Final Wrap-up

Hi all, sorry for the wait on this final wrap-up for King of the Lake, but we were short-handed in the PDGA office while prepping for Am Worlds this week so this was delayed.  Dave flew to Rochester on Thursday and Sara and I are flew out today.  I’m writing this in the early am before cutting the lawn and then leaving my family for another nine days and will finish when I get to Rochester this evening.

I was busy with live scoring on the last day of the King of the Lake, so I didn’t get many photos that day other than the awards ceremony, but our friends the Enman family had driven all the way from Maine to the event for a family vacation, so I took a vacation day on Monday and we all drove the full perimeter of Lake Tahoe and took photos along the way.  Since Alan couldn’t actually see the beauty, we  did our best to describe it to him along the way, and he enjoyed just hanging out with everyone.  (Don’t worry, the PDGA didn’t pay a dime for Alan to come along or for the extra day we stayed in Tahoe.)   I’ve uploaded the photos to the PDGA Flickr site so you can take a look at the beauty the folks in Tahoe get to enjoy every day.  Mind you it is expensive out there (I bought a quart of oil for the PDGA generator and it was $4.99) but if you ever get the chance to visit this supremely beautiful area – do it!

Doug Werner won his first ever National Tour title at the King of the Lake in the Grandmasters division and he did it in style starting the final day off with a 5-stroke lead and ending up with a 7-stroke win.  There was an early battle for second place between Jeff Stoops and Ken Halvorson, but by the seventh hole Ken had grabbed it and held it to the end.

Scores were tight in the Masters division at King of the Lake with Mike Loya and Jay Reading starting the day tied for the lead by only a stroke over Patrick Brown.  As you can see there was an early battle to determine the outcome but after Hole 6 the order of finish was determined and Mike Loya got the win two strokes ahead of Yeti, and Patrick Brown was third a further stroke behind.  Mike Loya not only won the MPM divison but his total score of 212 just edged out the MPO division for the best score of the tournament and he was crowned “The King of the Lake”!

We were very sorry to see Des Reading forced to withdraw from the FPO division after five holes due to an injury; we wish her a speedy recovery in time for Pro Worlds in Santa Cruz in a few weeks time.  Catrina Allen played very well to finish second and briefly tied Sarah Hokom for the lead after Hole 11.   Sarah continued her steady play starting out with a 2-stroke lead and finishing with a 2-stroke win in the FPO division to be crowned Queen of the Lake.    

Despite some close scoring in these other divisions, by far the most exciting action was in the Men’s Open division where the scores were very tight and, except for the winning position, at least one position in the standings  changed hands across the top two cards on every hole except once after Hole 15.   Youngster Nick Gagne from Maine started the day tied for the lead and by Hole 11 had dropped all the way back to tied for sixth.  But the kid showed he has heart and by the end of the day seven holes later, he had battled back and finished tied for third place after carding the only deuce amongst the leaders on the final hole.  Derek Billings played exceptionally well to come off the third card to finish in that tie for third.  Devan Owens started the day tied for the lead and played stellar disc golf all day to hold that lead throughout the round and won by two strokes over Ricky Wysocki who moved up from third place to finish second.

Kudos to Russ Wey, Jenny Kniceley, and their dedicated staff for running a great event in a beautiful setting!

Andrew “Big Dog” Sweeton