The 2015 Beaver State Fling was another amazing Portland disc golf experience. I have had the good fortune of playing on the Am side a few times and was able to watch my son play on the pro side again this year, catching him 5 weeks into his summer tour. My hat is off to Jeff Haggerty, Jeff Mittl, their awesome staff of volunteers and the major sponsors (Next Adventure, Innova, Paragon, Keen, and others I know I'm missing). The preparation and hospitality of the staff is tremendous. These folks know how to put on a disc golf tournament!
The course prep was phenomenal. There were some subtle but significant changes from my last time playing, most notably a line of logs protecting 16E's green from roller approaches and the long, long (did I mention long?) grass rough lining all of the fairways on the non-woods holes. That rough definitely costs a 1/2 stroke when you hit it, between the lost distance of your shot, stress and energy of the search for your disc and hindrance to your subsequent run-up. More tournament courses should incorporate this feature.
Par was set just right for these holes/courses. Just because our tremendously-gifted MPO players are able to get birdies on some holes does not mean par should be lowered. Sexton's 2 on 8W during Saturday's round is nothing short of phenomenal. His roller line was very tricky and the grass that his disc rolled through was still rather thick. And the videos that I have seen fail to properly show the road his disc had to roll over and the knobbed island the disc had to stay on. Doss' eagles on 2W and 6W are also remarkable. I chatted with him on Sunday and he grinned ear-to-ear when I mentioned the 2W eagle. Total throw-in from the fairway. I asked him if 6W was the same and he said that it wasn't - he had crushed a Hyzer drive around the corner (450-ish?) which would have left a 400' thread-the-needle approach to get close enough for a 40' or so put (if my memory serves). No less amazing are the back-to-back 2's McBeth recorded on the Genius hole (8E) and 9E on Sunday, which he had tin-cupped a few years ago (recording a 10 I think?).
Paul's win just goes to show that he can't be counted out any weekend. His poise is second to none and his will to win is unmatched. However, all of the players here are the supporting cast to the real star of the weekend - Milo McIver State Park's Riverbend Disc Golf Course. Nate Doss summed it up best from the podium on Sunday afternoon, stating that if knew he would die tomorrow, he would want to play his last day of disc golf at Milo. Pretty strong words from a 3-time World Champ who grew up on the course at DeLa.