The glorious sunny weekend of the 4th/5th July saw 82 players take on the latest iteration of the tournament layout at Sysonby Acres.
TD Jayce Stokes had cooked up 3 new holes, including the a par 5 version of hole 18.
A steady crosswind right from the start made things difficult, with only 4 players in the whole field going under par in round 1. Young phenom Scott Mckay shooting 4 down to try and stay in touch with the strong -9 showing of Tee Vetne, who carded the only eagle of the weekend on 18. Scott managed to claw back 2 strokes in round 2 as the wind speed increased but ultimately the gap was too much to overcome on Sunday, leaving Tee ahead by 4 shots.
FPO saw regular event leader View Georgiou stretch out an early 8 stroke lead with Sue Underwood chasing hard in her usual measured style. View’s distance control and ability to throw below the wind allowed her to maintain the lead through all three rounds to grab another trophy on the 2026 tour.
MP40 saw a back and forth affair between Iain McNidder and Dustin Ciarla who had travelled from Singapore. The style clash between McNidder’s power forehands and Dustin’s control led to a 2 hole playoff seeing Dustin take the narrow loss. He threatens to make the journey again next year to take the title!
A surprisingly small turnout in MA1 had the always colourful Scott Rickard fending off the big power duo of Oliver Thomson and Matt Cooke. A relatively close contest was put to bed with Rickard shooting the only under-par round in the division on Sunday to take a well deserved trophy home.
MA2 was crazy. The higher the wind got, the lower the scores went. At one point, there were 8 players within 2 strokes of the lead. The groups battled hard and Sunday ended up in a 4-way playoff to settle the final places. Nathan Simmonds and Rob James dropped out first, leaving Thomas Sutton to barely beat Aleksejs Smirnovs in a messy but ultimately decisive hole 18.
MA40 had Chris Ainsworth playing well-above rating in tough conditions with the Dinton double-act of Duncan Evans and Scott Parnell chasing hard. Despite Duncan taking 4 strokes back in round 3, Chris held on by 2 strokes to take down the greatest of all divisions.
Friendly but competitive action across all of the divisions showed that, no matter which layout you play, the PPC is the place to be.
New for this year was the Skills competition, with players from both pools competing in putting, accuracy and long drive to amass the highest points total. Pool A winner Jade Botes was clinical on the accuracy course, whilst in Pool B Janis Laduzans showed great consistency throughout, for the narrow victory.
By the end of the weekend a lot of Frisby beer had been drunk, new friendships forged and a whole heap of trophies were claimed. If you haven’t been to the Pork Pie Classic yet, mark your calendar for 2027 and see why this event is a true community favourite.
