Many of you think of me as touring veteran. I toured in the Winniebago from 1999 to 2006. I then went to college and toured again in the Tioga in 2010. I then decided to move to Arizona to take on a different role trying to promote Latitude 64 and Trilogy golf discs, finally earning my first salaried position in disc golf. After working from home the last two years, I realize that I still have the itch. But I wondered if I still had the game. After winning the National Tour in Rochester, NY in 2014, I realized that I can still be a great champion. I thought I was getting old but this is disc golf, and I know that I have few more years left in me. So with the motivation of the love of my life, Synthya B Whitaker, we remodeled the RV and are going to hit the road for the next two years. Every week, I will write a little blog about adventures of our tour. Believe it or not, I will actually keep up with it once a week! So follow our tour enjoy the stories and free free to contact us with any feed back for our tour or stories.
Tour Stop #1
Pendaries Village, NM
Pendaries Spring Classic A-Tier
"4 Seasons in One Weekend"
Location
Many of you have never heard of Pendaries, NM. It is a hidden gem 30 miles outside of Las Vegas, NM. A private golf resort village built by the Dallas Cowboys to train during the hot months of summer in Texas. The course is only set up twice a year for the spring and fall tournaments. It is played on the back 9 of the permanent Pendaries ball golf course. Surrounded by snow caps in the distance and beautiful views, the Pendaries course is maybe the prettiest course in the United States. With the extreme elevation changes, water hazards, beautifully manicured fairways, and serene silence (as it is a private course with no public distractions or traffic). If you are looking for disc golf getaways, you should put Pendaries Classic on your schedule as it is worth the trip. Finally, New Mexican disc golfers are some of the friendliest disc golfers in the United States. They know how to be friendly, have a good time, yet maintain their professionalism at their events.
Competition
Headed to this years event, I had so much going on. Getting the RV ready, putting my life in storage, etc. so as I left, I was just looking forward to playing a nice A-Tier and getting in the swing of being on a professional tour full time again. This year's event turned out some good professional players. Returning champion Joe Rovere, touring professionals Paul Ulibarri, Drew Gibson, and Matt Bell. As well as many top players from the area such as Blazek, Weldon, Vallance, Tsinge, Roan, Lieberman and Marcos. So with such a strong field I knew it wouldn't be a cake walk, and Pendaries is known to have crazy weather conditions. This year was no exception. We had sunshine, rain, wind, freezing rain, wind, snow, sunshine, more wind, etc.
I came out of the gates on the featured card and really couldn't putt. Putting on the mountain is much more difficult than sea level. I was able to get my act together playing a very solid back 9. I shot -5 (55) and surprisingly I was in the three way tie for first place, but many of the names above shot 56 to 59. Second round, my putting came out a little stronger. Even though I had a few bad breaks, I managed to improve my score to -7 (53). It put me in a solo lead going into the final round. But Gibson had shot 51 from the second card and now was only one stroke back. Rounding out the lead card was Matt Bell, Patrick Blazek, and Paul Ulibarri.
When we woke up Sunday morning, it was cold, rainy, and started to snow. I thought to myself, this is going to be a long day. As I headed to my tee time the weather seemed to clear up a bit, and even though many of my friends suffered though tough morning rounds it seemed like we were only going to have to put up with a little chilly breeze and cold weather. Things were going good. Even though I had thrown OB on hole 3, I headed to the 8th teebox with the 3 stroke lead. This is where I made my crucial mistake. Hole #8 is the longest hole, an S curve fairway measuring almost 1500 feet with many OBs to avoid along the way. As I went to take the teebox it started to hail, I had already been slipping quite a bit on the first seven tee shots so I was concerned with such a big drive in front of me. I went to throw my usual shot and as my foot made contact with the rubber, it slipped out and I threw it directly on the ground. On this hole you have to carry 100 feet off the tee to be in bounds so I had to re-tee the hardest hole on the course. I managed to get a 6 but now I had opened the gates and I knew that it would be a dog fight the rest of the way. After a few holes Paul and I started to pull away, and we traded the lead back and forth. As we approached the 17th hole we were tied. We both threw good drives and decent approaches. I was 35' left and he was 22' right. As I mentioned before, putting on the mountain is very difficult. I gave it a good bid but it hit the tray. Uli cashed his 22 footer in the heart and took the lead. He played the safe lay up on the 18th hole forcing me to birdie. I threw a really nice roller and I got myself a 40 foot obstructed putt. Uli played up for the 3 forcing me to make the putt. I took deep breaths visualized and popped it in there to force the playoff with Uli.
Uli made a amazing three on the first playoff hole, a par four dog leg measuring seven hundred feet slightly uphill with the tee shot that has to carry 400 feet over water just to be in bounds. I congratulate Paul on a great win and look forward to many good battles this season. You can't win them all, but second place in my first week back on tour, not bad.
Equipment
My go to disc this weekend was the Deco Dye Mat Worlds off the tee. I approached and putted with the Medium Sinus as it was really windy and I thought a Sinus would be my best chance of making putts. I threw many of my regular discs that you can see in my "in the bag" videos but two new additions that got me birdies were Frost River and a Gold Line Roit. Both discs new to my bag and I don't see it leaving any time soon.
Next stop
Emporia KS, Glass Blown Open, National Tour #2.
"Trilogy getting bigger"
Attachments
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