The Amateur Championships at Bowling Green

[iacas]

Gotcha, I misread your earlier post to say that you only saw int and rec. It's the most fun event I've had the pleasure of attending, met some really cool folks and had a blast competing against that big a field. The courses are good (not amazing), and they're all really close together there in Bowling Green. If it matters to you, the players' pack is usually huge for the entry fee.

Thanks. I'm not one to care about player's packs. One disc with the tournament logo is good (more is fine). I also don't care about payouts. I care more about having a nicely run event that's fun to play. I'm perfectly content paying for a good experience.

I don't want to monopolize the thread so I'm mostly done now. Time to research a little. Whether I go may depend on who else I can get to go with me so I know someone there.

 

[sisyphus]

...Time to research a little. Whether I go may depend on who else I can get to go with me so I know someone there.

Hey, just my 2 cents: this is really the big, cool event of the year for us less experienced players. I went for the first time in 2012, played with a nice guy from BG on Friday afternoon, struck up a brief friendship, then was there to witness him hitting an ace on the third course we played (on Saturday afternoon).

Some of the fun peripherals include the fact that there's a $1000 ace pot included with your entry (oh, the player's pack this time is seven discs, dinner, and a drifit shirt for early registrants :clap. So when my buddy hit one of the eleven aces of the weekend, he got $100, because the sponsors had already paid out 10 aces. When they saw there had been an eleventh, they kicked in the extra bucks. Very generous. Very special event. Go if you can!

 

[Plaztik]

Whats not to love? You get to play a new course every round and get the latest and greatest disc from 7 different manufactures. you get to meet new people most every round and can jump 5-10 places with every birdie/bogie.

 

[ScottyLove]

So what is this - just a big DG tournament? I'm relatively new (I've played one tournament) and yet this tournament seems to offer Rec and Intermediate divisions (though I'm a bit confused as to why the site lists "G - RECREATIONAL WOMEN / RECREATIONAL MEN" and "H - RECREATIONAL" as separate things).

Might want to make the trip for it, but not entirely sure what it is exactly.

Even though I've never been (just finished my 2nd year of tournament play), quite simply it's the BIGGEST amateur event on the planet. It has a larger field than even AmWorlds. Over 625 folks the past two years...

Last year it conflicted with an A-Tier stop that was a couple of hours closer, but this year, I see me and my travel buddies making the trip.

 

[BionicRib]

what courses are included.......phil moore.....(thats all I remember hearing)??

 

[Three Putt]

Hmmm... pondering what Three Putt thinks my demographic is...

He's probably spot on!

There was a misconception about BG for a long time and still might be. People thought it was like Am Worlds or USADGC where it was all about getting the top young Am players to battle out for a championship. Blowing Green was always an older crowd; a lot of northern snowbound career Am's that take advantage of the spring date to get out of the cold, throw some plastic and party. It's a great party.

If what really drives you is competition it's OK, but it's not the greatest disc golf tournament. The courses are kinda meh, the payout used to be kinda meh and with all the players there used to always be some sort of organizational snafu. Because of that, it was hard to consider it a great tournament.

It is the greatest disc golf party, though. People would come home with some horror story about messed up pools and bad payouts and end by saying they were going back the next year. A great party makes up for a lot.

 

[mashnut]

From what I hear, the organization has gotten better over the years. There wasn't any huge snafu two years ago when I played, the biggest thing that happened was a course TD getting to one of the courses late for a round, and even that wasn't that huge a deal.

When I played, advanced used BGTC, Hobson Grove, Phil Moore and Kereiakes. I think Lover's Lane, Ephram White, Basil Griffin, Preston Miller and Chalybeate Springs have been used for lower divisions. There's a temp 9 behind Wah Bah used for the final 9 (that course has a listing here but you have to check the box to include temp layouts).

 

[iacas]

Research done: I'm out. The Masters is that weekend.

 

[ejvogie]

Research done: I'm out. The Masters is that weekend.

Gotta go play with your balls, eh?

 

[Horsman]

There was a misconception about BG for a long time and still might be. People thought it was like Am Worlds or USADGC where it was all about getting the top young Am players to battle out for a championship. Blowing Green was always an older crowd; a lot of northern snowbound career Am's that take advantage of the spring date to get out of the cold, throw some plastic and party. It's a great party.

If what really drives you is competition it's OK, but it's not the greatest disc golf tournament. The courses are kinda meh, the payout used to be kinda meh and with all the players there used to always be some sort of organizational snafu. Because of that, it was hard to consider it a great tournament.

It is the greatest disc golf party, though. People would come home with some horror story about messed up pools and bad payouts and end by saying they were going back the next year. A great party makes up for a lot.

Wow that has never once been my view of this tourney, I agree that it doesnt bring the biggest and best competition but it still brings a ton of competition and is still a top class tourney.

 

[joshmo65]

I had a miserable time last year, but that was directly because of the way that I played. I averaged 50 points below my rating and absolutely stunk it up. It was the first tournament that a really bombed and took me quite a while to come back and get back into my game. I am super excited to come back this year and destroy though. I think I am mentally in a stronger place and should be better. Really looking forward to it this year!

 

[joshmo65]

142nd of 155 was not good.

 

[Three Putt]

From what I hear, the organization has gotten better over the years. There wasn't any huge snafu two years ago when I played, the biggest thing that happened was a course TD getting to one of the courses late for a round, and even that wasn't that huge a deal.

When I played, advanced used BGTC, Hobson Grove, Phil Moore and Kereiakes. I think Lover's Lane, Ephram White, Basil Griffin, Preston Miller and Chalybeate Springs have been used for lower divisions. There's a temp 9 behind Wah Bah used for the final 9 (that course has a listing here but you have to check the box to include temp layouts).

I've heard it has been better the last few years. It got too big at one point and there was a resistance to cap the field. That was '07 or '08. They had overwhelming 700+ player fields and really didn't know how to handle the traffic. They had a problem posting scores and managing the pools with that many players. There was a year where Sarah Hokom tied for the Women's title, but they had mismanaged time so badly that there was no daylight left for a playoff. They had a putting contest in a gym to determine the winner. :\

They were also still holding the Pro NT event back then and a lot of the payout complaints revolved around the allegation that they were using the Am event as a cash cow to fund the NT payout.

Now the NT is no longer being held so they can focus on the Am Championships. There seems to be a better handle on the event now. The field size is creeping back up to the 700 player levels they had before, but the organization is better.

 

[HB553]

FUND RAISING DISC AVAILABLE

We are starting fund raising disc sales early this year, and opening up the fund raising disc to all manufactures that we have partnered with for players packages. A couple of the big items we use the funds for are the $1000 ace pool and the food at the players' party.

The various disc will be announced as they come available, and will be shipped as ordered.
The discs can be found here: http://www.bluegrassdiscgolf.org/BGamDISCS.html as they are stocked.

They can be purchased here: http://www.discgolfunited.com/disc-golf-tournaments/tournament-dashboard.cfm/tourn_id/1054

The discs are also made available to our 8 course sponsors for local sales and mail orders:
Sunking Discs
Dynamic Discs
Essential Discs
LS Discs
Pandonium Discs
Spike Hyzer
Paragon Disc Golf
Bluegrass Disc Golf

The first discs available are from Innova, with Skeet's art work shown in the attachment. The full color disc will be a Star ROC3, and the hot stamp will be on a Champion metal flake ROC3

 

[Dettmerb]

^ those discs are sweeeeeeeeeet!

 

[brettricewku]

Ya real nice artwork!

 

[ShortBusDiscGolf]

Cost?………...

I've yet to play this tournament, but I've wanted to the past 3 years. Think I'm gonna try to make it this coming up year. But I do have a question. Realistically speaking, how much cash should I plan on setting aside for the entire event minus registration? I'm talking for everything such as lodging, food, etc... How much has this journey cost some of you guys in the past?

This year will mark the 4th or 5th time that I've been to this event. I live in New Hampshire and drive down each time. It cost me about $250 in gas(round trip). I figure about $250 in lodging(I usually arrive on Wednesday evening and leave right after the final nine.). $75 for tourney registration. $200-$300 in plastic while I'm there. And food and beer runs about $60 per day. My average total cost is about $1000. Money well spent for a lifetime of memories!

 

[HB553]

Hole Sponsor: The Cross family

Thanks to our first hole sponsor who got a jump on registration with snail mail: Steve and Renee Cross from Millington Tennessee.

The sign will read:

Play Good, Have Fun
Hope for both, settle for one
The Cross Family​

Two signs will be put up (one at Lovers Lane and one at Kereiakes) for each hole sponsor so all divisions can see the sign. Hole sponsors are just an extra $25 for players, or $100 for businesses and you can add it with your on-line registration, just e-mail the text or graphics and we will print, laminate, and post for you or your sponsor.

 

[iacas]

Thanks to our first hole sponsor who got a jump on registration with snail mail: Steve and Renee Cross from Millington Tennessee.

The sign will read:

Play Good, Have Fun
Hope for both, settle for one
The Cross Family​

Will you recommend that they change it to "Play Well"?

 

[tnmotorman]

Grammar!

The grammar police at a disc golf function! Yeah. I hope I play well but if I'm asked, I will probably tell them I did or didn't play good. That may be grammatically incorrect, but it's honest and appropriate. I also could have said "enjoy one's self" but it wouldn't have rhymed with one.