Hey everyone, well this will be my last post for this adventure and I bring to you all the pictures that were taken during the week at the Worlds Event. My only regret is not taking more pictures of our time there but it is often hard to slow down enough to capture it all in pictures when you are trying to enjoy the moment. If you have any questions or comments submit them and I will cover it here.
First Day
Second Day
Third Day
Fourth Day
Fifth Day
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Worlds is over and we have a new champion
Saturday was an exciting day of golf, but due to the fact that we went out to the casino Friday night we missed the semi-finals. The Pro Men played their semi-final round at Water Works and it was a shoot out. Nate Sexton shoots a 46 to come from behind and tie Dave Feldberg for 5th place. Nate Played very solid golf all week and every round he played was above his rating. Nate also improved on his earlier round of 47 at Water Works and commented that he had a chance at the 44 but played more conservative to ensure a solid finish.
We finally managed to climb out of bed and get going in time to grab some breakfast and make our way over to Blue Valley for the Finals. When we got to the park there was already crowds of people there wandering around and visiting the vendors. We made our way over to hole 1's fairway after a few near collisions with some idiot from North Carolina who could not follow directions from the parking attendants who were telling him were to park. He decided to back down on us and nearly hit us until everyone started screaming at him and the horn was blaring in his ear. Then he tries to pull a u-turn in the middle of a crowded street and nearly backed down on us again. We were a little upset with this fellow but it would not disturb our state of bliss, we were at the Final round of the 2009 Worlds Disc Golf Championships and we were there to see some awesome golf shots and a new champion to be crowned.
We were sitting on the fairway of hole 1 watching the tee shots, the hole is 809 feet long so its a difficult task to get close on this hole. We were able to catch the battle in Adv Women as Maureen Higgins came from behind on the final nine holes to wrestle the championship away from Rebecca Frazer who looked like she had it all wrapped up before the semi-finals. We learned of a little drama that had taken place all week between the Frazer girls and Maureen so we started rooting for the underdog and she pulled it out. Next up we watched the Adv Men battle it out to see if David Wiggings Jr was going to be able to catch Matt Keatts. The so called talked about predicted next Amateur Champion had trouble during the week closing the gap on the leaders, while the lead changed hands a few times David never had the lead. Sure David is only 14 years old and it is hard to root against a kid, but when everyone tells you he is going to win you kind of like to believe that someone will take him down. In this case we never had to worry about David walking away with the title as he was playing catch up all week. He played some solid golf on the last 3 rounds to get into the finals but that is when his gas tank hit empty as no one could catch Matt. Matt played a flawless final 9 holes to shoot a 26 and slam the door on anyone trying to make a move. Matt made zero mistakes on his last round and from his play appeared to be the obvious champion.
Next came the Pro Women who we did not really catch much of, they teed off right after the Adv Men and because it was obvious after the semi-finals that unless Valarie was abducted she was going to be crowned a 3 time World Champion. So after the Adv men finished up we made our way back to hole 1 to catch the Pro Men square off. Now if you were following the scores online you saw Avery give back 11 strokes in rounds 5 & 6 to Josh Anthon but keeping his composure to take back 3 strokes in the Semi-finals at Water Works. Now we were thinking Avery has got this in the bag at Blue Valley for the final 9 given that the first three holes have two big arm holes, and he has a 2 stroke lead. But it would not be that easy. Josh put on a clinic on how to come from behind and square things up. Hole 1 Avery tees off first and does not get all of his power into the shot and he gets into trouble with groans from the crowd. While Josh tees off and crushes his drive to a perfect location on the fairway. Avery had to play out of the trees to the fairway while Josh laced his second shot to within 15 feet of the blind downhill basket. Avery laid up for the four while Josh cashed the putt for a 3, now the difference was only 1 stroke. Hole 2 is a 513 foot downhill shot and Avery gets off a great drive and gets back the stroke he gave up on hole 1. Hole 3 is a big arm hole, it plays 693 uphill with tough footing in the fairway if you get aggressive. Avery and Josh both get off the tee in good position, but on the up shots Josh catches a limb and only gets about 150 feet on the shot, Avery crushes his second shot up hill but comes up a little short. Avery finished the hole with a 4 and Josh with a 5, so the lead is now 3 strokes. Hole 4 ends up a push with both paring it. Hole 5 was a 330 foot uphill with a low ceiling of the tee, Josh and Avery both get inside the circle but only Josh makes the putt, the lead is now 2 strokes. Hole 6 is a short downhill shot with the basket on a plateau between two downhill sections. Josh parks his shot while Avery falls short. Josh makes his putt and Avery lays up, difference is now only 1 stroke. On hole 7 Josh parks his drive on the short uphill hole while Avery drives into the hillside, and we are all tied up. Hole 8, Josh parks his drive while Avery nearly aces the hole to end up a little long, but he makes the comeback to push the hole. Hole 9 both players tee off conservatively and push the hole. We go to sudden death.
Back on hole 1 Avery Jenkins is first to tee off, he gets all of his power into the shot this time and flips it over onto the right side of the fairway far short of his typical drives. Josh on the other hand uncorks another great drive and clears the corner on the left. Both guys throw their 2nd shots and are out of the circle. Avery lays up his 3rd shot for a tap in 4 while Josh looking at a 50 foot down hill putt runs it and just misses the chains. Josh ends up about 18 feet long but makes the uphill comeback. On hole 2 Avery crushes a drive down the right hand side of the fairway that fades just before the OB road to put him within 40 of the basket, but still uphill of it. Josh ends up catching a little of the tree guarding the basket and falls about 80 feet short, he does the smart thing and lays up the downhill putt to leave him with a 10 footer. Avery walks to his disc to check out his options, he backs off it then re-addresses the putt and lays it up under the basket for the push. They move on to hole 3, 693 uphill shot. Avery changes his game plan on this throw and instead of hyzering around the corner he goes straight at the pond to try and land on the flat portion just before the OB line. If you can get to this location you would have an easier second shot to get the Hyzer all the way to the basket. Avery's drive comes up about 3 feet short of the flat area and lands on the steep part of the slope. Josh throws his drive in almost the exact same spot as before. Avery is first to throw and he gets off a Hyzer shot that runs out of gas before the green and falls about 65 short of the uphill basket. We ran ahead to see the shots come in so we did not see Avery's throw but someone else said that when he tried to throw the shot he fell on the slope and still got the shot off. They were amazed on how much power he got on the throw seeing him fall as he released it. Josh on the other hand, throws the Hyzer cleanly around the corner this time to put him 80 feet out with an up hill putt. Both players miss the long up hill putts and we move on to hole 4. Hole 4 is the 611 foot uphill drive that flattens out for the last 300 feet or so. Both players get off crushing drives but Josh has better position. Avery has to throw a side arm shot from the right side of the fairway through a gap in the trees about 80 feet in front of him and carry the remaining 140 feet to the basket. Avery releases a clean throw and lands 10 feet long of the basket. Josh throws his up shot from a position directly in front of the tree gap and flips it over a bit and lands 15 feet to the right of the basket. They push the hole and move on to hole 5. Hole 5 was the hole that Avery could have sealed his fate during the final 9 had he made his putt inside the circle and this time he was not taking that kind of chance. Avery throws his tee shot about 15 feet short of the pin but in a very good spot, almost the same spot Josh threw his in the final 9. Josh on the other hand, throws his shot a little low and ends up about 40 feet below and to the right of the basket. The crowd at this point is in a frenzy running up the fairway to get around the basket to see if this will be the final hole. They nearly close off the green before Avery and Josh can get inside to inspect their position. With the crowd circling the green now around the back side of Josh and Avery and about 30 feet on the up hill side of the basket, Josh steps up to his putt. Josh does not look nervous, he lines up his putt with a slight bit of annhyzer in his wrist and lets it fly; the disc is on line but does not have enough power and it hyzers out just before the chains. The crowd starts to go wild and cheering for Avery as he addresses his 15 foot putt. I am not sure what Avery was thinking before his putt but I am guessing that is was something along the lines of "I may have missed some key putts in the final 9 but this putt right here will put it away." Avery releases his putt middle chains and it hits middle chains, the putt sticks and the crowd goes wild. There are so many people rushing in to congratulate Avery that Josh can not even get to his putter. Valerie, his sister and three time World Champion, runs out from the crowd and jumps into Avery's arm to congratulate him and a few seconds later both his mom and his dad are there as well.
Sudden Death Final Putt
We finally managed to climb out of bed and get going in time to grab some breakfast and make our way over to Blue Valley for the Finals. When we got to the park there was already crowds of people there wandering around and visiting the vendors. We made our way over to hole 1's fairway after a few near collisions with some idiot from North Carolina who could not follow directions from the parking attendants who were telling him were to park. He decided to back down on us and nearly hit us until everyone started screaming at him and the horn was blaring in his ear. Then he tries to pull a u-turn in the middle of a crowded street and nearly backed down on us again. We were a little upset with this fellow but it would not disturb our state of bliss, we were at the Final round of the 2009 Worlds Disc Golf Championships and we were there to see some awesome golf shots and a new champion to be crowned.
We were sitting on the fairway of hole 1 watching the tee shots, the hole is 809 feet long so its a difficult task to get close on this hole. We were able to catch the battle in Adv Women as Maureen Higgins came from behind on the final nine holes to wrestle the championship away from Rebecca Frazer who looked like she had it all wrapped up before the semi-finals. We learned of a little drama that had taken place all week between the Frazer girls and Maureen so we started rooting for the underdog and she pulled it out. Next up we watched the Adv Men battle it out to see if David Wiggings Jr was going to be able to catch Matt Keatts. The so called talked about predicted next Amateur Champion had trouble during the week closing the gap on the leaders, while the lead changed hands a few times David never had the lead. Sure David is only 14 years old and it is hard to root against a kid, but when everyone tells you he is going to win you kind of like to believe that someone will take him down. In this case we never had to worry about David walking away with the title as he was playing catch up all week. He played some solid golf on the last 3 rounds to get into the finals but that is when his gas tank hit empty as no one could catch Matt. Matt played a flawless final 9 holes to shoot a 26 and slam the door on anyone trying to make a move. Matt made zero mistakes on his last round and from his play appeared to be the obvious champion.
Next came the Pro Women who we did not really catch much of, they teed off right after the Adv Men and because it was obvious after the semi-finals that unless Valarie was abducted she was going to be crowned a 3 time World Champion. So after the Adv men finished up we made our way back to hole 1 to catch the Pro Men square off. Now if you were following the scores online you saw Avery give back 11 strokes in rounds 5 & 6 to Josh Anthon but keeping his composure to take back 3 strokes in the Semi-finals at Water Works. Now we were thinking Avery has got this in the bag at Blue Valley for the final 9 given that the first three holes have two big arm holes, and he has a 2 stroke lead. But it would not be that easy. Josh put on a clinic on how to come from behind and square things up. Hole 1 Avery tees off first and does not get all of his power into the shot and he gets into trouble with groans from the crowd. While Josh tees off and crushes his drive to a perfect location on the fairway. Avery had to play out of the trees to the fairway while Josh laced his second shot to within 15 feet of the blind downhill basket. Avery laid up for the four while Josh cashed the putt for a 3, now the difference was only 1 stroke. Hole 2 is a 513 foot downhill shot and Avery gets off a great drive and gets back the stroke he gave up on hole 1. Hole 3 is a big arm hole, it plays 693 uphill with tough footing in the fairway if you get aggressive. Avery and Josh both get off the tee in good position, but on the up shots Josh catches a limb and only gets about 150 feet on the shot, Avery crushes his second shot up hill but comes up a little short. Avery finished the hole with a 4 and Josh with a 5, so the lead is now 3 strokes. Hole 4 ends up a push with both paring it. Hole 5 was a 330 foot uphill with a low ceiling of the tee, Josh and Avery both get inside the circle but only Josh makes the putt, the lead is now 2 strokes. Hole 6 is a short downhill shot with the basket on a plateau between two downhill sections. Josh parks his shot while Avery falls short. Josh makes his putt and Avery lays up, difference is now only 1 stroke. On hole 7 Josh parks his drive on the short uphill hole while Avery drives into the hillside, and we are all tied up. Hole 8, Josh parks his drive while Avery nearly aces the hole to end up a little long, but he makes the comeback to push the hole. Hole 9 both players tee off conservatively and push the hole. We go to sudden death.
Back on hole 1 Avery Jenkins is first to tee off, he gets all of his power into the shot this time and flips it over onto the right side of the fairway far short of his typical drives. Josh on the other hand uncorks another great drive and clears the corner on the left. Both guys throw their 2nd shots and are out of the circle. Avery lays up his 3rd shot for a tap in 4 while Josh looking at a 50 foot down hill putt runs it and just misses the chains. Josh ends up about 18 feet long but makes the uphill comeback. On hole 2 Avery crushes a drive down the right hand side of the fairway that fades just before the OB road to put him within 40 of the basket, but still uphill of it. Josh ends up catching a little of the tree guarding the basket and falls about 80 feet short, he does the smart thing and lays up the downhill putt to leave him with a 10 footer. Avery walks to his disc to check out his options, he backs off it then re-addresses the putt and lays it up under the basket for the push. They move on to hole 3, 693 uphill shot. Avery changes his game plan on this throw and instead of hyzering around the corner he goes straight at the pond to try and land on the flat portion just before the OB line. If you can get to this location you would have an easier second shot to get the Hyzer all the way to the basket. Avery's drive comes up about 3 feet short of the flat area and lands on the steep part of the slope. Josh throws his drive in almost the exact same spot as before. Avery is first to throw and he gets off a Hyzer shot that runs out of gas before the green and falls about 65 short of the uphill basket. We ran ahead to see the shots come in so we did not see Avery's throw but someone else said that when he tried to throw the shot he fell on the slope and still got the shot off. They were amazed on how much power he got on the throw seeing him fall as he released it. Josh on the other hand, throws the Hyzer cleanly around the corner this time to put him 80 feet out with an up hill putt. Both players miss the long up hill putts and we move on to hole 4. Hole 4 is the 611 foot uphill drive that flattens out for the last 300 feet or so. Both players get off crushing drives but Josh has better position. Avery has to throw a side arm shot from the right side of the fairway through a gap in the trees about 80 feet in front of him and carry the remaining 140 feet to the basket. Avery releases a clean throw and lands 10 feet long of the basket. Josh throws his up shot from a position directly in front of the tree gap and flips it over a bit and lands 15 feet to the right of the basket. They push the hole and move on to hole 5. Hole 5 was the hole that Avery could have sealed his fate during the final 9 had he made his putt inside the circle and this time he was not taking that kind of chance. Avery throws his tee shot about 15 feet short of the pin but in a very good spot, almost the same spot Josh threw his in the final 9. Josh on the other hand, throws his shot a little low and ends up about 40 feet below and to the right of the basket. The crowd at this point is in a frenzy running up the fairway to get around the basket to see if this will be the final hole. They nearly close off the green before Avery and Josh can get inside to inspect their position. With the crowd circling the green now around the back side of Josh and Avery and about 30 feet on the up hill side of the basket, Josh steps up to his putt. Josh does not look nervous, he lines up his putt with a slight bit of annhyzer in his wrist and lets it fly; the disc is on line but does not have enough power and it hyzers out just before the chains. The crowd starts to go wild and cheering for Avery as he addresses his 15 foot putt. I am not sure what Avery was thinking before his putt but I am guessing that is was something along the lines of "I may have missed some key putts in the final 9 but this putt right here will put it away." Avery releases his putt middle chains and it hits middle chains, the putt sticks and the crowd goes wild. There are so many people rushing in to congratulate Avery that Josh can not even get to his putter. Valerie, his sister and three time World Champion, runs out from the crowd and jumps into Avery's arm to congratulate him and a few seconds later both his mom and his dad are there as well.
Sudden Death Final Putt
Friday, July 31, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
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!
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!
Monday, July 27, 2009
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!!!!!
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!!!!!
Sunday, July 26, 2009
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.
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.
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