- Joined
- Jul 4, 2023
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- 199
I meant to post this to the Champion's Cup updates shortly after the tournament, but a busy work schedule and a memorial service for a close friend pretty much turned this into more of a travelogue or meanderings of crazy old man, so I'll risk posting it here.
First of all, very well-deserved wins for Eveliina and Pres. I followed Eveliina for about 10 holes on Friday and Saturday and thought she was by far and away the best player tee to green. Her putter was pretty shaky, which left her with a really narrow margin. Presnell seemed thoroughly in command every time I watched him and thought he would be tough to beat coming into the last day.
I followed the Silva-Stacie-Lisa-Jessica card on Thursday. Silva's game is just so mature for such a young player and her decision-making throughout was spot on. Stacie has a slow start, but ran off a nice four birdie streak midway through the round and wound up at +1. Lisa had a very professional +6 round, limiting the damage on bad holes and keeping herself alive. Jessica played pretty well throughout the round, but pretty much came unglued after a bad roll-away on #16. She did finish the round at +3, but was visibly upset.
I headed over to McNaughton Park in the afternoon to take advantage of what looked like the best weather of the weekend. I enjoyed the course, although the well-defined fairways and lines aren't my favorite type of design. I played pretty well and wound up playing the course back to back and was pretty happy with my play in general.
I went back in the afternoon to catch the end of the MPO round. I was able to watch some of the chase and lead cards from the 13th to the finish.
With my daughter and son-in-law arriving later in the day, I decided to catch the early card of Paige Shue-Erika-Vanessa-Heidi. It was an incredibly fun card to follow. All of the players were within a stroke of par with Heidi -1 when the horn blew to end the fun for the morning.
My guests and I waited out the delay, grabbed some lunch and did some game shopping, then checked out the FPO chase and lead cards, as well as a little bit of MPO action. We "saw" Cupcake's throw-in in on #7 (it was pretty dark so we heard chains and a cheer) and some nice scrambling by Cole before the horn brought the weird day to an end.
We were up bright and early for the MPO finish. We started with the Barela-Buhr- Heimburg-Bell card, but none of them were playing well or particularly happily, so we split up and watched different cards. I followed Ulibarri-Ezra Robinson-Marwede-Burridge which was a lot of fun to watch. Ezra had a hot round going and the rest of the card was playing well before the wind came up. #14 would be bad enough with no wind, but it really beat the card up with any disc that wasn't absolutely flat being blown into the honeysuckle.
Maggie and Tim went off to follow the FPO lead card while I decided to stick around the 18th, which is not a great spectator hole as there is very limited space to view the up-shot and basket. Mostly, I watched the putts, got a bunch of autographs, and talked to players.
Deciding we needed a break from the crowds, we headed over to Megiddo DGC for a round. If ever there was a course designed for me, it's this one. Give me a tee-box, point me at the basket, clear out most of the honeysuckle and thorn bushes, and let me blast away. We all had a nice mix of insanely good shots, ridiculously bad ones, and plenty of good and bad tree kicks. A good time was had by all (but mostly me).
The kids headed back to Milwaukee and I headed back to Northwood to pick up some MPO action. I was able to catch the top four cards for a few holes each from #13 to #18. I asked one young fan who he was rooting for and he said, "I'm cheering for Anderson, but I think Pres it going to win." Impressive pick considering he was currently in third and three strokes back.
For my final day, I decided to catch a card with a bunch of my favorites, Lisa-Hanna-Rebecca-Jenni. I got lucky again as Rebecca was blazing through the first eleven holes at -6, although the wind came up and her birdies started turning into pars, she still finished with a respectable -5 round. Hanna played really solidly with an even par round getting three birdies to go with her three bogies on a day where birdies were tough to come by for everyone on the card even before the wind started blowing. Lisa showed why she's such a great pro, playing within her game, not getting flustered by bad luck or misplaced throws, and finishing +2 on the day. Jenni had a tough day, mostly due to some putting struggles that cost her several birdies and par saves. Impressively, she played the four nasty par 5s at even par.
After the card finished, I watched the leaders come in, saw Henna's fantastic eagle putt and Eveliina's amazing par save, enjoyed a few minutes saying farewell to Heidi and her mom, and even made a brief appearance on DGN (much to their likely disgust). I had to get on the road back to Kentucky, so I didn't stay around for the MPO final day. The wind was blasting as I drove home, so it was doubly impressive when I watched the MPO final round when I arrived at home.
In review, I had a great time at the tournament and enjoyed the area disc golf as well. In general, the tournament was well-run with a few issues that need to be addressed. Restrooms/Portable toilets were in short supply both on the course and at tournament central. There were no toilets between the first and seventh holes and no spectator toilets on the back 9. The communication was really poor during the weather delay. Despite receiving daily emails repeating the same tournament info we'd received for the preceding week, we received no communication about the weather delay and missed the restart of play. Finally, the food vendors were sent away on Friday, so there was no food or drinks available after 5pm. We were fortunate to have eaten dinner before returning, but there were several upset fans, especially those with kids. I think Northwood is a tremendous course and I'd love to come back and play it despite it being brutally difficult and my sample of area courses indicates that there are more to explore in the area.
First of all, very well-deserved wins for Eveliina and Pres. I followed Eveliina for about 10 holes on Friday and Saturday and thought she was by far and away the best player tee to green. Her putter was pretty shaky, which left her with a really narrow margin. Presnell seemed thoroughly in command every time I watched him and thought he would be tough to beat coming into the last day.
I followed the Silva-Stacie-Lisa-Jessica card on Thursday. Silva's game is just so mature for such a young player and her decision-making throughout was spot on. Stacie has a slow start, but ran off a nice four birdie streak midway through the round and wound up at +1. Lisa had a very professional +6 round, limiting the damage on bad holes and keeping herself alive. Jessica played pretty well throughout the round, but pretty much came unglued after a bad roll-away on #16. She did finish the round at +3, but was visibly upset.
I headed over to McNaughton Park in the afternoon to take advantage of what looked like the best weather of the weekend. I enjoyed the course, although the well-defined fairways and lines aren't my favorite type of design. I played pretty well and wound up playing the course back to back and was pretty happy with my play in general.
I went back in the afternoon to catch the end of the MPO round. I was able to watch some of the chase and lead cards from the 13th to the finish.
With my daughter and son-in-law arriving later in the day, I decided to catch the early card of Paige Shue-Erika-Vanessa-Heidi. It was an incredibly fun card to follow. All of the players were within a stroke of par with Heidi -1 when the horn blew to end the fun for the morning.
My guests and I waited out the delay, grabbed some lunch and did some game shopping, then checked out the FPO chase and lead cards, as well as a little bit of MPO action. We "saw" Cupcake's throw-in in on #7 (it was pretty dark so we heard chains and a cheer) and some nice scrambling by Cole before the horn brought the weird day to an end.
We were up bright and early for the MPO finish. We started with the Barela-Buhr- Heimburg-Bell card, but none of them were playing well or particularly happily, so we split up and watched different cards. I followed Ulibarri-Ezra Robinson-Marwede-Burridge which was a lot of fun to watch. Ezra had a hot round going and the rest of the card was playing well before the wind came up. #14 would be bad enough with no wind, but it really beat the card up with any disc that wasn't absolutely flat being blown into the honeysuckle.
Maggie and Tim went off to follow the FPO lead card while I decided to stick around the 18th, which is not a great spectator hole as there is very limited space to view the up-shot and basket. Mostly, I watched the putts, got a bunch of autographs, and talked to players.
Deciding we needed a break from the crowds, we headed over to Megiddo DGC for a round. If ever there was a course designed for me, it's this one. Give me a tee-box, point me at the basket, clear out most of the honeysuckle and thorn bushes, and let me blast away. We all had a nice mix of insanely good shots, ridiculously bad ones, and plenty of good and bad tree kicks. A good time was had by all (but mostly me).
The kids headed back to Milwaukee and I headed back to Northwood to pick up some MPO action. I was able to catch the top four cards for a few holes each from #13 to #18. I asked one young fan who he was rooting for and he said, "I'm cheering for Anderson, but I think Pres it going to win." Impressive pick considering he was currently in third and three strokes back.
For my final day, I decided to catch a card with a bunch of my favorites, Lisa-Hanna-Rebecca-Jenni. I got lucky again as Rebecca was blazing through the first eleven holes at -6, although the wind came up and her birdies started turning into pars, she still finished with a respectable -5 round. Hanna played really solidly with an even par round getting three birdies to go with her three bogies on a day where birdies were tough to come by for everyone on the card even before the wind started blowing. Lisa showed why she's such a great pro, playing within her game, not getting flustered by bad luck or misplaced throws, and finishing +2 on the day. Jenni had a tough day, mostly due to some putting struggles that cost her several birdies and par saves. Impressively, she played the four nasty par 5s at even par.
After the card finished, I watched the leaders come in, saw Henna's fantastic eagle putt and Eveliina's amazing par save, enjoyed a few minutes saying farewell to Heidi and her mom, and even made a brief appearance on DGN (much to their likely disgust). I had to get on the road back to Kentucky, so I didn't stay around for the MPO final day. The wind was blasting as I drove home, so it was doubly impressive when I watched the MPO final round when I arrived at home.
In review, I had a great time at the tournament and enjoyed the area disc golf as well. In general, the tournament was well-run with a few issues that need to be addressed. Restrooms/Portable toilets were in short supply both on the course and at tournament central. There were no toilets between the first and seventh holes and no spectator toilets on the back 9. The communication was really poor during the weather delay. Despite receiving daily emails repeating the same tournament info we'd received for the preceding week, we received no communication about the weather delay and missed the restart of play. Finally, the food vendors were sent away on Friday, so there was no food or drinks available after 5pm. We were fortunate to have eaten dinner before returning, but there were several upset fans, especially those with kids. I think Northwood is a tremendous course and I'd love to come back and play it despite it being brutally difficult and my sample of area courses indicates that there are more to explore in the area.
