One Grand Disc Golf Tour

07-31-09

We had another 8am tee time, and, since WyCo is WayOut there, I set the alarm for 5am.  If I wanted to get up that early, I’d get a friggin paper route.  The extra time gave me the cushion I needed to warm up the body a bit more effectively.

The drives and upshots were working well.  The putt was pretty good INSIDE the circle but not so great outside.  I missed about 4 that were well within my usual expectations but the rest was solid enough that I kept the bogies down to 2 with 3 birdies.  I only did FIVE 360 drives on this course; substantially less than I had planned on but there were some changes to the course since I had played it earlier in the week and I felt the need to dial it down a notch in a couple of spots.  Especially #13, which had O.B. lines and flags (Sort of USDGC style) along the entire fairway.
Now standing at 47 360′s out of 108 holes.

We had a fun 4some with Lavone, Mark Ellis, Randy Beers and myself.  Randy was driving well and putting well outside 15 feet but missed a couple very easy short putts.  Mark continues to crank the sidearm crusher shots and hit two BIG putts to finish the round.  Lavone was up and down but played some excellent golf as well.

Again, I didn’t gain any ground on the leader but I moved up to 5th within a stroke or two of making the lead card for the show.

Tomorrow:  Semi-finals at Rosedale and (with luck) finals at Blue Valley.

07-30-09

I did not have to move out of the house, just the room (with the really comfortable bed). I moved into the office next door. Not as much room but it’s worth everything I’m paying which is zilch if you don’t include food. I brought my own futon in from the back of the “Anti-Chrysler”.

We did all day at Rosedale park, which may just as well be called “Throws-fail” (a name previously reserved for the “Down Under course, but…) since such a high percentage of our (solid) throws fail to reach a birdie-able position. The best strategy for a non-450’ thrower is to “not screw up”. Stay in the fairway. Get your pars. Don’t 3-putt.  Maybe

Many of the pin positions were not in the same position when I played the course last week. I should have played it more but…..
I don’t like bashing my (no longer in production) DX plastic on the copious rocks.
I don’t care for throwing courses where I will probably predictably “three” 75% of the holes.
I still have this overriding urge to play every course within reach. I finally stopped playing courses that are not on my line-up two days before the event. Wasting valuable practice time on other courses just to pad my list has surely cost me several strokes. This worked OK last year when I was on a Herculean tear around the country and was totally dialed in. No so much this year.

The first round started off hot with two big birdies in the first 4 holes. One hole later, I was even and it got progressively worse. Though it was up, the wind wasn’t as much a factor as course length, topography and very rough OB areas.

I shot a 58, lost more strokes to the leaders and dropped to the 4th card.

Round two I played substantially better, but only improved by 4 strokes, which was enough to move me into a 4-way tie for 7th. Ties, ties, everywhere, ties.

Since these courses make it difficult to score on the pack, they should at least make for some interesting finishing races. Missing or making 1 putt can mean moving up or down 4 or more spots.

I took my back back to Dr. Bonebrake for another adjustment since I had been throwing as hard as I can for three days in a row.

Ah yes…here are my stats for throwing 360 (turn-around drives) thus far…
Day 1 = 13 at Swope and Waterworks
Day 2 = 10 at Blue Valley
Day 3 = 19 at Rosedale (2 rounds)
For a total of 42 in 90 holes.

We got a night off. The only real activity that I’m aware of is the mini golf pub crawl. People play 3 mini golf holes to a bar. Drink. Play 3 more holes to another bar. Drink. Play 6 more holes to yet another bar. Drink…and likely forget what you shot.

While it would be fun, I no longer do drinking games. I lose. And the closer I come to winning, the bigger I lose later that night or the next day.

Last night’s Fly mart was a mad-house. I dropped off some H.O.F. discs for Speedy and went to the Innova tables for the 20th anniversary Roc celebration where they gave away a San Marino Star Roc to each of the registered players who brought in the little yellow card from their player package. Team Innova players manned the booth, gave away discs and then got them right back to autograph.

I’m icing down, blah blah blah’ging, and getting ready to eat some curry shrimp.
Tomorrow: Wyandotte County park.

07-29-09

Mark Ellis talked his way into getting us an early tee time by saying that old guys like to get up early.
Old guys also like to play with less wind.
Our group went off at 9:50.

I got to play with Lavone Wolfe again. Also, Steve from Maui and Jay Gobrect who threw remarkably smoothly for having a severely wracked left hamstring

The Blue Valley course is just huge with very little in the way of restrictions for those who can throw far. It is sort of sad when I actually ASPIRE to shoot 10 strokes WORSE on a course than someone else, come up short of that goal and still feel OK about it.
I moved from a tie for 14th to 9th, but still lost more ground to Myers, who throws far.

Looks like I’m moving out of Casa del Warren. They need my room for someone else and I have to pack my crap right in the middle of the world championships and go somewhere else.

Tomorrow: Rosedale…alllllllll dannnnngggg daaaaayyyyy.

07-28-09

After day one, it stands pretty much as I predicted…except that it rained all day.  The tees at Swope have a very light broom finish and were very prone to slippage.  I couldn’t even THINK about my tee shot because I was so concerned about my footing.

Water Works’ tees have a rougher finish, which made it easier to think about the task at hand instead of self preservation.

My picks for divisional winners included not a moment’s consideration prior to tapping it out on the keyboard.  One major oversight was Phil Arthur, whom, had I seen him on the list of Masters, would have been my pick due to his powerful ambidextrocity.  He leads by 6.

Germ moved up to advanced, which means I couldn’t even point out a contender were they to be standing in front of me in a line-up.
But, Avery Jenkins did not disappoint as he shot a course recored 53 at “Black & Blue Valley” with his powerful backhand and sidearm.

Our group did as predicted.  2 or 3 tied for 1st, 3 people one stroke back, a few 2 strokes back, a few 3 strokes back etc.  Our pool was 3somes and 4somes and there was only 12 strokes separating first from worst.  There was not a single gap in the progression of scores.

The big news is Snapper Pierson going bogey free on the day and holding a share of the lead with Jim Myers, who, again, was my pick for winning his debut outing as a GM.

I’m 9 strokes off the lead in 14th place.  I tried to call Pam R to let her know my standings so Sandy could report it to the newspaper but, for whatever reason, I can’t find her phone # in my phone even though I plugged it in while she was sitting right in front of me.   ????

Tomorrow: Black and Blue Valley.

07-26-09

The ancillary events were held in the lawn of the WWI memorial in downtown KC. I was slated to help out at the Skill-shot challenge at noon so I got my round in and finished just in time to wander around and more or less schmooze for my allotted hour and helping out at least a little when needed.
I did well but not as well as last year. Greenwell seemed to have done substantially better than last year carding a strong 815 points and likely took the whole shebang.

In mini golf I shot a solid 58 in the big wind with 2 cut-throughs. Several of us were more than a little dismayed to find that most of the baskets were home made (or worse, the wham-o “toy” baskets) and weren’t stout enough to catch a golf mini. Climo had 4 bounce outs for deuce and one for ACE! (and he still beat me by two)

I have no idea why people adhere to the concept of “no-run-up” or “on-top-of-the-basket-is-good” in mini disc golf, but it persists.

After going to the Westin to check-in, I ran south to try to play the private course but it was blocked off with traffic cones so I couldn’t get it done. Maybe tomorrow.

OK…soap box time. And this is important if you EVER plan to design or build a course or run a tournament on one…

I want to say this NOW, before the very first competitive throw is made. Quite simply, the pin position selections for this year’s PDGAW do not “MOVE THE SCORE” effectively.

Don’t get me wrong…The courses are stunningly beautiful. Well manicured (especially Swope) great new signage (except Blue Valley) It’s obvious that the locals have done immense work to prepare their courses for the world stage…with one all important oversight.

The greater a person’s distance prowess, the greater their chances of scoring well. Finesse is all but completely forsaken. If a person cannot throw 400’, there will be precious few opportunities to gain a stroke on the field. I feel it is safe to say that these courses contain the highest percentage of par 4s of any previous PDGAW. An embarrassingly small percentage of these par 4s require an accurate placement shot off the tee.

I predict that what will follow is this:
There will be a congested pack in the upper middle of people who threw the courses well enough, but couldn’t quite reach their putting comfort zones; coming up just short on the birdie holes and hitting their solid 3’s or 4’s on the longer holes. Below them will be a ever-lengthening tail of people who didn’t throw well and lost strokes to the field.
Leading each division will be the people who CAN throw far and even though they may not have had a round filled with accurate shots, they had a few. By the virtue of their power, they will still gain strokes on the field with those shots that were accurate enough. And those will be enough to separate them from the bulging center of the pack.

I saw it in at the Melbourne Open. Something like 20 people within a couple of strokes after the first round, because the holes were too long to birdie and too short to be a par 4.

I just saw it again in Jax at WFDF’s first round. 16 of the 24 holes were between 340 and 440 and 12 of them were between 360 & 400. TWELVE! HALF of the hole lengths were within a 40 foot window!

The Worlds courses are stacking up to be along the same lines. EVERY course seems to be set up for GOLD level play, even if the GOLD level players don’t utilize the courses. How this could come to pass at a World Championship event is completely beyond me.

The power players won’t recognize this deficit in forethought because they WILL be reaching these pins where the rest of us are locked in a yawn-fest of par golf. I’m sad to report this, but watch the scores (especially in the non-open divisions) and pray that I’m wrong. I will.

The KC club has all the scores from the KC wide open, which should have given them all the information they needed about how to place holes that would spread out the scores.

I don’t believe that I was able to fully articulate my frustration with this ‘CRUSH OR BE CRUSHED’ course design ideology, but if you pay attention, I believe that you may see what many of us who depend upon our finesse games to out-smart or out-shoot our opponents are upset about.

Simply put…accuracy will be helpful, but power WILL win the KC PDGAW in 2009.

I need to point out that this is NOT just a KC thing. This is happening all over.
Granted, the Gold level players should be showcased. But what about the other 90% (or higher)?

Tomorrow: May rest, may not.

My picks for this year’s PDGAW.

Open: Avery if he keeps his head (backhand & sidearm). Climo if he can keep reeling in the 40 footers.
Masters: Schack should like his chances for a repeat. I do.
GM: “Baby-Grand” Jim Myers has the power and knows how to win.
Women’s Open: Val throws far and has a good putt
Advanced: Germ will clean up.
Juniors: Wiggins wings his way to a win.
The rest: Haven’t done my homework. sorry.

07-25-09

Went to Blue Valley.  Played the small 9-holer.  It’s short.

Then played #1-10.  It’s long.

Tomorrow: Mini golf and Skill-shot.  Ya’ll come!  I should be helping out at the Skillshot area at noon.  But show up at 9AM because I’m sure you’d rather meet Juliana than me.  I would.

Hope you don’t mind if I use a “CATTY”.

07-24-09

The One Grand Disc Golf Tour is long over but, for whatever reason, this blah blah blah’g endures.  Don’t want to disappoint both of my readers.  It is both time consuming and largely unnecessary, yet it covers a basic need to chronicle some of my exploits in the latter stages of a pretty amazing journey.  Life.

After knocking down 4 courses yesterday, I felt as if my stamina were returning.  Today suggested otherwise.

Once again, between this blah blah blah’g and some personal letters, I didn’t get outta da house until after noon.   One of the minor tasks performed on my laptop was to check the courses list for Cliff Drive.  I had been around it and Blue Valley but I had not thrown either of them.  At least not fully and therefore they were not on the list.  Obviously, I needed to do something about that.

Lyn made me a couple of “breakfast” tacos.  So named solely due to the time they were ingested.
For those of you who may have internet access via phone or computer while driving, I highly recommend Disc Golf Course Review (.com) as a resource for finding disc golf courses.  This tool alone surely saved me countless hours in not only identifying the nearest courses, but also in finding them quickly.  Unfortunately, verbal directions usually fall short since people rarely bother to use the direction protocol set forth by the PDGA directory.

So, with the help of DGCR I meandered through KC to Cliff Drive.  The previous week had record low temperatures and the wind was low.  Today was hotter and very breezy.  I had putted all day yesterday with a less stable putter and today I was having some big problems with anything outside of 10 feet.  Not what you like to be seeing a mere 3 days prior to a World Title defense.

The front 9 of Cliff Drive (#1024) certainly personifies its moniker; lots of cliffs and big topography through the woods.  The back 9 is longer and more open but the rolling hills are well utilized.  I caught up to a couple of open pros from Minnesota on the 2nd hole and we played it out together.
By hole 11, I was more interested in lying down than finishing the round.  The course isn’t as grueling as playing the canyon but it has some substantial challenges to the legs as well as the golf disc.  Carrying a bag of 17 or so discs plus water doesn’t help.

The course flow is a bit tricky and is in dire need of “next tee” signs.  I mentioned this to the course pro as we headed out to the back 9 and he showed the shiny new tee signs, which feature a “next” arrow on the sign, which they installed as we were playing.  So be sure to check the direction of the next tee BEFORE you play the hole.

After dragging through the last few holes of Cliff, I drove over to Blue Valley (#1025), parked in the shade and finished my lunch while talking with Emmet Cosgrove, a Coloradan who did time in south FL.  I decided to go off on hole 11 because I knew that it came back to the lot a couple of times if I wanted to bail out of the round.

The locals call Water Works park “Swope on steroids” and Blue Valley is now being referred to as “Water Works on steroids”  All I know is that I wish I had a couple of doses of steroids to help me around this course.  Huge hills, huge throws, huge walks…huge scores.  From the back 8 there was only 1 true par 3 and at 409 feet, I came up just a bit short… as did my putt.

This course will be all about upshots and controlling the “down” shots.
Tomorrow:  I’ll probably play the short course at Blue Valley to warm up and finish the big course.

07-23-09

The Northwest Territory

I still didn’t get outta the house before noon, but it was closer than yesterday.  I drove all the way up to the NW side of the loop and got out of the car at the Heartland Presbyterian Center.  (#1021) Checked in at the office, got my wrist band and ventured out to play the course, scorecard & map in hand.  The Chainstar baskets weren’t too hard to find, but the flush-level bricks marking the tees were.  They had only just installed the back 9.  The proprietor told me that I probably shouldn’t play it because it was mostly strawfields.  I found each basket in order but not the tees.

A jaunt east then south brought me to English Landing pk (#1022) The Discatchers yearned for better placements but I plodded through the rudimentarily laid out 9 holer just to get the hash mark on the dgc checklist.

Moving back toward town I dropped by the Old Pike Country Club (#1023), which had been an executive ball-golf course long before they converted it into a disc golf course.  But there was a very long time lag between the two.  Mick, the maintenance guy who was working on the new pad for hole 3,  said they were considering another 9.  They have some land to the north & east and maybe to the west that could work.
I’d love to have a shot at the next 9.  Some fun topography and woods to work with.

Only a mile or two down a nearby road was one of my top 5 favorite courses of all-time, Water Works.  I’m glad we get to play it at least once but I’d rather it was WW 3x rather than Rosedale.  I found a parking spot near #10 and got out.  As I pulled my bag out of the van, someone approached and asked if I planned to play the league.  When I told him I was, he said there was a 3 some at hole 1 and they were awaiting me.
I saw Crissy-anne on the way to hole 1.  She gave me a hug and then went to her car to get me a disc that I had thrown in the water in the Ocala, FL tourney about 3 weeks ago.   A guy named “Noun” called me and had fished it out.  I had him give it to Beckett, who drove up the next day and made it just in time for the handicap.
I didn’t have the disc in my hand for more than 30 seconds when I approached the tee.  They had all thrown, so I dropped my bag and threw the just returned pond scum laiden Pro Wraith on the 500+ foot hole #1, which stopped about 6’ long of the hole.  Welcome back to the starting line-up.
The Wraith that I left at Swope on Sunday was the disc that I had put in my bag to replace the one I just got back.
My back called it quits at about hole 15 after I threw #14 long and out of bounds.  I took a 4 & a 5 on 16 & 17.  So I just threw a light sidearm drive on 18 which left me about 100 out with a steep uphill angle.  I threw another sidearm and hit the nubs before falling out.
I didn’t know my score, but I guessed a +2, which I was.
Water Works is disc golf utopia.

Tomorrow: Maybe I’ll hit the North East area.  Kessler & Blue Valley

07-22-09

It took until after 2 pm to get outta the house.  (Writing, photos, email, laziness)

I headed out to play Shawnee Mission dgc (#1020) and decided to speed golf it.  I may have to find another word for “speed” since my right hip and hammy haven’t the slightest interest in running any more.  And any attempt to do so looks (and feels) pretty feeble.  Nonetheless, I “ran” the course in exactly 25 minutes and shot –3 with no bogeys…and about 6 putts that were sprayed all over the basket, rather than in it.

SM is a spread-out grassy course with plenty of tree coverage in the beginning and just enough in the latter areas to force a shot or give some flight choices.  Moderate elevation changes and nicely defined fairways.  Certainly worth a visit.

From there I went to “Wyco” or Wyandotte County park for a round of 360 golf.  I threw a 360 (full spinning turn-around throw) on about half of the tees.  I had to throw so hard that my head & neck started hurting.

So I took a tip from a friend and visited a chiropractor that is very near the Olathe dgc.

Came back to Casa Warren, iced down while Gold watched “Spy Hard”.

Time for Yoga!

Tomorrow: I’ll probably go to another course that forces me to throw as hard as I can on half or more of the holes.   Hasn’t ANYONE around here heard of “placement shots”?

07-21-09

Went to a small 9-holer on the west side of town at California Trail JHS (#1019).  A fairly wide open course that seems to be a bit long for the demographic.  That’s looking to be the recurring theme here in KC.  I like the courses but people are expected to throw very long here.  Somewhere along the line, the game stopped being about accuracy and more about power.

I’ve said it many times, I’m throwing about as far as I ever have but it’s because of the discs.  “I’m lucky to be living in an age where the improvements in technology are roughly matching my physical decline.”  But I’ve NEVER thrown as far as is required to make birdie on most of the holes on Swope and Rosedale.

That said, I went to Swope for league…and to see if any of the 3 discs I left were returned…they weren’t.
I was teamed up with Steve Slinker and we started on #9.  It took a while to get a deuce but we got on a roll by deucing 17, 18 (biiiig putt by Steve) 1, 2 & 3 (another big putt by Steve) and snagged birdies on 5, 6 & 7.  We took a bogie on the long #13 with a nice putt from the pit.

We carded a –7 and won league.

What most merits attention at Swope park is the incredible amount of work that has been done, largely by Dan Cashen.   Big tee pads, benches, garbage cans, extra pin placements, new holes, tree trimming, and possibly the best tee signs I’ve ever seen.   The tightly woven fairways place a premium on straight shots.  Swope park dgc has been an excellent course for competitions since the mid to late 80’s when they hosted the Brandsmart U.S. Open Folf.

It has taken over 20 years but Swope park dgc is getting sone richly deserved attention from the city as well.  We were out there playing after 7 PM and parks maintenance people were still working on the course.  No doubt due to the upcoming tournament.

Kelly gave me a tutorial on some concrete issues that I’m either facing or expect to face with some of the current or upcoming course projects.

Tomorrow: Still trying to catch up with the photos and I may go play Blue Valley and maybe another course that I’m not playing in the event like Shawnee Mission.