Down to the Wire. The Warwick Amateur Disc Golf Championships
Nestled amongst the farmlands and rolling hills of Warwick, New York is a slice of disc golf heaven. Located about an hour west of New York City, this small town is home to three unique courses all within walking distance of each other. Two of these courses, the legendary Brakewell Steel DGC, as well as The Oasis, located just across the street, hosted the 2019 Warwick Amateur Disc Golf Championships in late October. This two day, four round event, attracted players from all over New York, New England and the mid-Atlantic region. Hosted by the Skylands Flying Disc Club, the 2019 event saw nearly twice as many competitors as previous years. 138 disc golfers came to Warwick to enjoy the fall atmosphere and to tackle the challenging terrain offered by these two unique courses.
While some may have thought that this would take away from the “Animal Fest” experience, the 144 person field quickly filled up and a wait list was formed. This trophy only C-Tier was about to become the biggest Amateur event in the area and one of the largest in the nation. A great players pack and players party that included camping, live music, food, craft beer on tap, and gathering of new and old friends are all included in your $65 entry fee.
Over the two days the players experienced all forms of fall weather. Saturday started with a cool morning and slowly warmed up through the afternoon and on Sunday, it was a cold dry morning that became a wet and rainy afternoon.
If you haven’t been to Brakewell Steel DGC recently, it is a must play course in our area with a recent upgrade, brand new Blue Innova Discatcher Pro 28s. The Amateur field played two layouts on the course, the short Silver Tees to long Blue Baskets, and the monster Blue Tees to Blue Baskets. Both layouts are difficult in their own way. The Oasis DGC also had two layouts over the weekend, shorts and longs. The shorts, while technical, offer a lot of opportunities to score well, while the longs are more technical with less opportunities to score under par. The one common feeling between both courses though is balance. There isn’t a throw in any players bag that wasn’t utilized over the weekend.
While many divisions are played during the tournament, there can only be one Warwick Amateur Disc Golf Champion, and that is the winner of the Advanced Division. This year came down to a three way playoff between players known very well in the area, Scott Spellman, Sean Healy, and Zack Doyle. All three have been playing extremely well this season and they are rated within 8 points of each other.
Going into the final round of the tournament, Scott was sitting with a 6 stroke lead over the field with back to back 1000+ rated rounds (1005 The Oasis Shorts and 1021 The Oasis Longs). Sean shot his lowest rated round to give up the lead in round three with a 61 (939) on Oasis Long. Zach on the other hand might as well be called Mr. Consistent, shooting three rounds within 25 points of each other (960 Silver to Blue, 981 Oasis Shorts, and 985 Oasis Longs) to land a spot on lead card and make a run at the Championship.
The final round was wet with a light rain that seemed to never become heavy, but never go away. Blue to Blue was the layout and in the end all three were tied at the top at -7. Spectators posted up on a hill that looks over the 3 hole loop that the competitors played in the play off and watched it all unfold. First hole was 17 Blue-Blue, Zack and Sean were able to land birdies while Scott missed his putt and was quickly eliminated. Second hole was a push between Sean and Zack on 18 Blue to Silver. It ended on hole 16 Silver to Blue. Sean had his disc stop just before the famous rock wall for an outside the circle putt while Zack bombed a forehand and cleared the rock wall for a circle edge putt. Sean missed his putt and Zack took his time, dialed in and made the putt that won him the 2019 Warwick Amateur Disc Golf Championship. He finished his round, as Mr. Consistent would, with a 973 rated round. Over the weekend he shot 974.3 rated golf, just under 30 points over his rating when he entered the tournament.
We were able to catch up with Zack and talk about his performance and what it meant to him. Zach shot all four rounds above this rating over the weekend with 960, 981, 985, and 973.
“I was really just focusing on throwing the shots that I needed to throw and nothing else. I knew that if I executed correctly, anything can happen. When I was in pressure filled situations I just tried to focus even more and think about the upcoming shot, and nothing else.”
All three players in the playoff are familiar with each other and their games. Zack was excited to play against two competitors that he believes are some of the best Amateur players in the area.
“ I couldn’t have asked for better competitors going into the playoffs. The competition level they played at all weekend was second to none. I had competed with them the whole tournament and I knew that if I just thought about throwing the best shot I could, I would give myself a chance.”
While stepping up to the putt, Zack could only think that he needed to make this putt to get out of the cold, dark, and rainy weather and walk away as Champion. With his ear buds in (listening to A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie) he walked up, took his time, and made the winning birdie putt.
This was a big win for Zack. He is still in High School and is playing at a very high level. A true prospect in the Skylands Disc Golf Club. We asked him if there was anything he want to say about the tournament,
“I would like to give a shout out to my mom and dad for being with me during that final round in the terrible weather supporting me. I would also like to shout out Joe Appaluccio for running this incredible event with pretty much no complications (that I know of). It was an incredible event and I know how much work it takes for one to run an event of this caliber and have go over so smoothly. Thank you!”
There were some other notable performances over the weekend as well: Jillian Walsh took down Advanced Woman with a 6 stroke victory.
Josh Isaac took down a 14-player field in MA-40 and won in another dark 3 way play off.
Brian Heller dominated the MA-50 field and shot a 999 rated round to finish the weekend on The Oasis Longs. He is just 889 rated and averaged 927.75 rated golf for the event.
Jbyrd Roosa took down MA-55 by one stroke over Gary Mason who was just short of catching Jbyrd in the last round, beating him by 3 strokes.
It was a close battle between two players, EJ Snax and Devon Wilheim in MA2. EJ took the win by one stroke but both beat the field by 6 strokes with a +17 and +18 on the weekend.
Bara Jones won FA-2 with a 10 stroke victory over the field.
MA-3 was won by Josh Zimmer, a 7 stroke victory in what looks to be his first tournament!
Warwick, New York is truly a special place when it comes to disc golf in our area. With the help of the Skylands Flying Disc Club’s members, they are on the forefront of creating experiences for both amateurs and professionals in the local area. While this may be the best weekend of the year for a lot of players from this region, we all know that Joe, along with the Skylands Crew, may be satisfied, but will find a way to make it better.
