One Grand Disc Golf Tour

10-25-09

OK, yesterday I said that I TIED the course record on the blue tees at T2 (The Turkeynator)
Welllllll, not exactly….

What actually happened is that I tied the course record on the short (red) tees, -14/46 by shooting the same score on the long (blue) tees. So the course record on T2 is now 46 whether you choose to play the shorts or the longs. But believe me when I tell you that the two play verrrrry differently. Try 1,668 longer from the blues!

To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever even shot a round in the 40’s on the blues but I’ll have to double check that. The best anyone else shot on the course this year was 50. Normally, we finish the tourney with Sunday’s round from the red tees of T2. This year we decided have pros play both rounds on the blues.

At the end of the first day, I lead the masters division by 7 and the open division by 5. Today I shot another -6 on the Original and a 53 (-7) on T2 from the longs. Thus, stretching my lead to 14 to win masters and kept my 5 throw margin over John E. McCray who won Open (his 89th Open win)

If my records are correct (what are the odds?) this should have been my 100th tournament win, not including doubles or leagues. I don’t think I even counted my World Master Doubles win with Stan McDaniel. If I did, that would be great too because then my 100th would be the US Grand Masters title on my 51st birthday. And, no… not all the wins I counted are PDGA tourneys. I played in, and won many tourneys that were not sanctioned.

I’m really anxious to find out what the round rating will be on my –14/46 round on the par 60 course, when the next best round was a –10/50 by a strong player. I doubt I’ll get to join the 1100 club but, boy wouldn’t that be sweet!?!

The sad thing is that I missed two putts from within 20’ on that round. But I’ll trade those for the several that I hit from longer than that.

On today’s final round, I was shooting well but not as well as yesterday. Going into the last 3 holes, I still had a chance to have another round in the 40s but I completely fell off the horse and logged my only 3-putt of the tourney, (my only actual-par double bogey) followed by a poor drive , which resulted in my 2nd actual-par bogey of the tourney. I started my very first hole of the tourney with a bogey. Nearly two perfect (ly awful) bookends.

One of the reasons that tourneys are so exciting for me is that I never know which one of my golf personas will show up. Fortunately, the champ showed up Saturday afternoon. Today, however, his wanna-bee self showed up and was feeling a LOT of pressure to perform in the same way even with a no-pressure padding of several strokes.

Tomorrow: Hopefully nothing more than taking my cat back to the vet. I’m whooped. I may buy another memory card reader so that I can download photos of the event. May visit DeBary for a round at River City Nature Park.

After spending a couple weeks of working on the two courses for the upcoming Orlando Open and completely neglecting my game, I ended up winning doubles yesterday (with Jason who was primarily a side-armer) and today I shot the course record on T2 and am leading masters divsion by 7 and even have 5 strokes on the open division leader. I’d write more details but as one of my new friends stated so eloquently… I’m beat up from the feet up.
Gotta soak and stretch and find my way into unconsciousness.

Plus, I can’t find my memory card reader so there are tons of photos that you aren’t seeing right now. Pity.

Tomorrow: Orlando Open day 2…with luck.

The cat had a big day. Took him to the vet. Problem is that the first time I put him in a car, I removed him from his home. The 2nd time, I removed him from his cajones.

So… car = baaaaad.

The vet thinks it’s an upper respiratory problem and gave me the appropriate drugs. Frankly, I would prefer that the cat take em, but, oh well.

I hit the gym, played a lame round of speed golf, went to an Orlando DG club meeting and came home and gave the cat a bath…twice. Now he’s wetting my bed, primarily with his fur.

Tomorrow, I’ll probably be at the course most of the day. I’ll likely be taking care of a lot of little course crap early in the day and then we have to put 18 sleeves and concrete in buckets at 4, followed by assembling 18 new Chainstar baskets for a Saturday install.

10-10-09

The forecast called for rain. It was drizzling when I opened the hotel door, but it dissipated quickly.

The wind stayed calm and I tried to do the same. My stomach was churning quite a bit but I don’t think it was from nerves. More likely from the massive fruity, powdery concoction I started doing again this week.

I shot my best of the week but it was still pretty mediocre. But I did accomplish several goals:
Though I never managed a score in the 50’s I never blew up into the 70s.
Didn’t lose a disc
Never went O.B. on the difficult #5, the treacherous #13, or the ‘do or die’ #17.
All rounds were rated over 1000, which brought my average back up after playing injured.
I CASHED!
I didn’t get injured again.

There were several highlights to this year’s USDGC. Dave Feldberg looked as if he would lead it wire to wire but this course can give great gifts and dole out harsh punishment.
21 year old Nikko Locastro has been hitting the PDGA tour hard this year. I told him back in 08 when he held a share of the PDGAW lead that he had the physical tools necessary to win a major. He just needed to pull his mental game together. Looks like that came to fruition this week. Nikko held a 2 stroke lead over Feldberg when I joined the leader card at hole 11.
Nate and Phil Arthur were a few back.

The Huge story developing on the 3rd card was 2009 PDGAW runner-up Josh Anthon had continued his hot play and was…make sure you read this right… 16 under par for the first 16 holes of the final round!! He bogeyed #17 and parred out on 18 for a new course record round of -15/ 53. 12 strokes better than my best round…wow!

Feldberg had been laying up on the island green of #17 and taking the safe 3 all week, but he had to go for it coming into the stretch. He hit the green and stuck a nice putt for a birdie. However, his roller on the uphill fairway of 18 failed to turn over and went O.B. Dave’s up shot left him with a frightening 35’ downhill putt with nothing but air between the basket and the water below the green. Needing the putt to secure sole possession of 2nd, he pounded it in to uproarious applause.

Nikko played the hole safe and took a simple par and became the youngest player to win the USDGC as well as the National Tour title over Avery Jenkins, who needed to finish no worse than 6th. He finished 7th. Wow. Along with the USDGC title Nikko picked up a $15,000 purse along with $2K for the NT title.

The USDGC is the premier disc golf event of the year for a very good reason. Innova Champion has been tweaking this event (and the course) for 11 years, this year they had around 200 volunteers and paid workers preparing for the event. The course plays like no other course I’m aware off. Not a lot of trees but the fairways are exceptionally tricky. The very best players show up expecting to compete against the best players on the best course. I’m honored to be a part of it each year.

Tomorrow: To the International Disc Golf Center in Augusta to look at more areas for the mini golf course(s)

10-09-09

The wind was up a bit today but I managed to stay under par.  This course plays like no other course on earth that I’m aware of.  It is about the only course that really forces a gold level player to work for it several times on one fairway.  It is a bit lefty in bias to the tune of 2/3 of the holes but if a righty can execute, they can still score big.   Having a huge arm helps so that they can back off and throw slower discs farther with more control.

Harold is trying for force righties to start throwing sidearm shots (or “flicks” as they yutes call em)

Phil Arthur is the current Masters World Champ and is in a 3 way tie for 2nd, 3 strokes back.  I’m rooting for him.  He can throw over 400′ with either hand but is actually right handed.  And, he’s a really nice guy.
Phil’s tied with Nate Doss, who is the defending champ, and Nikko Locastro.

I’m playing above my current rating… hard not to since it dropped 10 points this year due to playing while injured.  Plus, the PDGA worlds courses doled out some horrible player ratings for anyone who didn’t throw really far.

Here’s a stat that I worked out…Dave Greenwell WON the Grandmaster division at the worlds, and his round ratings averaged out to something like 14 points lower than his player rating.

While Avery, who can throw really fargin far with a backhand or sidearm was 10 points higher than his rating.   He has the tools to win anywhere but these courses were custom-fit to his game.

There was a cut in the field and we start earlier…plus it may rain… I need to tell my Indian friends to do a drought-dance for tomorrow.

No time to download photos. There was a cut to the top 120 and we all start about 2 hours earlier.  Gotta drop out…zzzz.

Tomorrow: USDGC-Day 4…The Finals!

10-08-08

The wind was down so I was better.  Most were.  Simple, really.
Oh there was wind, especially at the start of our round.  And it was coming from the opposite direction from yesterday, so many holes played very differently.

With the exceptions of 2 double boogers on a couple of the par 4 holes, I had a solid round going, with a –4 as I approached the final hole.  I rolled a Road Runner on 18 and it refused to turn over…went OB.
I threw a Destroyer around the corner but it clipped the guardian tree and dropped OB. Shooting 5, I had about a 100’ shot to the nasty downhill green.  I hook-thumbed my hammer to within 6” of the pole to drop in my 6.

All told, I shaved 3 strokes off the round and moved up 9 places and two tee times to HIGH-NOON.

The spotters have all of our thanks for the long hours they must put in to see every group through the course.  However, if I didn’t know better, I might think that they had specific instructions to wait at least 3 seconds longer than necessary to give us the Red or Green flag to signify whether the lie is in or out.

I had at least 3 shots that looked as if they might be OB where the spotter seemed to take far too long to put the corresponding flag in the air.  Granted, when you’re watching a disc hurtle toward an OB line, time tends to slow down.  But even factoring that into the equation, it still felt like they were just messing with us to create more tension and anxiety on the course.   Nothing like a healthy sense of paranoia, huh?  If I could just put my shots in the middle of the flippin’ fairway and avoid the calls altogether, I wouldn’t have to accuse them of messing with the feeble of arm, and mind.

Feldberg, with whom I shot yesterday, continued his stellar play by shooting a –10/58 and is now 19 strokes ahead of me.  Phil Arthur, with whom I shot yesterday, is trailing Dave by 4, with the defending champ, Nate Doss one back of PA.

Two big turn-arounds from yesterday are Garret “Double G” Gurthie, who shot an uncharacteristic 73 followed by a 14-stroke improvement with today’s –9/59.  Josh Anton (PDGAW runner-up) christened his 09 USDGC with a lackluster even par 68, followed by a blistering 1076 rated –12/56!

We’re halfway done, but with two full rounds left…it sure  doesn’t feel like it.

Tomorrow: As if I have to tell you.  Hopefully, I can shave another 3 or more strokes.  Sure would like to pull off one round in the 50s.  Just can’t make mistakes.

10-07-09
USDGC Day 1…after the round…

3rd to last group to tee off. The wind was up and because of it, we had a 50 minute wait (timed by stopwatch) at hole 5. I played better than I scored. I was O.B. by less than a foot (usually under 6”) 4 times!

Both Feldberg and Arthur were able to make some big shots that I simply can’t do. By virtue of their power, they posted some great scores, but naturally, they also have the other skills to accompany that power. Phil threw several lefty throws with power and accuracy comparable to his righty throws.

I guess the highlight of my round came on hole #7 when I turned my O-Roc O-ver and missed the straight gap through the bamboo to the right, ending up only inches from the vertical bars. Not marking my lie, I pulled my foot back to around 10” from the back of the disc, checked the wind and threw a 2-finger UD (tomahawk, hammer…) over the bamboo wall and swished it into the bucket. 2nd year in a row I’ve done that. Feldberg called it. (and again, not unlike 1989 in Iowa when somebody called my ace as it was in the air, his GF was more impressed that he called it, than the fact that I HIT IT!!! I hate that!

The high and low light of the back was that I did a 360 on the long par 5 #12 and I actually over drove the fairway…yes…OB again.

I managed to keep Dave in my sites on the front 9 as he only beat me by 3. But he beat me again by 3 on hole #11 alone! By 2 on #12 and by 1 on #13. I think the only hole I scored better than him was #17. I parked my beat O-Roc and he laid up and took the safe 3. We both had a chance to birdie 3 #18 and we both missed…him low, me too far right into the chains.

Dave now leads the pack with his 59 and Phil’s 61 puts him around 4th or 5th.
My meager +1 landed me in 70th. At least tomorrow I know I won’t finish my round at dusk. Unless we have another big back-up on #5.

Oh… and the shot of me throwing #13 that appeared on yesterday’s blah blah blah’g (courtesy Chuck Kennedy) was on the front page of the PDGA website today.

Tomorrow: USDGC day 2… what else would you expect?

10-07-09

USDGC Day 1…before the round…

I didn’t sleep much…bellyaching about leaving my camera.

I called Innova first thing in the AM (but not before several groups had already teed off) and asked about the camera. The girl on the other end said… “Oh, YOU’RE the camera guy! We have it. It will be at the pro shop later today.”

Wow!

Anyway… It’s 9:45 am and I can take my time getting ready for my 1:44 tee time. Hope I’m ready for the big one!!

Tomorrow: FORGET TOMORROW…I have to concentrate on today!

10-06-09

After another night at Staniel McDaniel’s place in Charlotte, NC, I drove down to Rock Hill and got a room to reduce the amount of driving on this week of HUGE disc golf.

I went out and worked on the putt but it wasn’t very interested in waking up.
The first few holes weren’t very strong but I kept it right around par for most of the round. I was –2 going into the final hole and ended up being OB by 6” to finish –1. Not bad considering the lack of control at the beginning. It didn’t hurt that I shaved 6 strokes off of holes #11 and 12.

Chuck Kennedy took this shot of me throwing 13 (the 888 hole)  In case you haven’t found this out for yourself… Those Star “O” Rocs taste yummy!  They taste like birdie!

I would add some of my photos but I took my camera to the players meeting and left it on the table when I went for the player pkg. I left the hall without it. When I came back for it, the tables were cleared and it was gone. So any disc golfers reading this that might be at the USDGC it is a Canon S10IS. I just bought this camera in march to replace another camera that was taken out of my van in Sarasota.

Tomorrow: I have a late tee time, 1:44pm (playing with Feldberg and Phil Arthur) but the morning will be all about making phone calls to see if I can find out who has my camera. I just hope someone honest picked it up.

10-03-09

Like a goof, I had scheduled a work-day at our courses for today when I should’ve been up in Rock Hill preparing for this year’s USDGC.  To late to bail, I got up at 9 (after being up till 3am), grabbed hand tools, chainsaw, ladder and made it to handicap just in time to get in.  I swilled but won a CTP and got my $ back.

We had a quick lunch and met back at the courses, for raking, trimming, gathering, dragging, piling, shoveling, filling, packing, bricking, climbing, hacking etc.

At around 5pm we called it quits and I headed home, unpacked, vacuumed, repacked, showered, attempted a nap…failed, and finally just got in the van a little after 11pm, filled up, washed the van and hit the highway.

I watched two flicks while on I-95 because there was almost no traffic and I needed something to keep me awake.  Don’t try this!  I’m a juggler and trained road-monkey professional.  Around 3:30am I pulled over at a truck stop.  Without knowing exactly where I was, I rearranged the junk in the van and crashed out.

Tomorrow: Rock Hill, SC and practice for the USDGC.