Archive for March, 2010

St. Patty’s Day Meltdown – Day 2

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

Not exactly the finishing round I had hoped for.  Ended up several places out of the cash, having shot a +5.  I had really fun groups for the 2nd and 3rd rounds and I know that helps a lot! All-in-all, 2 out of my 3 rounds were above my rating, so I’m going in the right direction. Not that rating is all that important to me, I just use it to set goals for myself and gauge my progress.

Someone recently questioned my choice to play Open while my skill level (and likelihood of cashing) is far lower than my competitors.  After some thought, I determined that my main 2 reasons are because I have more plastic than I need (so why win more?) and I hope that playing with higher-caliber players will help me improve.

On a side-note, I played a tag match up in Brighton, CO the Monday following the tourney and had a great time.  Really needed that reminder of what this is all about.  Lately, I’ve been caught up in the competition, looking forward to travel, entangled in club politics and frankly… a little full of myself. It felt great to remember why I started playing this game in the first place… to play outdoors with great people and smile!

I think my new goal for this season will be to find a good balance between raising my game, having fun and retaining humility. It is our nature as human beings to want to improve and succeed, but I think it’s far more important that I enjoy the journey than focus on the destination.

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St. Patty’s Day Meltdown – Day 1

Saturday, March 20th, 2010

Whew! What a long (and fun) day. I’m up in Fort Collins, CO playing in the St. Patty’s Day Meltdown, a PDGA C-Tier tourney.  With temperatures in the mid-teens this morning, my supersoft putters were clanging off the baskets like frozen TV dinners! Several inches of snow, drifting to a foot or more in places, made for a lot of slick footing and several lost discs. Things went pretty rough, my upshots were short and putts were going everywhere but in. After a grueling 5-hour round was over, I ended up 10 over par. I had to give myself a little pep-talk over the lunch break, going through the holes I failed on and thinking about what I could do to improve.

The sun had been out all afternoon and much of the snow cover had melted.  Although the course was pretty sloshy, I was able to can some big putts and tighten up my game. I cleaned up a lot of the holes I struggled on first round, improving by 8 strokes to finish at 2 over par.

I’d have to say the highlight of the day was on hole #3, a short downhill right-to-left.  Locals had been sledding there all day and some folks had stuffed two sleds in a trash can at the top of the hill.  So after our group had thrown their drives, Tyler  and I each grabbed one of the sleds and took a little ’shortcut’ to our shots!

At this point I’m sitting about the middle of the pack.  If I can stay close to even tomorrow, I might go home with a little extra lunch money :) I have a pretty fun card tomorrow and I don’t have to tee off until 11:40! Looking forward to sleeping in a bit. Gonna go through the bag in the morning and try to thin out what I didn’t throw today. If I can get it down to 10 discs or so, it’s the NutSac for sure tomorrow!

Stay tuned and wish me luck!

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Memorial – Day Four

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

It’s a sad state of affairs when you can look back at a round that was several strokes over par and say, ‘hey, at least it was better than last time.’  I had a pretty cool group and we all came into the round with a similar mindset.  I wanted to play better than I had at this course on Thursday and was far enough down in the standings that I really had nothing to lose.

Right off the bat, I was trimming strokes, getting 4’s on holes I had previously carded 7’s on.  I definitely played a lot smarter this time.  Thinking about my landing zone and how much skip-and-roll shots were getting.  With the tight fairways, focusing on accuracy over distance was key.  I had a few unlucky OB skips and a griplock drive or two, but nothing near as bad as Thursday.

The only hole I completely melted down was (as depicted here) hole 12.  This one gave me no trouble at all on Thursday, so I wasn’t expecting much change.  This is a relatively simple 365 foot low-to-high over water.  You tee off from under a tree near the water’s edge, over a gunnite dam onto a little lawn area up top.  Not simple, but certainly nothing that should be a round-killer.  After watching the first two guys on my card land safely up top, and a spectator encouraging me to make it three in a row, I launch a nice stupid one right into the side of the dam… damn!  I re-teed from the waterline, getting up top with a safe Teebird hyzer, no problem, I can live with a four.

Walked up to the shot, it was a little outside the circle, but I was due for a good putt…. airball…! Yuck.. ok so i figure a 5 isn’t the end of the world as I nonchalantly toss my “drop-in”.  Thbbbbt! The chains defiantly spit it out left.  Wheee… I just three-putted for a freaking six! That, my friends is why my elementary school teachers used to check the box next to “has difficulty paying attention” on my report cards.

Lesson learned though, every shot counts! Wether it be 5 feet or 500 hundred feet. Just because it’s routine doesn’t mean you don’t have to focus.  That really soured the rest of my round.  I finished in the mid-sixties, which was above my goal but way better than Thursday.

All in all, I have to say I was pretty disappointed in my play this week. I had a great time and it was awesome to be so far from my desk for so long.. but I have a lot of work to do if I want to have a successful season.  For those of you that have been following along, thank you for your continued support.  I certainly hope to have better news to report next time :)

Next up:
St. Patty’s Day Meltdown – March 20-21st – Fort Collins, CO

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Memorial – Day Three

Friday, March 5th, 2010

Back to the Fountain and a chance to redeem myself a little. I just feel more comfortable at this course, the layout is more open and the danger is more obvious. The majority of holes have an obvious straight or hyzer route, so I’m not having to pull off any big turnover shots.

So I came in today aiming for a 50, I replayed a lot of the bad holes in my head and tried to work out some new strategies to clean them up a little. Unfortunately, I started out by drowning my first drive again. I had a good drive and solid upshot on two, but chickened out on the death putt for birdie 3 chaining out right. Putting was my nemesis today, but I know that is a direct result of my lack of practice. If I intend to compete in this sport, I need to commit the practice time. At this point, any putt inside the circle, even with a little wind, should be relatively automatic.

I’ve noticed, as have many of my friends that I play with, that my putts usually have just enough to get there. In short, I putt to the basket instead of through it. I’ve spent some time analyzing the causes and effects of that. My meek putting style never leaves me with a challenging comeback putt, but more often than not, it also means that my initial putt didn’t have a chance. I’m going to have to build my putting confidence and learn to be more aggressive.

I did, however, can a long jumper on one of the elevated baskets. My upshots were pretty short again today, which left me in less-than-ideal position for the majority of my putts. I also need to start planning my upshots better such that I can be more free to run them. Things like making sure I don’t leave myself with OB directly behind the basket, or tricky sidehill shots with a high likelihood of roll-away.

I would have to say the highlight of my day came on hole 17, which had a tall palm tree marked as a mando on the left side of the fairway. Another palm of identical height and distance off the tee stood about 3 feet right of it creating a tiny window. I ended up releasing my drive about a second early in my swing and launched it on a stiff hyzer going right at the mando tree. Since missing the mando meant a re-tee, I was relieved when it decided to flatten out at the last second and split the gap between the trees. A small gallery that was watching the 3-hole junction at that end of the course oooohed and ahhhed a bit and I got a small round of applause (and laughter). A little old lady standing near the tee smiled at me and said ‘I bet you can’t do that again…’. Definitely a good laugh. I ended up getting a lucky par on that hole, which could have easily wrecked an otherwise OK round.

Still, I scored fairly well and stayed out of the OB for the most part. I improved on most of the holes I faltered on during Wednesday’s round, but shorted myself on others. Overall, I probably played too conservatively considering how far down in the standings I was after Thursday’s catastrophe.

Either way, I really enjoy playing at the Fountain and am looking forward to next year. I hope I’ll be able to swing a little more time off so that I can get some practice in ahead of time.

Definitely not looking forward to tomorrow. Not only is it another round at the dreaded Vista, but it means this tourney adventure is coming to an end and it’s back to work :(

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Memorial – Day Two

Friday, March 5th, 2010

Ugh!!! That was painful! Threw one of the worst rounds of my life out there today.. I mean I wasn’t anticipating a great round due to the limitations I pointed out in my last post, but yikes! I had at least 6 OB strokes, had two 7’s during the course of the round, missed pretty much every putt. At least I kept my head on and still had a good time. I mean, let’s be honest here, I’m playing for fun, not for my lunch money.

I love this game and I am thrilled to have the chance to travel and play all over the world, but days like today are a good test of that enthusiasm. I may be frustrated with a shot and mutter a few colorful words as I watch my drive skip out of bounds, but I always come back for more! I had a good group today, one of the guys was on my card last round. We both completely tanked it today and took turns cheering each other up.. I swear, disc golf is the only sport that I know of where you encourage your competition.

I could look back on today and gripe about all the things that went wrong and beat myself up for bad decisions or failed execution.. but instead I choose to focus on the fact that I kept my head up and a smile on my face. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… I’d rather stink at disc golf and win at life :)

Went to the Avalanche / Coyotes game with an old friend tonight, which was a much needed break from stewing about todays round. They lost in a dismal 3-1 display, but it was still good to get out!

Looking forward to tomorrow’s round at Fountain Hills. I’m hoping to shave a few strokes off my first round there, tentatively aiming for a 50. One thing I really like about playing longer tourneys like this is the chance to get your revenge on courses.

see ya tomorrow..
wish me luck!

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Memorial – Day One

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Started out a little rough, but picked it up as the day went on. I threw my very first shot into the water, but at least it skipped and hit the wall, making for an easy 4. I had one other ridiculous throw several holes later.. flipped a TeeRex-X into the road. I knew the lower altitude would affect the stability, but figured I was safe throwing something that overstable. Still, my game really came around on the back nine. I got a nice turkey in there and made up some much needed strokes. I have to admit, the highlight of my day was parking a 465 foot hole, just 8 feet past and carding an easy deuce to take the box from Barry Schultz and Paul McBeth. They were both super cool to play with and I got to bear witness to some really amazing golf!! I certainly left a lot of strokes out there, but I only finished 10 behind them at par (55), which ended up being a 970-rated round, which ain’t bad for me. They finished the round at 45, tied for the lead. I seem to have a positive impact on the folks I play with :)

I ended up tied for 50th place today when the dust settled, not bad considering there is over 100 players in the field! Still, I am really not looking forward to tomorrow. Fountain Hills is relatively wide open and, if you play smart, it isn’t hard to score well.. There is also a hyzer as an option on almost every drive, so I’m free to go to my default swing and disc choices. Vista del Camino, on the other hand, has ton of left-to-right shots and very long and narrow fairways. I have neither a forehand nor a roller… in other words I’m kinda in deep doo-doo.. These are both shots I really need to develop if I intend to be a serious competitor at this level.

On a related note, they introduced something new this year, each course features 2 elevated baskets. Each one puts the cage at roughly eye level. I am not a fan of this at all. To be honest, I think it’s gimmicky and stupid. Save that stuff for X-Tiers or fun tourneys or whatever you’d like.. I know the USDGC has one and I’ve certainly seen it before.. I just think it adds nothing to the game at all. I would be curious to know what the reasoning behind it is.

Either way, time to get some rest, big day tomorrow!

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Here We Go Again!

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

So I’ve just arrived in Phoenix for the 2010 Discraft Memorial. I’ll be playing one round each day for the next four days. Two at Fountain Hills, two at Vista Del Camino. I tee off at 11:14am tomorrow with two-time world champ, Barry Schultz and Paul McBeth, both of whom are rated almost 100 points higher than I. I’ll be honest, it’s more than a little intimidating! Especially because I tee off first.. Fortunately, I’ve gotten a lot of kind words of encouragement from my Mile High friends and the fine folks from Nutsac.

Just gotta play some smart golf and stay within my abilities. I have to be honest with myself, with this stacked of a field, last cash is a lofty goal! Still, if I stay outta the OB and hit my putts, no reason I can’t start the season off with a 1000-rater!

It’s been a long cold winter in Denver and, although I’ve played several fundraiser and non-sanctioned events, I’m feelin pretty rusty! That, combined with the altitude difference will make for quite a challenge tomorrow. I’ve brought a pretty wide variety of discs with me as i still haven’t travelled enough to predict stability. My instincts are telling me that I should modify my release angle, not my disc choice. I think more than anything I’m going to focus most on making good decisions and will compromise distance for accuracy and safety. I am more likely to score well by avoiding bogies than I am running risky shots for low-percentage birdies.

Either way, I am super-excited about being able to play some warm weather golf and catch up with old friends. If anyone wants to keep up with the action, a live pay-per-view webcast is available at www.discgolfplanet.tv

stay tuned to see what tomorrow brings!! Wish me luck :)

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