The opening ceremonies last night were just phenomenal! We were treated to an amazing dinner of all kinds of delicious Japanese foods (sushi, shabu-shabu, noodles of every shape and size). We were also give our players package which consisted of a new combination chair-bag from Innova, a pair of Keen disc golf shoes, an uchiwa (fan), 5-color metal mini, t-shirt, towel and a bunch of other cool stuff. They also had a fantastic performance by a traditional Japanese Taiko band (gigantic drums).

The competitors have been split into two pools (A and B) sorted by player rating. I’m in the A-pool and we played the Raijin (God of Thunder) course first today.. not bad. Played with Nikko Locastro, Richard Tang(Taiwan), and Kawasaki-san (Japan, President of JPDGA). Scored fairly well, but had a ton of OB’s and putting was awful. It’s really tough with these 150g discs. I actually had the box for about a quarter of the holes and felt pretty good about things. I shot a 64, which put me at about 25th in a pack of 130 players, not too shabby!

After a quick lunch, we were re-sorted by score and went off to play the Fujin (God of Wind) course. I like this course much better, but only scored 2 strokes better. Still, I’m in the cash at this point and had an awesome day. It’s hard to complain when you’re in Japan playing disc golf on a prestigious ball golf course.. with carts!

Hope I can keep up with this level of play. There is OB everywhere and these discs are very unpredictable, putting is a crapshoot at best. Can’t wait for tomorrow! Wish me luck :)

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.

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!