Return of the Steilly Supertour a Success

This year brought the return of the only PDGA A-tier event in Washington, the Steilacoom Open held June 28 & 29. Jason Coke, long time disc golf enthusiast of the Seattle-Tacoma area took the reigns and did what was necessary to bring an A-tier back to the state. For those that don’t know, A-tier events, eligible only to current PDGA members, are about the top level events possible in the PDGA, with the exception of the National Tour (NT) events. It takes a lot of work to get approval from the PDGA to even schedule and sanction an A-tier, plus there must be a good deal of added cash to the event. Needless to say, Jason taking the initiative to bring this event back was no small feat.

Ft. Steilacoom Park (pronounced STILL-a-cum) is one of the most well known courses in the Northwest. It’s been around for over twenty years, and is infamous for having an insane amount of teepads and baskets (40 baskets and 70 teepads, I’ve heard). Along with the crazy number of baskets and teepads, there are 14 “official” layouts to the course. It’s the best course I’ve ever seen to have as a home course, you could spend all day at the park and not play the same hole twice. Steilly, as the locals call it, was featured in the April/May issue of Flying Disc Magazine as being the original “supercourse”.

For the event, Jason decided to have one round each day of the Pro 27 layout. This was my first time playing the Pro 27, and I have to say its my favorite layout, incorporating some of the best holes of the course. Though all holes are played as par 3s, several are legitimate par 4s, and there are a few birdie and ace runs available to help keep a player’s morale up. As it turns out the one map listed on dgcoursereview.com shows the Pro 27, with a couple small exceptions to what we played in the tournament.

Though the event didn’t receive a whole lot of publicity, it drew some of the best disc golfers in the Northwest, bringing in players from Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia. We had excellent weather, for once, at a WA tournament, clear sunny days in the upper 80s and lower 90s, with a few breezy gusts blowing through. The course looked great, the fairways had been well maintained (not an easy feat in summertime in WA), 10m circles had been painted on every green, as well as arrows leading to the next hole, water was available at many of the tees, and a few hardy volunteers stood out in the sun and spotted on some of the more dangerous holes.

The final 9 was limited to only the top four players in the Open field, which turned out to be Tim Skellenger (Portland, OR), Nate Sexton (Corvallis, OR), Christian Dietrich (Missoula, MT), and Brody Miller (Portland, OR). You can see highlights from the final 9 in my video above, there was a good amount of action going on. Nate came into it with a 3 stroke lead over Tim, but the battle was far from over. Tim fought strong, nailing birdie after birdie, including a huge 80′+ putt on the next to last hole. Nate didn’t give up any pressure though, even though he had some tough breaks on drives on a few holes, his putting was solid and was able to save some crucial pars. Unfortunately for Nate on the last hole of the final 9, his birdie putt, though it was on target, hit the chains weird and bounced out. Tim seized the opportunity and nailed his birdie, tyeing up the lead and forcing a sudden death playoff. The playoff was soon over. Tim’s parked his drive on the difficult hole 1 (I’d say it’s a par 3.5 for most players–meaning its still a 3, but lots of people take 4s), leaving him with a 15 foot birdie shot. Nate’s drive left him in a difficult spot with branches blocking any good routes to the basket. He tried a kneeling flick putt, from about 60′ out and ended up long and right. He doinked his par save, and left Tim with an easy 3 for the win.

I have to say, even though all the excitement was on Tim and Nate, Christian and Brody were putting on a fine show themselves. Brody especially impressed me with his putting, casually nailing 40′+ putts like they were elementary. Though I’ve heard the names before, this was my first chance to see Tim and Brody in action, I hope to see more of them in the future.

All in all, I had a good time at this event, even if my scores weren’t that hot, and my ass is sore from getting hit by a drive (by the way, discs DO indeed hurt if you get hit by one). The two rounds of 27 were great, leaving plenty of time in the day to rest and recuperate, especially in the hot summer sun. Great job to all involved, primarily Jason Coke and the TDGPA. You can check out the scores on the PDGA page…just do me a favor and don’t look at mine too closely.