DGPT: 2021 The Preserve Championship July 30-Aug 1

[the_lung]

Cale got lucky there was more wind this year. The new holes a bit but I'd say the wind was more a factor for them not shooting as well.

^ This x1000.

The significant & swirling winds on both Saturday and Sunday were the only reason that multiple players didn't shoot -15 or better every round.

This tournament layout still needs considerable work if it is to be contested again next year. Even with hole#17, it's essentially a wide open chuck fest which is a poor overall test of disc golf skills. With par set so embarrassingly off, it's also a terrible look for the sport.

 

[brutalbrutus]

Northern midwest states tend a lot of sandy soil that doesn't hold water. The grass doesn't take long to turn brown if they aren't getting regular rain in the summer.

I went to summer camp in Wisconsin before my freshman year of HS and it was the same there. Sandy soil and lots of tall pines.

 

[Jolt]

Looks like Kristin will walk away with another victory before going home. Or rather, sprinting away from the competition.
Damn shame she (& the rest of the world) didn't get a chance to play in the states sooner. Gotta believe if she had been in the states a few weeks before Worlds, she would have had a much better chance at giving Cat & Paige a run at the title. (Feels like stating the obvious saying that).

The lesson to be learned for Kristin is to play a tournament in the US before Worlds.
She had 3 things against her att Worlds.

She had just come to the US . . .and the heat
She hurt her sholder in the warmup
She had the BIG pressure of being the only European player.

But what a US tour she does!! 6 tournaments, 4 wins . . .hope she comes back soon and that Eveliina and Henna comes over to, would be SO fun to see a FPO tournament this year with all the top players.

EDIT...looks like Kristin basicly made a 3rd of her Career Earnings in the last few weeks!!

 

[ILUVSMGS18]

We need rain BAD.

Y'all can have it, it only seems to be nice on the days that I'm stuck working most of the day.

 

[uncle pennybags]

That's how the course looked when I played it last year in June. Very brown, lots of patchy dead/dying grass. If anything it looks worse this year on the coverage. I don't know anything about grass but I'd bet it's something to do with the types of grasses used on golf courses. Coupled with it being a former golf course, for who knows how long.

But I can say that it was bone dry in Duluth a couple weeks ago. So it's to be expected in Clearwater too, but definitely not as appealing looking as all the other ball golf courses on tour. That's putting it as nicely as I can.

I know the old greens don't have much for the grass to root down into, and they don't look good at all. The fairways last year seemed pretty hit and miss.

Cale might need to do some kind of seeding campaign as the course matures. Get some grass that doesn't need to be managed like b.golf courses or need daily maintenance.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

...looks like Kristin basicly made a 3rd of her Career Earnings in the last few weeks!!

Payouts seem to be higher than ever before, in general, but I wouldn't be surprised if the DGPT events are some of the highest paying anywhere, at least the last couple of years. Maybe that will help attract some of the other players from Europe to join the tour for a month or two.

 

[biscoe]

I know the old greens don't have much for the grass to root down into, and they don't look good at all. The fairways last year seemed pretty hit and miss.

Cale might need to do some kind of seeding campaign as the course matures. Get some grass that doesn't need to be managed like b.golf courses or need daily maintenance.

It's a tough nut to crack. Golf courses are built for drainage first and foremost. They are also built with the idea that there is going to be high nitrogen fertilizer pumped onto them on a very regular basis. Once that stops you are left with a bunch of soil with very little inherent nutritive value. Simply re-seeding is not going to work without actually putting down sod or putting a regular feeding schedule in place both of which are quite expensive. (I am in the second year of working on a similar project to The Preserve.)

 

[biscoe]

^ This x1000.

The significant & swirling winds on both Saturday and Sunday were the only reason that multiple players didn't shoot -15 or better every round.

This tournament layout still needs considerable work if it is to be contested again next year. Even with hole#17, it's essentially a wide open chuck fest which is a poor overall test of disc golf skills. With par set so embarrassingly off, it's also a terrible look for the sport.

I think the idea that it is a "terrible look" is more a product of the seemingly endless inferiority complex of disc golfers than it is an actual reaction from those outside the sport. While it might be nice for some pars to be adjusted, for the second year in a row this event has come down to the last shot in determining a victor. The 3 best players in the world were engaged in compelling tight competition coming down the stretch. What's not to like about that?

 

[glassila]

I think the idea that it is a "terrible look" is more a product of the seemingly endless inferiority complex of disc golfers than it is an actual reaction from those outside the sport. While it might be nice for some pars to be adjusted, for the second year in a row this event has come down to the last shot in determining a victor. The 3 best players in the world were engaged in compelling tight competition coming down the stretch. What's not to like about that?

I agree, I don't really like the -35 tournaments, but I don't believe it's a terrible look. I would much rather see a good battle and the winner go -35 than someone winning by 5 strokes with a score of -10.

The FPO tourney was pretty much over after round 1 and there was absolutely no doubt who would win 1/2 through round 2. So even though they shot much closer to par, for me it was not an interesting tournament to watch.

 

[Jolt]

Payouts seem to be higher than ever before, in general, but I wouldn't be surprised if the DGPT events are some of the highest paying anywhere, at least the last couple of years. Maybe that will help attract some of the other players from Europe to join the tour for a month or two.

If the Preserve ends up with a $5000 payout Kristin will have made $15735 in her mini US tour just in tournament payouts..

That should make some noice among the European FPO players

 

[autocrosscrx]

I really enjoy this tourney. I like seeing players bomb. I like seeing them demonstrate angle control and the other things that are a factor on those kinds of courses.

And the fact that it came down to the top 3 players in the world validates it as a legitimate competition. And the fact that a player known for their technical shots and not known for their distance (Matty O) was in the mix further validates it.

 

[Ryan P.]

I love it the tight race at the end, and I think that's a common view.

With that said, there's a way to design good courses where the low round is -4 or -5 and there's a tight race at the end (barring someone playing out of their mind). I'm not talking about a course where there are tons of 525' par 3s and 950' par 4s, but look at hole 4 this weekend. only 15% got birdie, most earned par, and a little over 15% earned bogey or worse. Hole 5 was even harder. A course with 18 holes similar to their scoring spread would make for some tight golf, but also force players to earn their bogeys rather than panic about missing out on the opportunity. There's a place for both types of courses, but currently we only have the "scores are too low" type of course. I'd love to see the yin to this courses yang, where the winning score is single digits under par.

 

[araytx]

The lesson to be learned for Kristin is to play a tournament in the US before Worlds.
She had 3 things against her att Worlds.

She had just come to the US . . .and the heat
She hurt her sholder in the warmup
She had the BIG pressure of being the only European player.

But what a US tour she does!! 6 tournaments, 4 wins . . .hope she comes back soon and that Eveliina and Henna comes over to, would be SO fun to see a FPO tournament this year with all the top players.

EDIT...looks like Kristin basicly made a 3rd of her Career Earnings in the last few weeks!!

True. But "planning on coming earlier" was an endeavor in happenstance this year with the pandemic. To this date Europeans living in one of the Schengen countries have to quarantine for 14 days outside of Schengen just to get permission to come to the US. That means you better have some really good friends in the right foreign land -- or you're basically gonna pay for a vacation BEFORE you get here. And you left out the time change issue, Jolt. I know that if I was coming somewhere where it was 9 hours difference (those 11:00 am tee times at Worlds was 8:00pm in Estonia, just a few hours from bedtime), that might be the toughest adjustment my body would need to make.

I just hope she can get back in time to qualify for DGPT finals. She's already in 10th place right now, having only done 4 DGPT events. I don't know if here current points will hold on to at least 16th place.

 

[autocrosscrx]

She's already in 10th place right now, having only done 4 DGPT events. I don't know if here current points will hold on to at least 16th place.

If everyone registered finishes in the neighborhood of their current standing position, she'll drop out of the top 16 after Idlewild.

 

[Steve West]

In terms of generating scoring spread of total scores for MPO, The Preserve Championship did OK. It came in 34th out of the 50 A-tier and above events I've looked at this year. Between Throw Down the Mountain and The Challenge @ Goat Hill Park.

FPO total course par was standard, but hole #5 could have had a higher par, and hole #11 a lower par.

MPO par was better this year, with only holes #7 and #18 having pars that were higher than standard.

Following are Performance Tracks.

Spoiler

 

[dehaas]

Oooooofffff, made it two holes into FPO final round and had to turn it off.

PP +3 after two holes and already knew Tattar threw a beat down to everybody.

Hard pass

 

[BrotherDave]

I was wrong; the course definitely played harder this year than last year. I was right about the hot round being -15, but that was three strokes clear of the next best round. In other words, I got lucky with my prediction. Props to Cale for making the adjustments. I love the new hole 4. It's a good hole for spectators (Hundreds can see the drives and the approaches, maybe even the putts), but it's not an easy out in the open hole.

I agree with OMD for once; I'd love hole 10 a lot more if it were closer to the water. I'd want it far enough away to encourage top players to still got for long putts, but close enough to make some of them mess up both a drive (throwing too short) and a comeback putt (going too long).

I think that hole would be neat if the ground along the ridge was built up as a sort of false front, make distance control more important.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

Following are Performance Tracks.

Spoiler

If I could find a mutual fund that performs like GBuhr's performance above his rating....

 

[glassila]

If I could find a mutual fund that performs like GBuhr's performance above his rating....

 

[Steve West]

If I could find a mutual fund that performs like GBuhr's performance above his rating....

Darn good, but not the biggest "above-his-rating" performance.