The Doane Classic: Soggy Tacos

It is official.  Not only are MRK and Diggs PDGA members, we now also have rated rounds under our belts.  This will lead to our first official PDGA ratings!  We'll have to dance a little jig when they come out in the middle of May.

We popped our ratings cherry at the 2nd Annual Doane College Classic in Crete, NE this past Easter weekend.  I have the scratches to prove it.  We had settled on the Doane classic for a number of reasons.  It was close to me; we were both available; and it was a sanctioned tournament without the pressure of the other tournaments we are looking at for the rest of the year.  It is a small C-tier in out-of-the-way Nebraska.  We figured we would be able to get our tournament feet under us without having to compete against the best of the Twin Cities or the crowd an A-tier would draw.

Course:
The main hitch to the plan was our unfamiliarity with the course.  Until that week, neither of us had even seen the course.  Being close enough to give it a look, Diggs-Jiggs Express trucked our way down there early in the week to get a sense of what we were looking at.  MRK and I were also able to hit it up the day before.  Well, most of them.  The course has undergone a few changes.  We missed about 4-5 holes, though we were able to get in most of them.

The course is truly bipolar.  The beginning holes play pretty open.  Trees shrubs are in play for most of the holes, but lines are generally widely available, especially the first holes.  They play typical lengths, and the designers did a fair job in utilizing the surrounding grounds to create some good golfing.  Then comes the back nine.  You cross a road and feel like you've crossed to another course.  They fairly typical, open holes are replaced by very tight, short holes, most are shorter than 200 ft.  This continues until hole 18 which brings you to a nice tunnel shot.  The course plays to the short to mid-range game, especially those adept at anhyzers/short, precise forehand shots.  This is not the strength of my game.

More after the jump...

Playing with Uli

Just a quick note before the disc weekend begins.  Word has come down the pike that Paul Ulibarri, a top ten player, will be playing the Doane Tourney with the MRK and myself.  It'll be nice to know how truly horrible I am compared with those who know what they're doing.  But still, playing with that caliber of a player will be the balls.

Jealous?

~Diggs

Hole-ly Saturday

Around this time of year, a lot of strange names are given to days in the Christian tradition.  Ash Wednesday was sometime back (where folks put ash on their faces), marking the beginning of Lent (another odd word).  In a couple days will be Palm Sunday, followed consecutively by Maundy Thursday (not Monday Thursday), Good Friday (which didn't seem that good), Holy Saturday (a meh-type of day), and (the big one) Easter Sunday (and I have now hit max number of parenthetical remarks.  Congratulations, you have just witnessed history).  The day that nobody does anything (Holy Saturday)... (alright, I'll stop), will be transformed to Hole-ly Saturday in commemoration of the first tourney of the year for MRK and myself.  We will be participating in the Doane College Classic next weekend as intermediates.  Neither one of us has played this course, so it'll be interesting to see how it pans out.  My prediction?  MRK says it best...

 

~Diggs, out.

On Phoenixes & Rainy Days: A Highbridge HIlls SC Review, Pt 4... Pt 2

Highbridge Gold and Granite Ridge in Memorium...

First up, Granite Ridge!

Diggs and the King in front of the landmark sign, found on Granite Ridge's course

This is actually Blueberry, but this is a taste of the fog we threw through during the beginning of the round

This is URBWes on the last hole of the course with the fog lifting quite a bit

This was a neat fallen tree left to provide more difficulty

This shot taken in a field after a 300+ foot throw, and you had to hit that tunnel. I faded into the trees on the left and went OB in the creek bed. bummer...

URBWes meditating upon the round. The other fellow always seems to be pointing at something...

And now, Highbridge Gold!

BroLo El Cunado kneeling Tom Joad style next to a tree. I think it is a metaphor. You know? For how the big course brought us to our knees... Righteous.

This was the fun terraced green on Hole #18. The whole hole was terraced in much the same way

Hole #8 Intro for the Longest Hole

BroLo El Cunado being all sorts of man on the pad. I believe he had a triple bogey on this one


BryJohn showing his throwing skills. Dude never plays, but he played this one in sandals. Straight gangsta.

Jiggs showing us the Leaning Dutchman routine

After my first drive on hole #8. Can you see the basket? No? It's about 1000 ft further down behind that clump of trees up ahead. Probably didn't help that my Nuke had a meltdown off the tee

Fin.

~Diggs

On Phoenixes & Rainy Days: Highbridge HIlls SC Review, Pt 4

Pt 4... Stay Gold, Ponyboy (or Money Disc)

We have reviewed the Woodland Bear. We have reviewed Granite Ridge. Now we touch on the big daddy of Highbridge Hills... the Gold Course! We hit Granite Ridge in the morning and Gold after lunch. Play time was approximately 5 hours. That's 5... with a 5. Course length is ~8500 ft. Of the 18 holes, only four are under 300 ft; three are between 300-400 ft; and fully eleven holes are over 400 ft, including the (self-proclaimed) longest hole in the world, Hole #8 coming in at over 1300 ft.

This course was the pièce de résistance of our trip, the source of our desires, and the sun decided to show itself as we began to play. Since this was to be our most anticipated round of disc EVER MRK decided to make things a little more interesting. The winner of the round would be awarded a disc. Not just any disc; the disc with the sweetest name a disc could ever dream of... the Money Putter.

Let me tell you straight out that the best kept course I have ever seen resides in East Bethel, MN and is known as Blue Ribbon Pines. This one is a close enough second. The lines were well laid and well taken care of. To be fair, Jon had just gone out the day before to mow it all down. Jon's good that way. It was just a beautiful course. Gold offers a nice change in elevation; good use of vegetation and stone. It even mixed in a little water, though it really didn't factor into the course much. Gold does everything you hope a golf course to do. As Timmy Gill puts it, it rewards good throws and punishes bad ones.

Only a couple things work against the Gold course. A stage was left in disrepair and disuse after it's initial construction for the World Amateurs played there years before (round abouts hole 18 if memory serves). It just gummed up the aesthetics. Hole 16 was also a bit of a let down. Supposedly an island hole, the water had long since dried up, leaving what had once been (I'm sure) a very comely wooden ring around the island. The ring had unfortunately suffered a breach and the whole thing was in the process of falling apart apparently due to the extreme weight of the soil it was holding up.

Everything else was finger-licking good. Notable holes included hole 2(?) with a nice little elevated putt. I enjoyed hole 18 with it's terraced shots and an elevated green. Hole 10 was a tricky shot choice involving heavy pines. Another hole (of which number I forget, maybe 11) offered a neat little shot over a pond before anhyzering back right into this protected grove hidden within the side of a small hill. Hole 16's island green was a neat idea, even if she isn't as pretty as she used to be. And the most memorable of all was the famous hole 8, the big guy. It looked to be a ball golf hole converted wholesale into the longest permanent hole in the world, a hole that has garnered a legit par 6 from the PDGA. This thing wasn't just long... it was beautiful. Three tee pads in terrace formation lead to a gradual decline in elevation, bracketed on each side by tall pines. This opens up into a breath-taking view of the valley. A few trees line the right side of the fairway before emptying into grove of trees much closer to the basket, forcing a picky hyzer shot that better go as far as you think it will if you want to clear the brush and vegetation or a lay up anhyzer before a short approach and putt. Simply stunning. My only regret is turning over my Nuke WAY too much, crashing it into the treeline on the right and essentially wasting my first two shots on that drive and my recovery shot.

MRK and I ended the round in a tie, but since this was MY bachelor party and I can cry if I want to, I can now gaze upon the Money Putter neatly mounted near my home office, reminding me of that wonderful trip... that wonderful course... Highbridge Gold.

Stay gold, Ponyboy... stay gold

~Diggs

The Elusive Eluders

We take a break from the Highbridge review to bring you this update...

THE SEASON HAS BEGUN!

That is right, ladies and gentlemen, the 2012 disc golfing season is under way. Not only has the Memorial Classic been played, but the light winter has made it possible for disc to become more recreational activity and less survival adventure. We had 70 degrees today. Jealous, northmen?

Jiggs and I had the good fortune to knock some rust off last Friday, doing a little throwing at some soccer fields. It was an abysmal and windy experience... and sore, and sore. Today, we recovered enough to hit the local rec course for an actual round. I would be lying if I said I wasn't having the grandest ol' time out there. I would also be lying if I said I didn't have one of the more consistent rounds in my career... on the first day back. I have had better rounds with better numbers and prettier throws, but the fact that a great round happened on a day that I was expected multiple ugly numbers is significant.

I pulled 5 birdies while leaving 3 very make-able putts out on the range, compared to just one bogey. As I said, not super flashy numbers, but consistent! And consistency is ultimately what we are going for. I wasn't pressing or forcing shots. I was calm and collected. I let the shots glide out and I had confidence in my putting (for some strange reason). It all came together.

I even hit chains on my hole 3 drive, though the bounce out robbed me of my first ace. That's right, still without an ace over here. It yet eludes me.

Yet more significantly, the consistency which has ultimately eluded me throughout my career found me today. Let us hope that I remain consistently consistent throughout the season.

Good luck with your snow, everyone.

~Diggs

Memorial Live

FYI... the annual Memorial Championship is being broadcast live on pdga.com. You can also watch recaps after live coverage ends. Currently over 1400 people are watching it live, even in the middle of the day!

On Phoenixes & Rainy Days: A Highbridge Hills SC Review, Pt 3

Part 3... Like a Rock (or Wet Dreams)

Waking in the morning of the second day, feeling decidedly unlike P. Diddy, one topic pervaded my mind... rain. Why wouldn't it rain on the day I had awaited for years? The storm had began the evening before, and by my waking at 6 a.m. the downfall remained. I won't lie; I was getting mighty disconcerted. After all this time to be hampered by the weather was almost too much to bear. In my mind, I ran through the possibilities, and I imagined we would likely need to relocate back to the Twin Cities for any semblance of a bachelor weekend. But I wasn't prepared to give up just yet.

By the time a normal person awakes on vacation, the rains had abated, and in the young morning, a heavy mist lay throughout the area. We decided to give it a go. By 10 a.m. we were heading out to our first sortie of the day, Granite Ridge. The original plan was to hit up the Woodland Green as a nice little warm up. This changed for two reasons. We had stumbled through most of the Woodland course the day before. It also seemed as if the length of the courses were an unknown factor. The length of them were beyond your typical course, meaning any given round is destined to last about twice as long as the norm. So we decided to reassess our options and went straight for those courses we truly wished to play. Number one on the list was obviously the Gold course, but we were saving that for the afternoon.

While Blueberry Hill was high on the list, we had looked at Granite Ridge as our best option for the morning round. With the fog hanging heavy in the air and water soaking our shoes, we trudged out to the course to give it the "what for". Admittedly, I was a little depressed about the situation and felt none too good about my game that morning. So, as we walked up to hole 1 and saw... well, nothing but the tee pad and haze, I volunteered my services as spotter, hoping to avoid being the first up and embarrassing myself. Hole 1 sloped downhill about 300 ft, a fairly straight shot, but islands of trees forced you to take either a hyzer or anhyzer line to get to the basket. I took my place around 200 ft down the hill, allowing me a pretty good vista of any shot to come down. The problem? I couldn't see the tee pad! I'm telling you... FOGGY!

Standing down there, depressed, wet and cold, I began preparing myself for what I thought would be a very long day. Then, appearing out of nowhere, a disc came hovering overhead, landing somewhere beyond me and to the left. Then another. And each time a disc passed overhead, joy slowly started to sneak in. The soft buzzing overhead and the sensation of discs appearing out of nowhere combined with the beautiful surroundings and great company lifted my spirits. When my turn finally came, my blind shot landed right around the putting circle and I finished with a birdie putt. At that point, I was off and running.

While our experience was greatly impacted by the weather conditions, the round was wonderful! Granite Ridge is a wonderful array of options, providing slightly wooded shots mixed with a number of more open shots. The course is aptly named, noting the large rocky outcroppings. Some elevation change and water comes into play. And since I could generally drive the farthest of our group, I loved the amount of longer, open holes! I have the round scores somewhere and I will post them in time, but in spite of throwing into a creek bed marked OB, I still came within striking distance of par. And for my first time on a course, that was a stinking good round for me. This post is long enough already, but let it be known that for me, Granite Ridge was the best course we played... until the afternoon, anyways!

"... But no one here is asking..."

~Diggs

Slimming Down

Slimming down may not just be a New Years resolution but a disc golf resolution as well. I’m not talking about losing weight here. I’m talking about losing discs. But not in the traditional sense of grip locking one on North Valley Park’s (now just The Valley) treacherous hole 15. For the rookies that hole is a 615 foot anhyzer line over a huge pond with not much room to spare by landing on the side of a hill.

No I am am suggesting that I move from a period in my disc golf career where it’s not so much expansion/exploration of new plastic/discs but a contraction and lightening the load that I have to carry. Those of you who have played with me know I carry a full bag. I believe its up to 22-24 strong. Do I play with all 22-24 on a given day? Well that depends on the course. But it has come to my attention after watching a few new disc golf dvds that my bag may be a little over crowed with plastic I either haven’t mastered enough to feel comfortable throwing in a given round or just “think I might need/have that shot.”

The thought for this post came from a conversation I heard between our favorite disc golf announcer Billy Crump and David Feldberg speaking about Nikko Locastro’s mixed bag he throws meaning he plays with discs put out by companies that don’t sponsor him. Anyway back to the point. Most pros will tell you to practice a lot and get good at throwing a few discs...then buy multiples of those discs and wear them in to different points and you will be all set.

Seeing as I won’t be a sponsored player anytime soon. (but one can dream right...) I have been really thinking about that piece of advice from the pros and thinking about the discs in my bag currently. Do I really need 22-24 different discs? I can say that in hindsight because I did just put some discs in to “fill the bag” but I can probably think of at least 2-4 discs that I don’t throw on a given day and that I could replace with another disc that is already in my bag. My thought is to over the next few weeks as the winter season in the Land of 10,000 mosquit....Lakes starts to close (Lord willing) is to really take a look at the discs I have in my bag and pair some of those down and look to adding a few multiples and work on breaking a few in. I’ve done that already with my buzzes. I have a pretty beat in ESP buzz that I can manipulate to any shot and I have a stiffer Z-plastic buzz that holds the line you throw it on. Which works great for tight wooded shots. To each his own in the quest for the lowest round of the day.

May the post find you inspired to play a round.

MRK

Sober Up Freddy

This time of year, I miss my disc homeys. We just never seem to talk much during the offseason. Part of it I understand. I mean, what is there to talk about other than flying plastic? That said, I'm making an effort to stay friends with folks beyond the chains of the course and the pixels of the blog.

Jiggs and I had a chance to get out on the course a couple times in January. The King and I will get to catch up tomorrow. URBWes is a little harder to get in touch with, but after repeated texts and voicemails, I received a video update from him. A bit more than I expected, but it was sweet to catch up.

Anyways, I thought I'd post it all to you, figuring we are all friends, and you might be interested. He displays what's going on at work at 1:34. His music work can be found at 1:20. And his love life is at 1:26. He even gave me the good ol' Shooters at 0:55 like we used to do in high school. You can also definitely feel the influence from other videos he's done. Saturday Night Fever ring a bell, Lady's Man?

Anyways, here's the video. Hope you enjoy...