There’ll be one question on everyone’s lips at this weekend’s 10th Tucker Beach Rush disc golf tournament on the shores of Queenstown’s Shotover River.
Can anyone beat Southland teenage prodigy Levi Stout?
Levi, who’s just turned 17, won the New Zealand Disc Golf Association-sanctioned tournament in 2021, then last year finished an astounding 16 strokes ahead of his nearest competition.
He’s also in good form currently, having come fifth at the junior world champs in the United States.
Queenstown Disc Golf Club president Hemi Te Awhitu, who won the inaugural Rush tournament in 2014, says Levi’s ‘‘just got a great all-round game, and he started from an early age so he’s learnt the correct technique from the start’’.
‘‘And he’s built for disc golf, he’s quite tall, he’s got long arms and he can really fling them out there.’’
Te Awhitu says the club’s ‘‘really proud of this tournament, especially hanging around for 10 years now’’.
The course is over 18 holes — averaging 100 metres long but ranging up to 200m-plus — but in recent years they’ve used 27 holes on both Saturday and Sunday.
‘‘It’s a lot of holes, but people have fun.’’
And despite Levi being the outright favourite, ‘‘there’s a dozen guys out there who could win it on their day’’, Te Awhitu says.
The field’s limited to 100 players, and as of last weekend, 86 had registered, of whom at least half are coming from out of town.
To mark the event’s 10th anniversary, the club’s commissioned a commemorative disc, with every winner’s name inscribed on it, which it’s giving to every entrant.
