A total of 110 players, including internationals and New Zealand national champs, are teeing off on Saturday morning for the 30th annual The Helicopter Line Queenstown Classic Disc Golf tourney at the Queenstown Gardens course, the oldest in the country.
Tournament director Morgan Harteveld says "the event is pretty monumental".
"We’ve been putting heaps of time into the course, making sure it’s in its best shape."
Harteveld, owner of Generation Disc Golf, will be directing the tournament for the first time, and has also helped run the most professionally-sanctioned tournaments in New Zealand history. One special guest at this year’s competition is James Smithells, who now lives in Nelson, who founded the tournament in the 1990s and helped design the Gardens disc golf course.
Harteveld says given there used to be just 10 to 12 people "basically just throwing discs at trees back in the original days", it’s "quite cool" to see the growth in the sport in the Whakatipu.
The course for this year’s Classic is following a ‘past, present and future’ theme.
"We have incorporated current holes ... holes that were around 10 to 15 years ago, and then some new stuff that I’ve created and designed myself."
Harteveld encourages the public to come and watch, noting it’s a chance to support the sport, but also see the country’s best talent on display.
One to watch out for is Queenstown’s own Mikey Yu, who claimed the Australian national title in November, and will be looking to defend his fifth consecutive men’s pro open title.
Harteveld says he’s grateful to the many local businesses that have helped sponsor the event.
Action starts at 9.30am this Saturday and Sunday — prizegiving’s planned for 3.15pm Sunday.
