History was made this past weekend at the 2016 NorCal Team Invitational, in Monterey, CA. Twelve of the top disc golf clubs in Northern California gathered at Ryan Ranch Championship Disc Golf Course to take part in this epic event, which featured a unique Team Alternate Doubles format of play.

The Tournament Director, Nick Maffei #39211, learned of this format when competing at the 2010 National Collegiate Disc Golf Championships. He then modified the format to include disc golf clubs’ top 12 male players, top two female players, and top two Masters players. Each club was thereby represented by their overall top 16 disc golfers, and it showed in the competitive play all weekend.

The 12 clubs that participated totaling in 192 players were: Monterey Stinging Jellies, Santa Cruz, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Delta Windjammers, Carmichael Comets, United Flyers of Sonoma, Chico Outsiders, Gold Country, Lake County, Salinas, and Napa.

Saturday was a long day, with players competing in four different 12-hole matches. Teams began to understand the true “team” aspect of this format early on, and from there only grew closer together as play progressed. At the end of day one it was the United Flyers of Sonoma (UFOS), Santa Cruz, Lake County, and Silicon Valley sitting atop the scoreboard; with the other eight clubs only a few points off the lead. It was anyone’s game heading into Day 2.

Sunday was the final day of competition and had two matches left to be played to determine who would move into the Final 4. The home club, Monterey Stinging Jellies, made some vital moves in their sixth match which put them into the finals by half a point. The final four teams included the UFOS, Santa Cruz, Lake County, and Monterey. The UFOS and Santa Cruz were battling each other for 1st and 2nd place titles, while Lake County and Monterey battled it out for 3rd and 4th place.

Santa Cruz ended up victorious in a very close and competitive final match, which secured them the title of the first ever NorCal Team Champions. All weekend long team Santa Cruz played together as a team, kept positive attitudes, and picked each other up when needed. They demonstrated what it took to play together as a team, and not as individuals, which ultimately lead to their victory and the grand prize, a brand new DGA Mach X trophy basket. Team Santa Cruz will be able to take the custom Mach X basket back to their home course and plant it in the ground as a reminder to all who play at DeLaveaga that they were the first champions of the NorCal Team Invitational.

Team Santa Cruz Team Members Included: Hyuma Ohkawa #57585 (Team Captain), Jon Baldwin #18114, Ian Chadwick #20042, Trevor Parker #53238, Schuyler Raine-Mustain #57542, Dylan Evans #54508, Emmanuel Torres #68986, Cesar Zermeno #65152 Chris Edwards #24428, Jammer Allabach, Chris Miles #61968, Quinn Gerard #77493, Stan Pratt #20426, Marshall Lambert #33393, Faith Green #32922 and Jenna Johnson #31672

This event is sure to bring change to the sport of disc golf and highlight the team aspects of the game, which are often left unrecognized in typical singles stroke play. When asked, tournament director Nick Maffei said, “It could not have been a more perfect way to introduce this team format of disc golf to Northern California. All of the teams had so much fun, which is really what it is all about. I couldn’t be more proud of the tournament staff who helped run the event, the Monterey Stinging Jellies for hosting the event, and all of the competitors for playing the event and taking a chance on a format that almost all of them had never even heard of before.”

This was the first ever team disc golf tournament that featured this unique format in California, but is sure to not be the last. Most clubs who competed in this event are already talking about taking this format to their region to begin mini team series against their neighboring clubs. It is a truly unique format which highlights the spirit of the game, a game that means so much to us all.

You can check out all details and view photos from this tournament on the NorCal Team Invitational Facebook page. You can also find the final scores on the Live Scoring Webpage for the event as well.