Shropshire Disc Golf Club was proud to host the BDGA National Tour 2007 Kingsland Classic from Saturday 2nd to Sunday 3rd June.

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The second Kingsland Classic at Shrewsbury on the weekend of 2/3 June was the scene for Derek Robins’ fourth Tour victory of the year, thereby effectively sealing the 2007 Open Championship. Angus Bruce won the Amateur title, despite conceding six shots in the Final to his 12-year old son “Wee” Ben, who was runner-up, ahead of bare-footed South African Justin Smith.

The course designed by Tournament Director Nige Williams was a perfect blend of rough and smooth, proletarian and posh, long and short. Around half of the 18 hole course was laid out over the manicured grounds of the famous Shrewsbury Public School, while the remainder were sited on the wooded slopes bordering the River Severn, amongst discarded beer cans and graffitied benches! The signature hole was The Donut, with the basket placed on a tiny artificial island, surrounded by an out-of-bounds “lake”. Jesse Denny and Duncan Hartshorne both suffered a 10 here, and were not alone in their pain.

Derek nosed ahead after Round 1 and maintained a single shot lead at the end of Saturday, closely pursued by Bruce Webber, with John Massey and John Bruce a few shots further back. 12 year old Scot “Wee” Ben Bruce was the surprise overnight leader in the Amateur Division, but he was unable to sustain his form into the third round, when his Dad (Angus) returned an exceptional round of 56, equalling Bruce and only a single shot worse than Derek.

The Open Final produced few surprises, with Del easing home 7 shots ahead of Bruce. John Massey returned an excellent Final 9 hole score of 26 to move into third, one shot clear of John Bruce. Charlie Mead was fifth.

The Amateur Final witnessed a great fight-back by Ben, recording 29, to move into second ahead of Justin Smith. Justin’s disc of choice was an Ultimate Frisbee, which he used to great effect, but left the tournament with a bag full of “proper” golf discs to use at his Frisbee Club near Cape Town. Tim Emmott, appearing in his first Final, shared third place with Justin, and Croydon’s Richie O’Connell was fifth.

Full results may be found on the PDGA website : http://www.pdga.com/tournament/tournament_results.php?TournID=6860#Open
Tournament photos at http://www.highlandflingers.org.uk/KClassic07/index.htm
Jon Lee’s event video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEgkAkDQVNE

Results: