate visitors over, a giant cold front takes a run-up from the Cape of Good Hope and smashes us. Thankfully the weather held off on Saturday; although the experienced Pine Lines campers reinforced their tents and put up extra tarps because they knew something big was in the mail.
Round One
The story of the MPO division was told in the first half of round one on Saturday. Jordan Wheeler threw 8 birdies and otherwise stayed clean to be 8-under after 14 holes and with a 4 throw gap on the rest of the field. Considering that his winning margin was 3 and that he finished the tournament at 11-under, it’s clear that Jordy did the bulk of his work on the Saturday morning. Chasing him were three players from either end of the experience spectrum.
Paul Noesen is masters-age; he played (and won MA3) at his first PDGA tournament in 2004 in Boise Idaho – making him one of the most experienced disc golfers in the country. Alex Kynaston started in 2020 and Blake Houston in 2019. Alex is 12 and Blake 15. That they are both competing at the top of the field at this age and having only played such a short time is remarkable. They both have a range of shots, good technique and throw long distance with such effortless ease. A few years more growth, playing and practicing, with a sprinkle of testosterone, and who knows where they’ll be?
It was Alex Kynaston who put the most pressure on Wheeler on day one; his 7-under 88 leaving him two throws back. Blake Houston had 10 birdies in round one which was second only to Jordy, but he matched that with a double bogey and three bogeys to finish 4-under. Paul Noesen started, as he said ‘like a house on fire’ with 6 birdies in the first 13 holes, before hitting an ugly patch of bogey-double bogey-bogey on 14,15 &16. It was a black hole that he took the rest of the round to crawl out of. Paul shared fourth spot with Patrick Luke at 3-under while Olav Pargma and Robert Lim were in the mix.
In the amateur divisions it was mostly tight races across the board. Sue Summers was two throws ahead of Julie O’Donoghue in FA1, Tasmania’s Oliver Mundy-Castle held a 1-throw lead over Heath McQuade and Jacob Davies in MA1, South Australia’s Jonathan Dragt had a 1-throw lead over Tasmanian Matt Green in MA2, Rodrick Gontran had a 2-throw lead over Christopher Williams in MA4 while another South Aussie in Anna Kolodina had established a healthy 11 throw buffer over Claudine Baker in FA4.
In MA40, former MPO champion Neil Roberts had opened up a 9 throw advantage over Ken Summers with a 7-under round that would have had him sharing 2nd place in his old division. But before you people in the cheap seats start yelling ‘sandbagger’, know that our good mate from NSW has faced a few health challenges in the past couple of years and is not the same athlete he was when he was winning A-tiers all over the country; compared to his recent form this was an exceptional performance – maybe the ghost of 2014 (when he won the whole show here), took over and made him forget he’d been barely averaging 900 rated rounds in the last year.
Having no competition in MA50 didn’t stop recent septuagenarian Kim Holmes from throwing a solid 2-over that would have had him sharing second place with the MA40’s.
Saturday Night
A ring-of-fire putting competition with a DJ? Genius. I demand to know why anyone hasn’t thought of this before. Someone write a sternly worded letter to the ADG. Mason Vellios kept the late afternoon festivities popping by adding music to the ring-of-fire that happened right in front of the campfire at tournament central. There was an ace-run CTP competition on the main arena that is the fairways of holes 1 and 4 during tournament play. Then for the first time since 2018 (it was too dry in 2019), the bonfire with the ceremonial basket perched on top was lit. It set the whole arena, ringed by its tall pine trees, glowing red. Pine Lines is in the flight path of Perth Airport and I always wonder what the pilots must think as they begin their descent over the Darling Ranges; looking down at this giant ball of flame surrounded by little figures. Catch discs were whizzing about and Connor Donnelly conducted some very important research in finding out what happened to a disc when it was thrown through a 10-metre-high flame – it ‘elevators up’ apparently. Others sang by the fire, some played board games led by chief ringleader Kris Kohout. Glen White made his famous sticky date pudding. All in all, it was another classic night at Pine Lines.
The novelty of camping tends to wear off for most folk after one try. Each year we tend to find the same crew sleeping around the fire with maybe just a few first-timers: like Julie in her fancy hammock contraption which was the envy of anyone sleeping on the cold ground. As the night wears on the crew settles in to reminisce. The debate about which was the best year at Pine Lines is pointless because they were all great in their own way. But the year we tell the most stories about? 2014. I like how these stories are rarely repeated publicly and just reserved for around the campfire at Gidgie. That’s the way it should be.
Round Two
Although it was to save its savagery for after play finished on Sunday night, the near edge of the front came in on Sunday morning, bringing steady rain that would persist for the first half of the round. Apart from a few crazies warming up in the rain, everyone else was under the giant tarp, close to the coffee van and the fire.
27 holes is new for a lot of disc golfers. It’s understandable that most people have programmed themselves to play 18. Saturday’s round was expected to have taken a toll and this proved out – with the conditions and cumulative fatigue conspiring to add an average of an extra throw and a half to the average scores for the round.
In MPO the two wunderkinds both collected a string of early bogies to drop out of the title fight. Paul Noesen and Jordy mostly matched each other until Noisy had a little purple patch of birdies, with one eagle, that drew him close. But then a triple bogey on 17 all but ended the challenge. Noisy kept pressing though and shot the best round of the pros for round two, his 5-under coming within three throws of Jordy in the end. Blake Houston shot one over for the round to hold onto third, while Patrick Luke snuck up to share 4th with Alex Kynaston who’d fallen away with a 5-over round.
The hot round of the day though, belonged to Heath ‘Boat’ McQuade, whose 6-under overtook Tasmania’s Oliver Mundy-Castle for the win in MA1. After losing his first round lead early, Mundy-Castle had thrown an eagle on 15 and then birdied 16, then watched Boat spoil an otherwise clean sheet with a double bogey on 17 to draw level. Ollie then missed the mando on Jungleland, which created the 3 throw swing that gave Boat the buffer he needed. He had to fight for his par a few times though.
“15m putts for par on Powerline and Jabba kept the nerves on edge for sure. But after a 20m birdie on Black Ace I calmed a bit and enjoyed the last few holes,” he said. “I loved having Swampy (fellow Turkey Brad Curran) on my card to talk sense into me at times.” On throwing his highest ever rated round at the time it mattered most he said: “I just laced lines and sank putts like I never have before.”
Kerrod Steel also threw an equal second best 5-under for the day to steal 2nd place from Ollie, who drifted to 3rd after leading on day one.
In FA1, Sue Summers added 5 throws to her overnight 2-throw lead to win over Julie O’Donoghue, while in FA4, Anna Kolodina added 9 throws to her 11 throw lead to comfortably win over the irrepressible Claudine Baker.
In MA2, Tasmanian Matt Green reversed the result from the day before, outpointing Jonathan Dragt by 1-throw. They went to a playoff. After both throwing par on Hole 1, they both then threw good drives on the treacherous Jabba and followed that up with good fairway shots to be both putting for par: Green from 8m and Dragt from 5. The extra distance was the difference as Green missed his putt and Dragt canned his for the win.
In MA4, Rodrick Gontran doubled his 2 throw lead to win by 4 over Christopher Williams, with the comeback kid Michael Wombell shooting up from 6th place to share 3rd with Mason Vellios.
In the Masters it was Jason Browne who finally appeared to get the Pine Lines monkey off his back by being one of the people who actually shot better in Round 2’s testing conditions. He leapfrogged Ken Summers to take out the ‘MA40 who would have won if Neil hadn’t turned up’ competition. Also leapfrogging Ken Summers into 3rd was Del Batey with a solid 4 over par. Taking out the actual MA40 division was the man himself, Neil Roberts. It was great to see Neil get back his winning ways after a couple of tough years. Kim Holmes had a rough Round 2, shooting 12 over to drop out of contention in the ‘I would have beaten you all if I’d played MA40’ competition. He won MA50 though.
“It means a lot to get on that trophy” said Jordan Wheeler afterwards. “There was some good competition, so it was good to be able to do what I had to do. I’m not super happy with my round today. I mean with 2 holes to play I knew I was going to win, yet I was still upset and I was like ‘what is this?’. Golfers and Disc Golfers, we are not capable of being happy. But I was checking the scores when I was playing bad, and everyone was struggling. “
The awards ceremony seemed to slip by in a whirlwind and Jordy didn’t get to make a winner’s speech. “I was kinda glad about that” he said. “Sitting there waiting I was feeling a bit emotional.”
Right then, a man who has his name on the big jarrah trophy seven times, David Bandy, strolled up to congratulate Jordy. It was in thanking Dave that the emotion came out and it became clear how much winning his home tournament, among his home tribe, in front of the bloke who mentored much of his early career, meant to young Jordy.
Then just like that it was all over. People melted away and drove to airports, home to hot showers and back to their non-Pine Lines life. An hour after everyone had left right as it was getting dark, the heavens opened. A sheet of flood water flowed down the entrance track from the camp to the carpark and all the way down the fairway of Jabba. Thick, heavy rain drops hammered the tap and gazebos at tournament HQ, sending streams of water cascading down everywhere.
It takes more than that to put out the Pine Lines fire though. Keenan and the boys stacked it high with pallets, and we sat in the shelter, basking in the heat that we could feel despite all the rain, and visited with the ghosts of 2014.
