Masters age players have been a strong demographic in Australian disc golf for some years now. The age protected divisions often make up the bulk of the field in many Aussie tournaments. The idea of a tournament that specifically catered to ‘the old and bold’ has occasionally been floated, but it took the leadership and enthusiasm of Victorians Jeff Brunsting and Anthony Pearsall to make the idea a reality.

“When we finished the Melbourne Celebrates tournament in 2023, Anthony helped me with that and at the end I said, ‘I’m done with tournaments for while’ – but then Anthony said ‘Jeff, I’ve got an idea about a masters tournament….’, said TD Jeff Brunsting. Jeff, Anthony, Andrew Wisniewski and a host of volunteers took a couple of years to make it happen, but they did their due diligence, including surveying the Aussie Disc Golf community to gauge demand. The results of the survey were overwhelmingly positive; and this hypothetical support soon translated into the real deal as the goal of 100 entrants was reached in the weeks before the show kicked off.

The tournament caught the imagination of players across the country and internationally with Bob Gentil and Simon Feasey flying in from New Zealand and ex WFDF Disc Golf Chair Charlie Mead becoming a strong advocate for the event. Charlie unfortunately fell and injured his elbow in the month before the event and was sadly unable to attend.

The choice of Ballarat for the inaugural event proved to be a positive one. The sport is booming in the regional center about an hour and half northwest of Melbourne. Plus the combination of courses, easy access to accommodation and plenty of dining options made the location a winner.

“Ballarat has two quality courses,” said Jeff. “One of things we wanted too was the social aspect of it and we knew that Fed Living was a great place and a social hub because we stayed there for the Vic Open in 2022. That didn’t happen of course because the week before the tournament they had an accident. We based our social activities at Mount Xavier Golf Club instead and it’s worked well. They’ve been really welcoming. “

The event was a wonderful way to connect the legends of the past with the future of the sport too – with people who’d had a hand in the early introduction of flying discs in Australia and New Zealand: like Bob Gentil, Brian Vanallen, Michael Canci, Mark Powers, Sue Donnelly, Dan Hartley and Gail Lynch, joining with some modern drivers of the sport like Simon Feasey and Chris Finn to create a lineage we can all appreciate.

Ballarat was just starting to feel the first bite of a winter than can get very cold in the Central Highlands, with a breeze coming in from the Northwest most of the weekend that was chilly in the shade. Thankfully both days were blessed with bright sunshine though.

Pro Divisions

The feature card on day one was intended to be an MP 70 show with hall of famer Bob Gentil, World Champ Bruce McNaughton, Mark Powers and WFDF legend Charlie Mead. The winner of the lowest PDGA number bragging rights in that crew would have been Charlie with 1980, however an unfortunate accident in the lead up to the tournament gave those honors to Mark at 2000. Leroy Sharrock was drafted in to fill out the card though and looked right at home.

Bob finished round one with a one stroke advantage over Bruce, who erased that gap and then some in the front nine of round two up in the pine forests of Mount Xavier to be 6 strokes up with eight holes to play. Three bogeys and three double bogeys from that point on by the world champ erased that lead though, and Bob kept a clean scorecard to cruise to a 4 stroke win.

In MP50 Chris Hart took a 2 stroke lead into round two and held on for a one stroke lead over Matt Wallis into round two and stretched it to a 5 stroke lead in the end. While in the blue ribbon MP40 competition, Chris Finn and Tim Ware finished round one level a 4-under-par, 3 strokes ahead of Darren Stace-Smith and 4 ahead of Simon Feasey. Tim and Darren couldn’t keep up the pace in round two and Finny’s only real challenge came from a hard charging Feasey on Mount Xavier. Simon’s hot round of 5-under-par 59 wasn’t enough to catch the West Aussie though, with Chris winning by 3 strokes.

Amateur Divisions

Leading the way after round one in MA40 was 2024 FPO Aussie Champ Clare Hussey with a 2 stroke lead over Brad Turner while John Schlobohm and Charl Du Plessis were a further stroke back. Huss couldn’t buy a birdie in the front nine at Mount Xavier though and it looked like Brad Turner was going to come through for the win before a 4 stroke swing on hole 17 allowed Charl to streak through for the win. Huss and Brad finished equal second, one throw back and decided who took home the second placed trophy with a game of rock-paper-scissors which Huss won. Charl also won the Charlie Mead encouragement award for achieving the highest tournament rating above his PDGA rating.

Another 2024 Aussie champ brought their form to the Aussie Masters too, but our FA55 champ Sue Donnelly had to earn it. Her and Tania Behan were level after round one and with only the back nine to play the two could still not be separated. Sue pulled away then though and took the title by five strokes in the end. FA40 was another tight battle with Victoria’s Kim Michell holding on to her day-one 2 stroke lead over WA’s Joanne McCamish to win by 3 strokes. Then yet another 2024 Aussie champ in Josh Conroy continued his winning form from Molong to take out MA50 by 5 strokes from John Cranstoun.

In MA55, Carey Edwards averaged 18.5 points above his rating for the weekend to win by 9 strokes. Andrew Wisniewski and Mick Canci had a tight battle all weekend before Andrew prevailed by a single stroke in MA60. Brenda Ryan in FA60 and Gail Lynch in FA70 had easy wins in their divisions and the ACT’s Nicholas Hall had a comfortable win over WA legend Brian Vanallen in MA65.

The Wrap Up

In the warmth of the Mount Xavier Golf Clubhouse on Sunday night there was the sense that this was the start of something lasting. The remainder of the trophies were given out to those who hadn’t made an early escape, the square disc award was given for the most humorous mistake of the weekend and plenty of respect was shared between the competitors. Discussions are already underway for the next Aussie Masters Tournament. The plan at this stage is that it will travel the country and be hosted by a different state each year. Rumors are that South Australia might be next. Stay tuned.

The ADG Tour Awards night will be held on Tuesday 21st Jan at 8:30pm AEDT. The night will see the placegetters of the ADG Tour crowned as Australian tour champions. The full tour leaderboard can be found here.

We are also adding some new categories this year to recognise the outstanding work done by TDs and volunteers.

Tune in to the awards at 8:30pm AEDT Tuesday Jan 21^st https://uonewcastle.zoom.us/j/83631840827?pwd=VENALHifDa5ycaVBUtEwzgWWG14Je8.1

The ADG tournament committee has just approved updated tournament guidelines for 2025. The PDGA have also made big updates to the Official Rules of Disc Golf, the Competition Manual for Disc Golf Events and the International Program Guide. Both players and organisers need to familiarise themselves with these changes. Read the ADG Tournament Directors Guide in full for more details and read on for a quick summary.

_{📷Kingsley Flett}

The following summarises some (but not all) of the major changes applicable to the running of ADG sanctioned events in 2025 compared to previous years. It is intended to highlight significant aspects of which players and organisers should be aware but is not a substitute for reading the updated guide in full. The PDGA have also provided a helpful summary of their changes.

Here are some of the highlights of changes specifically for ADG sanctioned events.

• In general, language has been significantly expanded to provide much more detail and clarify several areas that had caused misunderstandings previously or that frequently resulted in questions from organisers.
• Submitting an event for sanctioning must now go through an online form which provides better validation of the required information.
• Recommended PDGA A-Tier minimum for ADGC and B-tier for ADGTour Majors. Will become mandatory from 2026.
• Minimum pro purses of AUD5000 for ADGC, AUD1500 for ADGTour Major and AUD250 for ADGTour events.
• Payout cutline at 33% (top 40% recommended, required from 2026) at ADGC, 33% at ADGTour Major events and 20% at ADGTour events.
• Minimum percentage of net entry fees paid out for Pro/Am of 85% (100% recommended, required from 2026) at ADGC, 85% at ADGTour Majors and 33% at ADGTour events. This must be at least 75% of gross entry fee for ADGC, 50% for ADGTour Major and 33% ADGTour events.
• FP40, FA50 and FA3 now added as ADGTour divisions and required to be offered for at least 1 week of general registration or pre-registration. This is to comply with new PDGA requirements in 2025 regarding mirroring access to mixed and gender protected divisions.
• Underserved divisions (Women’s, Junior and age 50+ divisions) must be run if at least 1 player is registered in that division per new PDGA requirements in 2025.
• In line with gender protected division normalisation FA4 is no longer an ADGTour points bearing division similar to MA4. It must still be offered at all ADGTour events with the exception of ADGC.
• Grouping and sectioning exceptions in the International Program are removed for all ADGTour events and must follow standard PDGA rules. Non-ADG tour events are not affected.
• Added official clarification that organisers are permitted to offer a reduced number of rounds to junior divisions if desired.
• ADG registration system has been updated to check if players are minors when registering to go along with language added to the TD guide.
• Timing restrictions on ADGTour events changed to only prevent events on the same weekend as an ADGTour Major in the same state (rather than country wide) or ADGC in any state.
• Toilets and water requirements for ADGC and ADGTour Majors, recommended for all other events.
• Note that in general, events that wish to access the full range of exceptions in the PDGA International Program guide should now be sanctioned as Non-tour events since as noted above, higher minimum standards are imposed at ADGTour series events.
• Unique basket requirement for ADGTour events that are not ADGTour Majors or ADGC reduced to 9 baskets to allow more courses to qualify for running ADGTour events.
• Sanctioning deadlines for ADGTour Major and ADGC events have been increased to allow earlier announcement.
• Clarified what information needs to be submitted to ADG after events in the different formats are completed as this was a common question.
• Added language on safety and weather policies.
• Checklist for organisers added to run through before, during and after their events.
• Detailed section added on additional requirements and considerations for ADGC and Majors which have a substantially higher expectation on quality and consistency.
• A full description of the ADGTour points formula is now included to clarify how tour points are calculated. States may also use this formula as a basis for state tours if they wish.