The Valley Lakes precinct may just be starting to settle after the rumble of the annual Legend of the Lakes Hill Climb, but it will have no time to rest as Disc Golf takes centre stage this weekend.
The Eruption 2021 is the highlight of the Mount Gambier Disc Golf calendar and some of the country’s finest players will strut their stuff around the Brownes Lake area.
Tomorrow afternoon will be the first of three rounds in the major tournament sponsored by Mount Gambier City Council and RPM Discs.
At least 45 participants from Mount Gambier, Adelaide, Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania are all in town to take on the Crater Lakes Disc Golf Park.
Well over 100 had been hoped to take part, but sadly more than 50% of participants were slashed due to COVID-19 border restrictions with New South Wales and Victoria.
Nevertheless, even with the COVID-19 struggles it is still set to be a huge weekend with some of the strongest and accurate arms in the country in town.
Mount Gambier Disc Golf president Mat Weyers is excited for the three days of action and said he hoped the competition could put the Blue Lake city on the global map.
“We have our big staple event of the year and it may not be as big as what we envisaged, we are going to press on,” he said.
“One of the reasons why we persisted this year is because we really want to submit Mount Gambier’s place on the national scene.
“There are more tournaments and venues so we want to make sure we are one everyone puts on their diaries each season.
“The course is so well recognised around Australia, so we want to maintain that recognition not only nationally, but globally when things open up.”
Weyers said one of the competition’s biggest attractions was the Crater Lakes course itself, which includes the return of the signature throw off the edge of the Mount Gambier cliff face.
“It will be played on the championship layout which is more exciting than the average course people play on a weekly basis.
“It has two water carry holes off the near the car park and another over the lagoon.
“One of the novelty events is the tower throw where the tee is at Centenary Tower with the target below.
“We last did it in 2019 and we want to ramp it up because as far as we know it is the only place in the world where people get to throw into a ‘volcano’.
“So it is high-risk which makes it more appealing for the players.”
A $500 prize is on offer for the super-skillful talent to place their disc closest to the tiny basket with 25 metres the benchmark from the 2019 winner.
Despite all of the nationally renowned players travelling from different corners including an exciting junior from across the Nullarbor, there will still be plenty of locals to keep an eye on.
One of the region’s faces of the sport in Ryan Nicholson is one of the favourites to takeout MM1.
Nicholson has been busy competing on the national tour and is in the middle of a tight arm wrestle with Daniel Hartley.
Amy Weyers, Michelle Schulz and Anna Kolodina will continue to tussle for the FA4 national tour title on their home course.
Nick Wilson hopes to use his knowledge of the layout to make an impact in MA2 after returning from injury.
Originally from Mount Gambier and now SA Disc Golf president Gareth Morgan has been building up strong form and is eyeing a jump to the pro level.
Weyers is looking forward to three huge days which he hopes will be just reward for a challenging recent period.
“It has been a very tough year in terms of COVID because of the uncertainty,” he said.
“We get a lot of support form Victorian players and we have missed their competitive and friendly nature.
“So we are hoping this event will be the start of the other side of the COVID pandemic with a big summer ahead.”
Registrations will remain open until the first throw from 1.30pm tomorrow.
