DGPT: 2019 Discraft's Portland Open presented by Bevel Craft Brewing May 25-27

[ODRB]

Hole 6, especially, is just not an interesting shot.

As someone who plays there a lot, including the last two days in a row, I have to disagree with you about this. It's a really different hole in the winter when it's raining. Or when the wind is up. In good conditions, it's a straightforward two for open players. But I wager there are more threes and fours on it on any given Saturday then there are twos.

And it's a nice respite in a normal round where a single good Roc shot gets you a 2.

Not every hole needs to be a challenge for top pros in near-perfect conditions.

 

[ODRB]

Yep, holes 4, 6, and 9 would be my top three contenders for re-design too. Hole 6, especially, is just not an interesting shot.

I guess I'd be really curious to see you run the numbers on the OR Am Championship. 9 is real soft. 4 & 6 are straightforward par 3 in the 300' range. I don't see the problem with a long hard course having two of those, especially stacked up front before a harder back 9.

 

[teemkey]

So what do you think about Sexton/Koling's suggestions for nine?

Either move the tee up 50' or so and make it a par 3, or let the OB grow back toward the tee so the lay up zone is 100' farther from the basket.

 

[ODRB]

So what do you think about Sexton/Koling's suggestions for nine?

Either move the tee up 50' or so and make it a par 3, or let the OB grow back toward the tee so the lay up zone is 100' farther from the basket.

That's a decent option. Or just shrink the island green to the circle or smaller.

Again, I know half the AM field took 3 or heavier last year. But I expect to 3 every time. So it's soft. Moving the OB shorter by 80' doesn't change a thing about how I play it—I'm usually 50+ feet short of the tall grass, but I still throw a slow putter to the pin.

I like Blue Lake being a very long and punishing course because it keeps it quiet when Pier Park is full. But I still see a lot of 4+ scores on that hole on a random day, with people looking for discs in the deep OB rough.

Until last weekend the course record was 54. And a dubs league full of local pros puts up scores well north of that every week.

 

[brutalbrutus]

That course just needs at least some wind with that field of players. It was less than 10mph almost the entire weekend. I think it kicked up a bit before and during the rain, but for the most part, it was near calm Sunday and Monday. That let them throw a lot of precise approach shots.

Nothing crazy or gusty. Just a decent steady 10-15 and that is a really good test of skill.

 

[Steve West]

There are so many 3s on that hole, it would be very difficult to make it worse.

If there is not enough room to make it a lot longer, it would be hard to get more 4s without just throwing random penalties at everyone. So, the only real choice is to increase the chance at a 2.

Taking away all the OB on 9 would improve it.

So would shortening it by 150 feet or so.

So would making the OB into Relief Areas (no-penalty OB).

 

[McCready]

I'm late to the party but to throw in my 2 cents...

1. On the Hammes incident, first thing I noticed was the camera was weirdly close. I understand space was limited but I can see how that can be annoying. It's no one's fault if the camera guy didn't have more room. As a pro it's just something you have to deal with.
2. Hammes' horrible shot is one we've all made, and I'm guessing most of us have felt the burning rage after throwing a few of those in a round. You want to throw your bag in the lake, maybe punch someone, maybe just leave. That acute anger can really take hold, and sometimes there's nothing you can do to calm down in the moment. That's the nature of individual sports, you can't blame anyone else (and you look like an idiot if you try).
3. I wish Simon's take was accurate (Hammes was a bit miffed but the camera guy is a friend and all was cool afterward), but Hammes' social media post blew that out of the water. It's a bizarre story that I haven't seen corroborated (camera guy intentionally getting under his skin). I find it hard to believe and if true, that guy should never work a tournament again.
4. Hammes' social media post obviously made things much worse, and arguably was more egregious than the incident itself. He's very young so he'll have to learn: you suck it up, take ownership of your part of whatever happened and effing APOLOGIZE for acting unprofessionally. He can plead his case behind the scenes if what he claims about the camera guy is true. But acting unprofessionally ever, regardless of the circumstance, is a blot on your reputation and never okay, period. This is difficult in the heat of battle, but it's part of being a pro. Doubling down is more worrisome than the act itself, because he should have had time to compose himself and be the bigger man. If it happens again it's going to stick with him and hurt his career.
5. Eagle is close in age to Adam and showed us in his interview that he's light years ahead in his mental game. We're lucky as fans to have these years ahead of us to watch him develop and hopefully dominate. He's our next big superstar. Don't be surprised if he puts up numbers like Paul in '15, just shredding every tournament in sight. His game is insanely fun to watch and he's a quality person you want to root for. One of many unique characters we're lucky enough to have and a huge asset to the game. There's going to come a time when Paul plateaus as Eagle is peaking, and those battles are going to be legendary.
6. Hats off to all the media folks for the awesome coverage as usual, and to Drew for absolutely killing it from the chase card, hanging in there and taking it down. This was the most exciting tournament we've had so far this season.

 

[JC17393]

One thing that should be noted for the record...Adam's social media post was taken down by him the next day after he had a conversation with Terry Miller and the camera guy (presumably maybe Steve Dodge as well?). This was reported by Miller and Jonny V on the Smashboxx podcast on Tuesday. I think everything got too heated...Adam in the moment, Terry on the broadcast after the fact, and then Adam's reaction (the post) to the pushback on the broadcast and in the chats (and on forums like this one here).

I think the removal of the post was both a mature move by Adam and a sign that everything between everyone involved was cool.

 

[McCready]

One thing that should be noted for the record...Adam's social media post was taken down by him the next day after he had a conversation with Terry Miller and the camera guy (presumably maybe Steve Dodge as well?). This was reported by Miller and Jonny V on the Smashboxx podcast on Tuesday. I think everything got too heated...Adam in the moment, Terry on the broadcast after the fact, and then Adam's reaction (the post) to the pushback on the broadcast and in the chats (and on forums like this one here).

I think the removal of the post was both a mature move by Adam and a sign that everything between everyone involved was cool.

Removing the post without any follow-up is the opposite of maturity in my opinion. It's just act of damage control, acknowledging he looked like an ass. Next step is to post again with an apology, recognizing his anger got the best of him and stating his intention not to let it happen again. And not just because he owes the camera guy or the fans an apology — the biggest benefit would be to himself. To reference Eagle again, he's constantly talking through his mistakes and how he's working to improve. That shows accountability, not just to his sponsors and fans, but most importantly to himself. And that mindset is what you need to succeed in anything in life.

Glossing over this (albeit small) incident is in the same category of mental rot that will destroy his game — I don't need to practice putting today, I played poorly because a fan yelled, there's too much OB, etc. Small things like this can become bad habits.

I say these things as someone who enjoys watching Adam throw and rooting for him to be one of the new young guns on tour challenging the established stars.

Also, do people really think removing something on social media is like it was never posted??

 

[JC17393]

Also, do people really think removing something on social media is like it was never posted??

No, but it can act as a way of snuffing out the flames. My guess is that there were innumerable replies to his post and those hadn't stopped from the moment he posted. Deleting the post ends all that. Making another post, even as an apology or a mea culpa, can have the same effect.

And with the way the different algorithms work on social media, there's a fairly good possibility that if he left the original post up and made a subsequent follow up apology, the original might still propagate further than the apology. The apology doesn't do much good if the original is hitting more people's feed.

Pretty sure this is a dead topic on social media platforms at this point. It's only still a thing here because people keep posting to the thread and keeping it prominent (said with full recognition that this post just keeps that going).

 

[McCready]

No, but it can act as a way of snuffing out the flames. My guess is that there were innumerable replies to his post and those hadn't stopped from the moment he posted. Deleting the post ends all that. Making another post, even as an apology or a mea culpa, can have the same effect.

And with the way the different algorithms work on social media, there's a fairly good possibility that if he left the original post up and made a subsequent follow up apology, the original might still propagate further than the apology. The apology doesn't do much good if the original is hitting more people's feed.

Pretty sure this is a dead topic on social media platforms at this point. It's only still a thing here because people keep posting to the thread and keeping it prominent (said with full recognition that this post just keeps that going).

Good points about the posts fanning the flames further, though I would contend that's less of an issue than the lack of accountability. I would want my character reflected more positively than how this ended up, especially if it wasn't indicative of who I am most of the time. There was an opportunity missed to turn this into a positive.

But as I alluded earlier, it's not a major incident and hopefully he learns from it. If there's another meltdown, it's going to follow him and become a thing, and I don't think anyone wants to see that. And that would happen whether he apologized this time or not.