So, how did you play today? Part II

I played the Mad City Open yesterday and came in 3rd in MA65. I threw above my rating both rounds so I'm happy, and both cards were a blast to play with. I want to give a shout out to Jack Morris, my cardmate and the winner of MA65 who is having heart valve surgery this week. Good luck buddy, we'll see you next year!
 
Played a course/layout where I've averaged about half a stroke over par the last year and probably about 1.5 strokes under par the last 4 months or so.

Shot a +5 last night. I think I've reached the point in the year where I can't enjoy a full round after work. It is just too much of a scramble to deal with work traffic, get there, and get thru the course before dark.
 
Played a course/layout where I've averaged about half a stroke over par the last year and probably about 1.5 strokes under par the last 4 months or so.

Shot a +5 last night. I think I've reached the point in the year where I can't enjoy a full round after work. It is just too much of a scramble to deal with work traffic, get there, and get thru the course before dark.


I tend not to keep score often after the work day. Enjoying the moment outdoors. Multiple reps and focusing more on hitting line and being on rhythm than results.
 
Strange round today. I was sort of rushing to get a round in before work. Round didn't feel great at all. Arm was tired from fieldwork yesterday, distance was suffering accordingly, flex forehands didn't seem to be working at all, went OB a couple of times, dropped one in the drink, missed 3 or 4 20'-25' putts, and felt rushed the first 3 holes and last 7 holes because of a guy behind me that was moving quickly but didn't want to play through. Still ended up -1 on the round, which is now pretty close to average for me at that course.
 
Wasn't gonna golf yesterday... didn't have the right shoes, or clothes for that matter, but whatever. Boss left work early, so when 4:15 rolled around I decided to get in at least SOME holes before having to head home and take care of the doggos. Played the back 10 at Ottawa Park (19 hole course), throwing a forehand and a backhand off of every tee. I made sure that one of the two, every hole, was the Discraft Athena.

I'm definitely working hard to really learn the disc, and learn as many lines as possible - what it does at the slowest and the fastest speeds. I shot a -5 forehand and a -4 backhand, that flipped on the last hole when I went birdie with the FH and bogey with the BH. On a hole I always throw backhand with, that I was throwing FH with the Athena on for the first time. So I guess I'm getting the disc together.

I'd say this is one of the big differences between my game when I can play a LOT and my game when I'm just able to sneak out for lunch rounds and about one league round per week - when I'm able to get out there 3-5 times per week I do this stuff with single discs all the time with a variety of the discs in my bag, not just a new disc I'm learning. There are so many more lines that I have a fine feel for when I can golf a lot.

2024 can't come soon enough. :p
 
Week of huge ups and downs.

Played league on Sunday in 25-30 mph winds with gusts up to 40. Played terribly, including a 7 putt (birdsnowman) on the last hole on a huge hill, and ended up +20 on the day.

Spent a few hours the next day trying to practice wind putting and approaching.

Came back on Tuesday in even worse wind and shot a fairly mediocre +11, a few early mistakes cost me a decent round (considering the conditions) and my lines were off a little bit.

Went to our wooded course for some line hitting and scramble putting practice on Wednesday and shot a -1 there, which is a pretty solid score, especially considering it was pretty gusty and wet.

Got back to my home course today in much better weather. Had a tiny amount of rain and just enough wind to think about it on some shots. Birdied the entire front 9, missed a 23' putt on 10, but got it back with several 55-65' putts I had no business making.

Ended up shooting a course record -15, with several 25-33' putts and 3/5 in c2, all outside 55'. I was (mostly) hitting my lines and angles, not making dumb mistakes and my power was pretty solid. My mental game was excellent, too, but that's much easier when you're alone, practicing.

One thing that has not been working at all is my forehand off the tee. I threw a backhand on several holes today where that is a much tougher shot, just because I know my forehand would get me in trouble. It's weird, because my standstill approach forehand is the best it's ever been, by like a mile. I threw a 200' flip up hyzer with a beat baseline Zone to within 10' and pured a tight tunnel tee shot on the shortest hole on the course with the same disc.

I think tomorrow will be field work time with the forehand trying to work up from standstill and into a runup.
 
two rounds at Knoch Knolls in Naperville, Ill. Shot a +7, and a +3. Split the difference between having a slow to reasonable round, to sort of giving up, and goofing around. Making silly mistakes. Back to playing smart, and doing better, and then not.
 
Just when I think I'm figuring some things out on course and in the field I get my butt kicked by the same courses that always kick my butt. 😬 Good thing it was practice...
 
I was not ready for The Regulator. Had a chance for par on a few holes but couldn't putt. Didn't help that I also practiced Wellspring in the same park for next week's tournament first, which is shorter but same amount of hills. Didn't do great on that either!
 
First tournament with over 900 avg rating nearing end of first season of competition, yesterday. 923 first round and 879 second round. Only had one drive on the day with an early tree hit, very please with that especially since my elbow healed enough to bring FH back into the mix full time. Putting has improved since switching to non straddle full time but continues to be the source of strokes left on the course. The season has been a huge step for me and the comfort I now have playing with others and in competition has increased so so much.
 
Poorly on the first 18, then took 8 stokes off the second 18, which was a decent round for me. Eight hours out in the steady rain. Having a small umbrella was fantastic. Had a dry towel and socks for the second 18. Evidently, eating a cheeseburger can take some strokes off your game.
 
Going to be my best rated round ever even though last year I shot the exact same score on the exact same layout at the exact same tournament. Second round wasn't great, though still over rating, still 8 throws better than same layout last year, but I think it being deuce or die got in my head a bit and putting wasn't in the zone because of it.
 
Got my first tournament win last night, at a glow tournament! Did it in style too, wearing a Totoro onesie! 😁


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Get me in the woods with my Comets and a Watt and I'm good. Do that in the dark, and apparently I'm even better! 👻 shot my highest rated round post-transition (one stroke of my best EVER) in the dark!
 
I had a great weekend marred by mental weakness.

On Friday I went out and played Bald Mountain and Woods at Lakeshore. I used basically the entire day to focus on escaping my overthinking and really just execute the shots I know how to execute. It was interesting at Bald Mountain where I had what felt like a spectacular day off the tee (throwing almost exclusively the Athena) and couldn't really approach even with great spots on the fairway consistently. I shot a +8 day with 5 birdies, and a +4 finish was a harbinger of things to come in a way. At Woods I just had fun, smoked, had a few beers, and played generally terrible.

Highlight: punching down well over 100 feet past the short pad on Bald Mountain #9, and getting myself close enough for a simple hyzer putter and drop in 4. Very difficult hole that I'm very happy to say I've got the bird on.

The next day was Bark at the Moon, our community's local party event. I've won it twice and I was really just hoping to keep my head straight and make sure I didn't lose my entry fee.

I started the day off with a snafu... After a pair of pars on birdie holes I stepped up to a 35 foot putt and short armed the jump putt, falling well short of the basket and landing and rolling to about 3 inches beyond an OB line about 12 feet left of the pin. Just an embarrassing 3-shot bogey from bird range. Two holes later another similarly embarrassing putt that I floated over the basket. I would be +1 after 6 with two ugly missed putts from short C2.

And then just fire. Dead on straight in jumpers for the next 15 holes. Overall I wound up making 4 putts from C2 and one from short C3 on the final hole to go into round 2 with the lead. The equivalent to a 1011 rated round the last time the event was sanctioned (both pretty nice weather days).

Highlight: right before I hit the short C3 putt, on the 500 foot slight uphill hole 1 at Vienna, I told my card mates that I had got the bird on that hole during Bark at the Moon 4 times and I really wanted to make it 5. Great way to close out a round.

Round 2 in the dark the jump putting would remain strong, but the C1 putting got real ugly. Including 2 missed C1 20 footers in the last 3 holes, totaling out to 5 missed C1 putts. In the end, on the last hole, figuring I'd already choked away the tournament, I got real lazy on the last putt of the day and tossed it in the direction of the chains right after a card mate's putter settled into the basket, just kinda trying to get the end of the round out of the way and doinked it.

And that resulted in a guy off of second card tying me.

We would go on to run through a 10 hole playoff, each birding holes 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8 before he wound up getting me on hole 10.

It was a great playoff, great battle there, but man oh man I'm just gonna be kicking myself all week for the way I let my head get in the way of just playing the course at the end. Rough finish. The missed putt on 16 resulted in a double bogey, and the miss on 18 in a bogey... both of which were my only 2 holes on the day with more than 3 shots taken. Simply put I just let myself down.

Hopefully I play more tournaments next year and something like this isn't my only tournament result on the year again. :p
 
I had a great time enjoying the foliage and had plenty of opportunities to practice my scrambling. And that's all I got to say about that
 
Enjoyed what could be the last of 80 degree days in Virginia Beach Bayville course this year, some 10-15 mph wind blowing. Fall colors was scenic. Experimenting with Discmania for the first time S-Line DD1 hitting some gaps long to long, DD seems to thrive in headwind. 2 rounds no C2 putts made. A few other hero disc Neutron Orbital, Plasma Servo, and Fission Wave. Heavier wind for Wednesday I'll bring DD3, and Horizon Cloudbreaker to the course for the first time, it was those two last week that perked my curiosity in 15-20 mph wind on the practice field. The gripping feels good, there might be a few others in the S-line I pick up, and that will be it.
 
I played very well, -9 at Gatewood and -6 at Etowah to be tied for first in our big fall event.

Unfortunately I lost in the playoff, but still feel really good about how I played.
 

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