Michele Simpson – Player Spotlight

Michele (Meesh) Simpson won first place at the Makaripi tournament in Rotorua that took place 19th Feb – 20th Feb. On all three rounds she shot above her current PDGA rating despite it being her first time properly playing the course. Meesh has been an up and coming star in New Zealand Disc Golf since she started playing in 2020, having won 7/9 PDGA tournaments to date. 

Meesh’s comments on the event:

“First round I got to play with Jacko, which was awesome because I hadn’t played with him in a tournament before. He was fantastic support and a great card mate to have around when a couple of shots didn’t quite go to plan for me. I hadn’t really played the Scion Tree Nursery course in Rotorua before & it’s a little different from the big bad holes of Waitawa and Bethells. You certainly get used to hitting trees on the Rotorua course and I was finding my fair share in the morning of Day 1.

I got all my nerves out after Round 1 and hit Round 2 with the leading ladies card. Started working my new Kea for little cheeky forehand upshots through the trees and a few birdies came my way in that round to finish the day 8 under. I was pretty happy with that score and it turned into an even better day when we were driving back to our accommodation & watched Nico Porteous win a gold medal in the freestyle ski halfpipe at the Olympic Games.

Sunday and the final round was a bit more subdued, the birdies were very hard to come by & all the ladies on my card agreed we were a little flat but forged on to try and avoid trees and avoid bogies. Finished the tournament 7 down for the win in FPO and eight shots ahead of the next lady. I felt that even playing a course I didn’t know well, I had played some consistent disc golf over the weekend.”

Key Featured Discs:

• • Ruru – “a cosmic that’s for my forehand flick shots to the basket.”
  • Kahu – “my yellow beast that works for longer forehand mid shots.”
  • Piwakawaka – “for the those long, down the tree tunnel shots. It worked almost every time on that infamous Hole 14.”
  • Pekapeka – “longer distance backhands for some of the tricky around Redwoods shots.”

Congratulations for your impressive win at Makaripi, Meesh! We look forward to seeing you shine in New Zealand Nationals this week and for all tournaments to come.

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