One of my favorite tournaments over the past several years has been the Colorado Open held in Glenwood Springs at the course on the Colorado Mountain College campus near Glenwood. For some reason I play this course very well and have started to fine tune my game to this course for this tournament. I know what the options are based on the wind conditions and I have learned where you do not want to be. Needless to say, I made the trek back to Glenwood this year for another go at the Colorado Open.
For some reason I was really hoping that I would have a shot at the win in Advanced. With such high expectations I really set myself up to fail, but like I mentioned, this is a course I tend to play well. The difficult part is that it is not a course that I get to play all that often and there is a large local crowd that does get to play it more often than I do and just about all of them decided to show up to this tournament. I am sure there is a lesson to be learned here. I would venture to say that part of that lesson relates to how well one can play a course when they get the chance to play it often. There is a serious advantage to that. At the same time I also see a lot of top pros do well at National Tour events where they may come back year after year but generally do not play the courses outside of these events.
I had a solid first round and shot three down. I left a lot out there and was honestly frustrated with the result. I suppose part of the reason I felt this way was because there was one of those local guys on my card that shot ten down. At that point you kinf of throw your hands up in the air and say oh well, lets just get back to having fun. Unfortunately circumstances in my second round did not allow this to happen. I was playing with my boss from work who I admire and appreciate, but we got put with another guy who was smoking and drinking during the round, two things that were prohibited by campus rules as well as by the TD in an effort to ensure that we would still have this incredibly fun course to play in the future. My boss quit after 4 holes because he didn't like the tention between him and this guy and did not want to deal with it for another eighteen holes. I honestly don't blame him. I worked hard to keep my focus but I was constantly worried that this guy would be beligerant with me. And lets be honest, his conversation for the rest of the round was literally the most disrespectful conversation I think I have ever heard. I shot plus one the second round and pulled out a 4 down in the final round to finish tied for 6th, beating the guy that shot ten down the first round I might add, but that really isn't the important part of this tournament.
The future of this sport, if it wants to earn the respect I believe it deserves, lies in the pay to play model that ball golf has taken and run with. Although this guy that I played with was disqualified prior to the third round, he is the black mark that will keep disc golf from becoming big. I am more than happy to keep a few free courses for him to play, but I would much prefer to pay a few dollars to go to a course that he is not likely to go to so that I can enjoy my experience. I applaud the PDGA for creating standards where tournaments must abide by the local laws. I also appreciate the work taht the PDGA is doing to improve the image of the sport. I look forward to doing my part to make this the best and most popular sport in the world. Once again I also want to thank all the TD's out there who work hard and are often put in uncomfortable situations where they must make decisions that are likely to make people dislike them.
Next steps for me:
1. Work on the mental game, don't let even the worst situations affect the game you play.
2. Give back to the sport more and create that positive environment that makes this game so much more fun.
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