Last day of regular play

Yesterday was a grueling day of golf, with Jason caddying for me at Blue Valley and then me caddying for him at Shawnee Mission in the afternoon we were worn out. I fell asleep last night with my laptop in front of me before I could make my Thursday night post. But here is a the results, I teed off at Blue Valley at 9:00 am with the sky looking like it might not rain. We were on the tee of hole 7 at 10:30 am and it looked like it was going to open up the flood gates on us, only to have a change of heart by hole 15 at 12:00 pm when the sun broke and the wind picked up. I played a relatively good round, sure the 70 does not look good on paper but the course at Blue Valley is a long and hilly course with long grass, tough uphill shots and long fairways. When you throw in weather conditions it can play even tougher. But if you need a frame of reference, I think the best Advanced score was 62, while the best Pro score in the rain was a 53 by Avery Jenkins. I felt like I made 4-5 mistakes which cost me about 3 strokes so I am happy with that. The round was rated above my rating so that is all I could hope for, but if you are ever in KC and you have a big arm, check out this course, the layout we played was listed at 10,897 feet, that is 2000 feet longer than either layout at Milo McIver's 18 hole courses.

After my round we jumped in the car and sped over to Shawnee Mission for Jason's 3 pm start. The weather at Shawnee Mission was a little windy but the sun was out and it felt warm. While we were there, Discraft had a test drive booth setup to allow some individual testing of some new discs and some old discs in new plastic. While I was throwing some drives the guy running it calls out that since there were 8 people there we were going to have a long drive contest, but the disc had to land in bounds which was the outfield of a softball field and we were throwing from about 250 feet to the right of 1st base. I was throwing the new stalker but dropped the one in my hands and picked up an ESP Flick for the contest. I was the first to throw and given the windy conditions I threw the Flick out on what could have been a roller angle with a flippy disc, the people watching were yelling that it was going OB but then it flexed out and came back in bounds and crossed the entire width of the in bounds area and landed safely at 425 feet. Several others threw their shots OB but one guy pumped out a 150 surge that caught a bad thermal and fell out at 400 feet. So for my display of distance I was awarded a Discraft hat. After I finished Jason and I headed out to his starting hole, hole 7, to get some practice with some drive in the wind and putts. I caddied for Jason and glad I did as he played a near flawless round. He started off really well using the wind to his advantage having birdie putts on his first three holes, hitting the third one. He then played a couple of the longer holes perfectly by putting his drives in the fairway and upshots under the basket. When we got to some shorter holes Jason putt his drives up under the baskets and after 7 holes he was -3. He then went on a steady streak of pars while his group was crumbling. He made the turn at 1 and parred his nemesis hole, then birdied hole 2. Stepping up to hole 3, Jason was a little unsure of the tee shot due to the wind and just ended up picking the wrong disc and landed in the shule with no throw. He played smart, pitched it out and played for the bogey which he got. He picked up one more birdie to go -4 and the hot round of the day.

Today we see a reversal of sorts as Jason will Play Blue Valley today at 10:30 am tee time and I will play Shawnee Mission with a 11:30 am Shotgun start. More to come later.

The Great Shuffle has happened

Today was a better day for the weather in Kansas City, we woke to sunshine and low humidity. We got out of bed at 6:10 am and headed to Water Works for our third round. I was a little nervous going into Water Works, because I had played it so poorly in our practice round. My round started on hole 9 which is a very good hole to start on and is in a position on the course that allows for a good warm up before hitting some of the easier holes. I played most of the course at par but ran into trouble as we made the turn into the lower section of the course on hole 3. I went bogey, par, bogey then turned it around and ended birdie, birdie, birdie. Course par was set at 55 and I shot a 54. The round was good for me I stayed patient and composed even though a guy in my group was lighting it up. Jason did not fair as well at Water Works, he was having some stomach issues and could not keep his focus. He ended up shooting a 62 and he was really bummed about it so we headed back to the hotel room after the round and relaxed and hung out.

We decided to head to Wyco at 12:30 pm for our second round and to get something to eat along the way. Jason was feeling better and was ready to play so we practiced some putting and then we split off to head to our starting holes. I started on hole 7 and Jason started on 14. My round started off horribly, I gave up 10 strokes in the first 8 holes and then shot -1 on the last 11 to finish at 63, OUCH!!! Jason had a great round and figured out his drive and shot a 58. I was really glad he bounced back and shot well. From the sounds of it he was really happy with the round other than a few missed short putts. We were hoping that we would both be shooting good enough to be in the same pool and Jason's strong round was a glimpse of hope that he had clawed his way back in.

When we went to the Fly Mart(vendor sales day) at 7:30 pm at the host hotel the shuffle results had happened and were posted. It just so happens that Jason and I are separated for our last 2 rounds on Thursday and Friday. I play Blue Valley tomorrow with a 9 am tee time and Jason plays Shawnee Mission at 3 pm. Jason has offered to caddie for me at Blue Valley and then we are going to have to book it over to Shawnee Mission for Jason's round and I will caddie for him. It looks like tonight calls for Thunderstorms and rain again ending sometime in the early morning, and I hope it has time to dry out the tee pads and grass. Blue Valley is really long and footing will be key in up shots and second throws. I need to focus tomorrow and make up some strokes so that I can get into the K pool but I am happy to have made it into the L pool from the M pool. Right now I am in 117 place and need to climb up to 64th place if I want to make the semi-finals.

There is more golf to come and Jason and I still need to shoot our hot rounds, lets hope that we both can shoot hot rounds in both of our last 2 attempts.

Peter Belizi on the other hand is having a good chance of playing in the semi-finals, he is in 49th place and is playing some good golf. I have a feeling that Peter is still going to shoot a really hot round.

See you all tomorrow.

Two rounds in the Books!

We started out day today at 5:30 am, Jeff got ready and headed out to Thornfield for a sloppy mess with rubber tee pads but a beautiful course, while Jason and I headed down to Olathe to play Prairie Center a short birdie or die course. The morning gave us thunderstorms and lightning and the feeling of Oregon with torrential down pour. Jason started on hole 6 and I got to start on hole 1 for the first time ever in a tournament for as long as I can remember. However I did not take advantage of the opportunity. I played the course 2 up at 56 with one 4, one 5, one 2 & fifteen 3's. The so called birdie course was not kind to me, every hole I had a good drive on I ended up behind a tree or bush that blocked a putt. I played a pretty steady round getting a 4 on the second hole and the 5 on the fifteenth hole, birdie on the 16th and par'd out. Jason had a tough time as well and shot a 56, he says he was really working hard to get pars. He was hitting 30+ foot putts to save par. Its funny that we ended up with the same score again. The 56 was recorded as a 920 unofficial rating. For the weekly challenge I still had two strokes on Jason due to our practice round at Blue Valley but its been really close with 8 rounds played we were only separated by 2 strokes.

After our round at Prairie Center we headed to grab some lunch and then headed north to Shawnee Mission Park. When we got there the sky opened up again and dumped large amounts of water, so Jason and I took a nap in the car and scratched the practice throws. Due to our same score in the first round we were in the same group and started on hole 10. We walked out to our hole in the pouring rain with the umbrellas we purchased the night before at Walgreens and they worked beautifully. We practice our putting in a heavy rain but the temperature was close to 70 degrees so it was warm but wet. We both played steady golf for most of the round but we both blew a few good opportunities to get a few strokes back. Jason had one bad hole that shook him up but he kept it together enough to get a birdie on the next hole and finish out with all par's. Jason ended up with a 58 rated 899 and I ended up with a 55 and rated as 932. Can you say ouch, we were hoping to shoot an average of 950 rated rounds so we have a lot of work to do.

The weekly score challenge now has Mike up by 5 strokes on Jason!

As soon as the round was over we headed back to the hotel to relax, do laundry and eat some chow before bed. Tomorrow the prediction is for rain in the early morning, but clear during the day with a high in the upper 70's but thunderstorms returning tomorrow night. Jason and I are playing Water Works in the morning and WyCo in the afternoon. We think Water Works is setting up for par as 56 and Wyco is set up for par as 58. We are hoping for good footing and dry towels. We hope to post our round scores tomorrow after waters works as it is only 15 minutes from our hotel.

sorry for the short post but I need to get some quality sleep tonight!

Here we go, Where is the Dance Floor?

Today was the last day of practice and we all utilized it to its full potential. Jeff Hagerty went to play the two courses he plays tomorrow, Thornfield and Rosedale, while Jason and I headed to Prairie Center and then Shawnee Mission. We all then meet back at the hotel to get ready to go down to the Host Hotel to attend the Worlds Players meeting at 7pm. We meet Kevin Watson a fellow Oregonian from Kaizer at the players meeting and we all went out to dinner after wards at Famous Daves BBQ down on 14th and Watson. Meanwhile the weather was a brewing outside and the Light and Sound show started while we were heading to dinner. We decided on the way home to grab an umbrella at Walgreens in case the rain continues into our first rounds tomorrow.

Prairie Center is a shorter course in the middle of a nice flat park. We did not take any pictures of the course today because we were focused on our play and the course layout. We will be playing this course first tomorrow morning at 8 am and we wanted to be sure we had a very good idea of what to throw on each hole. Jason and I continued our score challenge and he currently had 1 stroke on me for the week so far. We started out playing on the front nine and Jason was very steady, collecting his pars and capitalizing on his birdies. I on the other had took a double bogey on hole 2 and started playing catch up. As we rounded hole 6 Jason still had three on me but we were stepping up to the longest hole on the course. We both dropped strokes to the course on this hole, Jason with a double bogey and me with a bogey. Hole 8 was the turn around for me, I birdied 8,9,10 pared 11, birdied 12 & 13. After hole 13 there was a 5 stroke swing in my favor now I was up by 2. We both played the rest of the course pretty even until Jason took a crazy OB penalty on 18 and I won by three. Overall we both felt good about our chances on this course, sure it is a short course and the higher rated players in our division will play well but we believe we can hang with them on this course.

We ended up grabbing some lunch at a Mexican restaurant just outside of the course and then headed up to play Shawnee Mission again. Shawnee is the course we will play second tomorrow and I was not comfortable with our first experience on this course. We showed up today to completely different conditions, the wind was gone and the weather was cooler, but most importantly we did not just get off a red eye flight with 3 hours sleep. Jason opted out of throwing any more shot but agreed to walk with me and putt from my drives. I started out playing the course significant better and started to get into a rhythm. The warm air was making for some great glide and my Star Eagle-x king for me on this course. It was my go to Hyzer disc for holes up to 375 feet. We played the first 11 holes then skipped to 16 and finished out the course on 18. Jason was a good sport and let me play the holes that I needed to work on and gave me encouragement and ideas for different lines on the holes. After the round we made a quick retreat to the hotel to get ready for the players meeting but on the way back we had to stop by Dairy Queen so that I could buy Jason an ice cream for our challenge on Swope the day before.

Back at the hotel we grabbed a shower picked up Jeff and made our way to the meeting. The players meeting was at the Host Hotels Ballroom and it was cool to see so many disc golfers in one spot.








While we were waiting to get into the ballroom people were having drinks and some of the kids were playing catch and throw in the lower section of the hotel. I can't believe the hotel was cool with it but it was entertaining to watch all the discs flying about.



We met Kevin Watson a outside the ballroom and brought him into our Worlds Disc Golf Family from Oregon. When we made our way into the ballroom we ran into Adny Hock and so we grabbed a seat with Nate Sexton, Ben Van Dusen, Kirk McAllister and Andy. Then as we were all chatting we saw Jay Harbour and he joined us. We looked around for Peter Belizi and Terry but they were sitting somewhere else. We had one of the two South Korean's who came for the Worlds Champions to take our picture as a group.



As the players meeting was going on the weather outside was threatening a thunderstorm, and it did not disappoint. We were driving to the restaurant and the lighting started to hit but it was far away because the thunderclap was 10 to 12 seconds post flash. By the time we got to the restaurant the thunder was about 1/2 second post flash and really loud. We were downtown and the lightning was flashing off the buildings and it was entertaining but worrisome at the same time as we started talking about how to get ready for a rainy round at 80 degrees. During dinner Kevin was telling us about the course that he designed down in Kaizer and was asking for people to come down and play it and provide feedback. Kevin is working with a limited resource of volunteers and we let him know that we will do whatever we can to assist him in finishing another course installation in Oregon. We said goodbye to Kevin after dinner and we made our way to the hotel but stopped by Walgreens to pick up three umbrellas just in case the rain continues through the morning.

We all are pretty tired so its time to get some sleep, that is if the excitement allows us to!!!!!

Epic Day of Golf in Kansas City

Today was an epic day of disc golf, we lucked out on the cooler weather (89) but the humidity was a little high today. We started the day off by heading to play Blue Valley at 9 am. The course was only about 15 minutes from our hotel room and was located in an older community of KC. The grounds look like they may have been an old ball golf course at some point, with the rolling hills and thick green grass. The fairways are mostly open but the holes are very long. We pulled up on hole 1 to a wait of two groups so we got a preview of hole 1 and how not to play it.

Hole 1


This course is like Milo McIver with significant elevation gain. It starts out like this, Hole 1 is an 803 foot slight dog leg left to a raised basket; hole 2 is 509 foot downhill shot that is reachable with a Teebird but has OB right behind the basket; 3 plays 693 uphill which requires two perfectly placed monster drives to have a chance for a putt. So the course continues like this for the rest of the holes, big uphill shots, nice down hill shots and rolling hills. The difficulty of this place was the length and some basket placements but accuracy off the tee was not critical.

We each had good shots here and there, many to save par and even one to save a bogie. Jason threw a terrible drive on hole 8 and ended up just past the trees off the tee pad. He then convinces himself he is going to throw the hyzer shot out over the road and bring it back to the basket. He then proceeds to grip lock it and nearly pick Jeff off standing on the road. Jason was frustrated with his mis-throw but gains his composure by marking his OB lie in bounds, grabbing his Rogue and throwing it from 180 out and crashes chains for the bogie 4. It was a great throw and was awesome to see!

McGrew's 4 save:


After 9 holes McGrew had me by 2 strokes and Jeff by 3 strokes. That was all about to change as we made our way to the back nine. Jeff and I jump out to an early lead on Jason after two holes making up 2 strokes and then on hole 12 Jeff and I crush our drives up hill while Jason had a short drive, Jeff and Jason put their upshots out of the circle and I put mine 3 feet short of the pin to take another stroke back and put me up by one on Jason and 2 on Jeff.

Mike on Tee Pad 12:


Each of us crushing drives on Hole 13:




Jeff and I jostle for strokes back and forth while Jason keeps back pedaling as we make our way to hole 17 we hit a back up and decide to call the round over as the 17 and 18th holes play out and back from the parking lot. Jason dropped 5 stokes to Jeff and I on the back 9 and I end up beating Jeff by 1 and Jason by 3.

We then had a few phone calls with Jay Harbour and we all decided to meet at Swope to play a round. When we show up Jay is there hanging out with Liz Carr and Al Schack. We all decided to play a round together and check out the course. Swope is a very well manicured course in the same park as the KC zoo. The course looks very nice and the layout is challenging but has some really close fairways. We all play pretty average and often throw multiple shots off each tee, trying different shots and angles. Jeff starts up the Bagerty Machine and cranks out some insane distance on this course. He throws a few annhyzer shots that looked inhuman. Liz Car was fun to watch as she had the distance on Jason either equaling him or beating him on the holes. She has such good form and easy going composure on the course. I have a feeling she will be at the top of the leader board more often in the coming years for Pro Women. Al is a true champion and a really nice guy, he also has the crushing throw that just makes you look at him in amazement. He also has a wicked quick putt often making 30+ foot putts with his bag on. It was a pleasure to play with Liz, Jay and Al at Swope. We managed to get a picture of the Oregon Boys on Hole 18.


After the round we headed back to the hotel to grab some pool time and relax. Later Jeff and I get the itch to go play Cliff Drive but Jason was tired so we left him behind and headed out to check out one of the oldest course in KC. The course is very wooded on the front 9 and very long and open on the back 9. Jeff and I have a couple groups in front of us that are playing slow so we start throwing multiple shots on each hole and challenge each other to try different throws and angles. Jeff ends up launching a couple of monsters on the back nine that give him some legitimate putts. My only glory was throwing a forehand shot down the road on 12 with my Firebird and leaving myself a 5 foot putt for the birdie. Jeff and I had a good time joking around and letting loose on some fun golf shots and laid back attitude. We finished up about 8:45 pm and headed back to the hotel to grab Jason and head out for some diner in the Light and Power District of KC.

Tomorrow Jason and I are headed to Prairie Center to check out our last course that we will play during the tournament. This is supposed to be the shortest course we will play and it has a good amount of OB. Jeff is headed out to play Thornfield as he plays it first on Thursday and we hear it is a very tough and demanding private course.

Heading Out to Blue Valley

We are up and running and getting ready to head out and play the Blue Valley monster. The skies look overcast and we are hoping to catch some of the cooler morning weather for most of the round. After playing at Blue Valley we are either going to head and play Swoop or Cliff Drive for some afternoon fun. Today the field events are happening at Penn Valley Park near the Liberty Memorial. Later we are going to try to get up to the events park to crush some drives off the memorial. The grounds are open for the disc golf events with special permission. We are also hoping to check out the WWI museum and dedications.

See you guys later!

Check in day

Today Jason and I woke up around 10 am and we headed into downtown Kansas City to check into the tournament we felt confident on being able to get there quickly since we made the adventure the day before. Our goal was to try and get there early to check in so that Jason could secure any blue discs but when we got there the line was already 40 people deep and was not moving very quickly. There was two lines to check in at, A-L and M-Z. Guess which line had no one in it? Yep my line was the line that was 40 deep and A-L had a few people in it. After waiting for 25 minutes we made it to the front of the line and we receive our player check in card and head into the meeting room to get our player pack.

Players Pack Photo:


Players Pack:
Full Color Tournament Program
Black and White Players Guide
Discraft Sticker
Free pizza coupon at Pizza Shoppe
Coupon for a 20th Anniversary Special Edition Star San Marino Roc
Ching Power Genesis Disc
DISCRAFT Stalker special stamp
DGA Shockwave 2009 Worlds Stamp
Gateway Appache
Lightning #1 Flyer
Beer Coozy
Custom nametag
2009 Worlds Towel
Dri-Fit Worlds Shirt
Innova Dri-Fot Shirt
Ching Small Bag, with worlds stamp

We also had our picture taken so that the PDGA could add our pictures to our PDGA member page. It would have been nice to know that though before showing up, I am sure mine looks like roadkill as I was dragging from the day before. The sun really wore me out but I was not dehydrated. I am just not used to being in a UV index rating of 10 and with not much shade makes for a good way to turn a little red. So in retaliation I took their picture to get them some camera time.



We hung out, met some people and I chatted with Brian Graham and John Duesler for a little while as Jason was trying to get his player pack. When we received our player packs they were already pre-sorted so no chance to pick what you wanted but Jason lucked out and got a blue Lightning #4 driver. We looked around through the merchandise and then stepped back out into the Hotel Lobby to look through our stuff. Jason went right to work and started trying to trade for blue discs. I was shooting some pictures as Jay Harbour ran into me and we started chatting. We grabbed a seat and Liz Car joined us, I think she had been hanging out with Jay Harbour for the day. We all hung out for a little while and then they took off to go play Thornfield and Jason and I headed into the mall to get some food. We finished eating and headed to the car. We had been waiting around for Jeff Hagerty to get into town so we could all meet up and play Water Works. With Jason and I getting antsy about playing we headed over to Water works before Jeff called us.

The park was pretty full and parking was an issue but we found some curb side in the shade and called Jeff, he was off the plane and getting his rental car. We let him know we were going to start playing and to find us on the course when he got there. We had to wait as the <16 Juniors who were playing in the Worlds Doubles Championships were playing from 18 through to hole 1.

Hole 1


This little kid steps up and rips a forehand shot down hill and in the middle of the fairway. It was a great shot and perfectly placed. His partner was stoked as they were on round two and playing alternate shot. We teed of shortly later and had a nice guy named Kenny from Illinois join us for our round. Jason and I started of really slow and played below our ability. Jason pulled out to an early 3 stroke lead and started playing solid golf. Jeff gives us a call and joins us on tee 6 and begins to tear up Water Works. He teed off on hole one and parked the 508 foot downhill shot and then walked over to hole 6 to join us. He then threaded the tight hole 6 fairway and get the par while we all 4'd it then he throws the low ceiling smashing roller up 7's uphill fairway and parks the hole for a drop in 2. It was fun to have Jeff join us because he was attacking the holes unlike any of us were, not necessarily better but just more aggressive and it was working. I was playing very sloppy and it was showing on my score card. By hole 13 Jason had me by 8 strokes and it was time to try and real it in.

We got up to hole 14 which is a 485 foot slightly down hill and I new that a good drive here could spark my game.

Hole 14


First to tee off was Kenny and he simply crushed his drive and it was flipped over on a nice glide pattern when it comes back right for the basket but it goes over the basket and skips off the OB road behind the basket. The Jeff Hagerty throws a BSF Glow Destroyer a little soft after seeing Kenny's throw and it land about 30 feet short and 80 feet to the left of the basket. Jason throws and it flips over a little bit but never hits its pattern and it falls left about 150 short. The I throw my trusty Glow Orc and flip it up into its glide pattern and it glides out to a stable finish about 40 short and 10 feet left of the basket. I ended up getting up and down on this fast green for par and Jason ends up going OB on his approach and get the 4. I get another stoke back on 15, we then push on 16 and on 17 Jason throws OB and I land inside the putting circle. Jaon goes OB on the upshot as well and I cut his lead to 3. Unfortunately for me I go OB off the tee on 18 and he laced his drive for the easy par. Jason took me down with a five stroke win. For the round we played Jeff Hagerty shot a -1 for 14 holes, Jason shoots +7 and I shot a +12, Ouch!!!!!

After the round we headed to the hotel to check in and drop off our stuff. Unfortunately when we got there the roll away bed we requested was not available so after we chilled out a bit we head to the store to buy an air mattress and a sleeping bag. We ended up at a Walmart and I found a 10 dollar air mattress and a 9 dollar sleeping bag, problem solved. We then headed to a local favorite BBQ joint to check out some KC BBQ goodness. The food was good and the company even better. We had a great server who took care of us and hooked us up with some free drinks.

We then headed back to the hotel to get some sleep and get ready for the Blue Valley
11,000 foot monster.

Well that's it for tonight!!

Well we made it to Kansas City

Hey Everyone,

Jason and I made it on to a red eye flight out of Portland last night.
We flew into George Bush International Airport in Houston at 6:10 am and the flight took 4 hours with a 2 hour time change. We flew on Continental and Houston is their main hub. If you have never been to that airport there are like 5 concourses that are connected via a tram. We flew in to concourse E and we had to high tail it over to B concourse to catch our 7:10 am flight to Kansas City. We made it with time to spare but only because we were basically running down the concourses.

We ended up flying on a small jet from Houston to Kansas City operated by ExpressJet Airlines, a partner on Continental. To say the plane was small is an understatement. The overhead bin could barely fit a laptop bag let alone a backpack.

When we got to the airport in Missouri we were pleasantly surprised to see that the weather was not as humid as expected. We made our way to the rental car office and ended up with a Ford Fusion, while at first we were a little disappointed, the car has been really good and we are happy with it.



On the way out of the Airport we ran across a Waffle House so we stopped for breakfast and it felt good to eat some delicious waffles. After breakfast we headed to Shawnee Mission Park to check out the course.





This course is very beautiful and very green. The Kansas City Disc Golf Club has prepped this course very nicely for worlds and just recently added the concrete tee pads. The fairways have two cuts of grass for the rough, and let me just say my first impression was it looks manicured.

Here is a picture looking back up hole 2 from the basket.


The courses here in KC see a great deal of wind due to the plain like environment and Shawnee Mission is no exception, the wind was blowing at 11:30 am and it only got stronger the longer we were there. The course has a little bit of elevation and they have used it well in the design of the course. Several times the course plays down hill only to play back up hill. The layout makes good use of obstacles and the cut fairways make the layout feel even tougher due to the long grass that is left uncut. We enjoyed playing here but we were feeling the effects of the flight and minimal amount of sleep so we did not play very well. We both had some great shots though and we are looking forward to playing here during the Worlds Event. This course has about 9 legitimate birdie opportunities for the average to advanced golfer. Some of the longer holes have significant amount of wind to mess with tee shots and could produce many bogies. We will probably play here again before the event to get a good feel for the course, conditions and our abilities.

We then headed back to Missouri to check out the Host Hotel and to see if we could check in. Neither of us could remember when check in starts nor exactly where the hotel was so we hunted around a little bit and found our way. We were not able to check in today but we did get a good look at downtown and some of the areas where many of the field events would take place. After our little escapade we headed back to Kansas to check out WyCo park. We were going to play the course and the club was having a league night at the course so we decided to play. Unfortunately league starts at 6pm and it was only 3pm, so we took a nap in the car. Well I totally crashed at least and Jason kind of nodded off an on. We then managed to get it together and head in to town for some food and energy so we could play another round. WyCo is a great course that plays very long, it has a great deal of wind and risk reward elements to the course. Shooting a 54 here is amazing and can be done but there is a need to grab a few birdies on the front nine because it is inevitable that the long back nine will get you sooner or later. Jason and I really like playing here and we wish we were going to play it more than once during the worlds event. At the end of our league round we were treated to firefly's lighting up our fairway as we putted out. I tried to get some pictures of the light show but it was hard to catch. It was a treat to see it though and will probably go on my list of top ten things seen disc golfing. Jason ended shooting a 61 and I ended up with a 60. We both made silly mistakes and believe we both can shoot this course in the mid 50's later this week.

After league we headed south to find out hotel back over by Shawnee Mission within the town of Lenexa. After a long long day and many cool holes of golf played we are calling it a night and looking forward to Jeff joining us tomorrow in Kansas City, Water Works here we come. I hope to have my albums up online later this week for you guys to check out!

Sitting around the hotel room we were discussing some of the best shoot of the day and we came up with:

My first drive on hole 14 at Shawnee Mission 404 feet slight down hill with a Glow Orc missed the ace by a foot or so.

Jason's upshot on hole 14 at Wyco across the pond nearly put it in for a duece with a Rogue Blue of Course.

My second drive on hole 18 at Shawnee Mission, Firebird looks like it hits the ace but if cuts through the back chains and lands behind the basket.

Jason's 30 foot downhill into the wind putt on hole 6 WyCo, with OB behind the basket nails it.

Leaving Today for Kansas City

Today was my good friends birthday and all he wanted to do was go play disc golf. So after we both got off work we headed out for Hornings Hideout to play both courses. We started on the canyon course and Kyle was off to a slow start. He has not had the time to play lately with a new baby so he was shaking the cobwebs off and by hole 7 he was back into the swing of things. We both had a good time playing the course. The weather was perfect, it was not too hot nor was it cold. There was a slight breeze outside the trees but the air was flat inside the canyon.

We ended up skipping holes 13 & 14 as we caught a large group and we wanted to get a chance to play the Hillside course before it got dark. After putting out on hole 18 of the canyon course we headed for Tee 1 on the hillside course. After we threw on hole 1 we decided we should have left our bags in the car. Fortunately we took our bags so Kyle and I had more opportunity to work on some putts. We both played pretty well and Kyle grabbed a couple birdies on the front 9 and matched them on the back nine. I played the course solely with my Blue Stumptown Wizard and the disc did wonders. Man I wish I had another one of those!

Kyle really liked the shot on hole 12 and threw two disc off that tee. When we got to the basket on hole 15 Kyle had thrown a little short and was looking at a scary putt so he laid up his putt and I asked him if he really wanted to do that on his birthday? He responded with a second putt and blew it wide but I was proud of him for going for it. On hole 16 Kyle threw a great drive with his Avair and it nearly went in. All in all I think Kyle had a great time and enjoyed his birthday of disc golf.

Well it is time for me to zip up the suitcase and get ready to head to the airport. Natalie is sitting next to me as I type this but now I am really starting to feel how much I will miss her so I am going to finish this post and hang out with her. I will post again tomorrow morning hopefully from Houston and then again from KC!

Disc Golf Demonstration at Tektronix

Hey today I had the great opportunity to present disc golf to some of my co-workers. I arranged to setup a demonstration in the sports field and I brought many of my practice discs and my portable basket so that people who came to check it out could try and throw some shots.



I had 4 people, who I work with, come out in the heat at 4:30 this afternoon to see about disc golf. Most of them know that I am heading back east to compete in the 2009 Disc Golf World Championships and wanted to see what I could do. I would like to thank the following people for coming out to experience it for the first time: Mike Smith, Varun Patel, Costel Vasiliu, Aleks Neubauer.

I think most of them were some what shocked at the ability to huck discs a great distance, especially the putters. They all gave disc golf a chance and started to throw some discs around. Some had a rough start getting the hang of it while others were naturals with the forehand shots. Everyone got better the more times they threw but I am sure they will all be sore tomorrow morning. It was fun to finally show these guys the game I am so passionate about and to see them get excited about it as they were learning to throw.

Look out for this guy, Mike, if you live in Vancouver, he showed some natural talent and was throwing putters from the get go about 60-80 feet. We graduated him up to a few mid range discs and he was crushing them. He also had the fore hand shots down as well and was getting some good glide time with the Roc's and Buzzz's.



Aleks was very enthusiastic about the game and had a few ideas for some rule changes but I told him we should wait on it for a while until he had a chance to play the game on a course. Sorry boss them are the rules! He was ripping out some nice hyzer shots by the end and really showed some potential.



Varun has played ultimate before so he is used to plastic flying devices so we can consider him experienced but I must say his forehand was real smooth and was getting some long flight times on his throws. He asked a few question about the grip for the forehand and after that it was smooth sailing. Varun is a lefty and maybe we will see him joining the lefty disc golf nation soon. He also had a wicked spin putt that was a laser of a throw but he might need a little more practice on his power, he would really overshoot the basket if he did not make contact.



Here are a few more photos of the fun! Next step is to get these guys out to a course some time after I get back and let them have the fun of playing on a course. I am hoping to get our entire staff out to a round at Orchard Park during lunch sometime, what do you say Aleks can we make that happen?

A preview of Worlds

I was out practicing at Orchard Park again tonight and was having a good time of it when some friends of mine ran into me at the park. They asked me to help them out with their throw so I started working with them on their form. I had them throwing a bit better after a few holes and they were having fun laughing at each others mistakes but in a supportive way. I played holes 3-9 with them and only had my putters so I was driving with them and hitting the putting circle on most of the holes. But really that is not what I wanted to share with you tonight, I wanted to give you a preview of Amateur Worlds this year for my division.

Here is the official website of the 2009 Worlds Disc Golf Championships in Kansas City, Missouri, KC Worlds Website. All the information for the week is posted on this site and should have more information as the week goes on.

So today the Tournament Directors released the Pool assignments for the Advanced Amateur Mens division. The division has 274 players in it and because only 72 players can play a course at a time the division in split into 4 pools of approximately 72 each. You can check out the pool assignments and my competition on the PDGA website, Worlds Amateur Players. I was placed in the M pool with all other competitors from Oregon and I am ranked 124 out of 274 for this event based on Player Rating. Supposedly the split by pools was supposed to be random but what are the chances that all Oregonians would end up in the same pool. Either way it doesn't matter we are all there to play our best and the pools don't matter until Thursday July 30 when there will be a shuffle of the four pools by score. The top 72 will be in the K Pool, 73-145 will be in L Pool, 146-218 in M Pool, and 219-274 in N Pool. My goal is to make it to Pool K or L for Thursdays rounds. Here is the schedule of event for the pools in the event. Pool Schedules My division again is split between K,L,M & N.

My first day of competition will be July 27th and my first round will be at Prairie Center Disc Golf Course at 8 am. Later that afternoon I will play Shawnee Mission Disc Golf Course both of these courses have a published par of 54 strokes.

I will be flying in to Kansas City on the morning of July 24th and I will have 4 days to get a good look at the courses and prepare for the competition. Looks like the weather will be warm and muggy with thundershowers some days KC Weather.

As much as I like rain, I hope it stays mostly dry for the event. See you tomorrow!

Practice at Orchard Park

Tonight I decided to head to the local 9 hole disc golf course by my house called Orchard Park to work on my putting. My friend Jeff Hagerty had shared a putting game with me that he has been playing lately that I wanted to try out. The object is to practice putts from outside the 10 meter circle and for every one you make you get a set number of points and for everyone you miss you lose points. Then for the ones that you miss you need to make the come back putt but instead of at the distance you missed by you need to make a putt from a set distance. In my case I was putting from 35 feet and 18 feet.

I headed to the park and my favorite practice basket, hole 3's basket.

The air outside was very warm and the sky was clear. The favorable conditions had many patrons out at the park which made the practicing very difficult. I would throw a couple of putts and then I would have to step off to the side and wait for a couple of groups to play through. I was having a difficult time hitting the 35 footers. I would make contact with the basket or the pole but a low percentage of my putts went in. From the come back position I was hitting about 70 percent of the putts which I was hoping would be closer to 90 percent.

Well since basket 3 was seeing some action I started switching between basket 1 and 3. There was very little wind tonight at the park, which is typically very rare so similar conditions were at either baskets. I was hitting a slightly higher percentage from the 35 foot spot on basket 1 but no difference in the 18 foot comeback putts.



The setting sun was also putting on a show at the park by illuminating some cool clouds to the west.



My mini disc (or marker disc) had a good view of all my misses, and was trying to fit in with the local ground cover. Meanwhile my putting was frustrating me and the sun was turning off the lights so I headed home.