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The BDGA 2024 Tour presented by MVP stopped in Leigh, Greater Manchester on 4 May was the another one-day event - Rumble in the Jungle - at Manchester Disc Golf’s new course in Lilford Park. There have been a few events here in the past few years; Manchester Wide Open, Manchester Masters, and The Lilford Open. The Rumble saw 67 players across 10 divisions battle it out for the victory on a difficult in places, all wooded track designed by Iain McDougall, Michael McGowan and other from Manchester Disc Golf.
The weather was looking quite grim in the run up to the event with the chance of typical Manchester tournament rain in the forecast. This was true to some extent, but players mainly stayed dry due to the canopy of trees in the woodland course. The course has experienced a ton of work, changes and upgrades since the tour last visited in 2023. The blue course now has stone flag tee pads on every hole along with tee signs. It is much easier to navigate and a pleasure to play as the woods have a bit of a magical feel to them.
In MPO, the first round saw hot scores from Michael Sharkey and Stan Valentine at -5 both rated just under 1000 at 994. A few pesky bogeys from Sharkey and Stan stopped them from reaching the thousand rating all players are striving for. Bogeys and not enough birdies was the story for both Iain McDougall and Jamie Matthews in round 1, who filled the final 2 slots on the lead card for the second round. Round 2 saw Pete Foden shoot lights out from the chase card to match the hot round of the day at 52, but 2 back to back bogeys allowed Iain McDougall to tie Foden with -4 on the round and -5 overall. Iain had to hit a monster circle 2 putt on hole 18 to push it to the playoff. Sharkey and Valentine found some trouble along the way and they both finished at +1 for the round, tied for 3rd overall. The tie between Iain and Pete led to a playoff. Iain drove first and hit the fairway at the turn of hole 1, but Pete piped one down and turned the corner for a long eagle look. Iain almost dunked his 60 m upshot and Pete barely missed his eagle bid, so the playoff went to hole 2. Pete had a nice tee shot that faded slightly offline but still gave him a C2 look for birdie, while Iain’s drive found circle 1. Pete’s lie turned out to be troublesome and he gave it a good run, but came up short in his birdie bid. This opened the door for Iain to drain a circle’s edge putt for the win.
In FPO, there was only one competitor, Natalie Pitt, as Rachel Turton withdrew due to having just returned from her fantastic trip and success in the Champion’s Cup stateside. Natalie shot to her rating for the event with a highlight ace on hole 7 in the second round.
In MP40, all around frisbee legend, Hall of Famer, and straight shooter Derek Robins took home the hardware with steady shooting, E and -1 to finish the day above his rating for the event. Ivan Bromage and Alex Malyshev filled the rest of the MP40 podium.
Sue Underwood was the only player in the FP40 division and showed she still has it with solid play and 3 birdies on the day on the difficult wooded course.
In MA1, the day belonged to Ace Disc Golf’s Swede. Robert Nicoll jumped out to a first round lead shooting even par followed by Dan Leese one stroke behind him. Lone Star Disc’s Chris Brown filled the last spot on the lead card for round 2. But Swede had other plans and shot -1 in round 2 to secure the win by 2 strokes.
FA1 was very tight the whole day with only 6 strokes separating Ophelia Byrne, Melodie Zehnder and Tery Pospisilova after the first round, with Ophelia having a one shot advantage over Melodie. They matched each other’s round 2 score at +8 which gave Ophelia the victory by one shot.
Iain McNidder led wire to wire in MA40 with respectable +2 and +3 scorecards for a 5 point higher than his rating average for the event. Adam Barlow and Tom Hayek filled out the podium just one stroke apart.
MA50 was won by Craig “Frenchie” French, who shot 16 point above his rating with a score of +16. Steve Edwards followed in 2nd 6 strokes back, while Tony Todd-Miller and Eric Turton tied for the final podium spot.
Mathew “One T” Hodson took home the win in MA3 with lovely shooting in the woods. He was 57 points above his rating and held on for the win. After a very good first round, Nick Fletcher slid down but ended up tied 2nd with Scott McKay at +7. Byron Humpries finished one stroke behind them to round out the podium.
Finally, in FA3, Vanessa Lancaster took home the trophy shooting well above her rating for the tournament. She even found a birdie on hole 7 in round 2.
I (Iain McDougall) want to thank everyone that came out and played in this event. This course has been a labour of love for me for the past few years. It’s taken a lot of work, time, and dedication to build it, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. We will run another event here on 14 July which will be a fundraiser for Team GB playing in WFDF World Teams Championships in Australia this November. Keep a lookout for registration which will drop next week.
Next up on the BDGA Tour is the UKWDGA one-dayer at Silver Birch in North Wales, The Spring Sling and WGE on 18 May.