This is perhaps one of the least creative titles I have come up with since I started being creative with titles. This one just went back to the name of the tournament sadly. But to a certain extent it seems to mirror the creativity I had in the tournament. After having such a solid stretch of tournament rounds prior to the 303 Open, it seems that my performance at The High Plains Challenge mirrored my bummer of a performance at the 303 Open. Only this time I was playing with the Ams again.
The High Plains Challenge is one of two A tier events we have had in Colorado for the past several seasons. Clearly this means that it is an opportunity to qualify for Am Nats, which of course is one of my goals for this season. My previous attempts this season to accomplish this goal took place at the Glass Blown Open and 303 Am Championships, but those would have qualified me for this year rather than next. The High Plains Challenge is of course my first opportunity to qualify for next year. Well simply put, I will be looking for another opportunity to qualify.
The first round took place at the Pessimist temporary course. This is the one course that I played well last year at the same event and the Colorado State Championships. So I came into this round thinking, I can make this happen. I can post a good round and then see what happens from there. The round started out alright though I was making more bogies than I should have been. Even after loosing a disc and taking a double I was still in it. Then came the two par 4 lake holes and bad bounce after bad bounce. To be fair, we had to wait for the two groups ahead of us to play the hole before we got the opportunity and the entire course is made of highly unpredictable natural tee pads. But taking a 7 and then a 5 on back to back holes, missing birdie putts on the next two holes before slightly missing my line and going OB only to then have the upshot catch an edge and roll OB again. Yeah, it was a bad end to the round. I should and could have been +2 and ended up +11. That is a big difference and in a big event will certainly put you out of serious contention.
As much as the natural tee pads have not affected my game in the past, they seemed to make a big difference for this tournament. My tee shots were coming out at lots of random angles and it felt like I had little to no control over my drives. Seriously off on some angles causing lots of good saves and very few birdie opportunities. Sure I made a couple of birdies on the round, but my angles were just off. Even though I was off on some forehand shots, it seemed like I was better off throwing forehand simply because the angle of error was much smaller than my backhand. I couldn't even predict the misses and attempt to be sure that I would error where I wanted to error. For as much as I have never complained about the fact that an A tier event was being played on natural tees prior to this tournament, I am now a firm believer that there should be some standard for top tier events when it comes to tee pads.
The second round got a little bit better but was still tough as I had a rough start to the round. And then of course the weather hit near the end of the round, where I simply could not predict the wind on every shot. Some shots yes, but not every shot.
It was in the final round where I felt like I was finally starting to figure some things out about the game and shot a good round. The best news of the weekend came as I finished in a large tie for the last cash position. Three spots were divided amongst six people. I always seem to find myself into epic ties but I think this one was the largest of those ties.
Here is what I learned. When in doubt with the wind, play the shot so the wind knocks down the disc. This is way more predictable than allowing the wind to catch the disc and take to to wherever it wants. When you get into a back up, keep the arm warm and stretched as much as possible. No matter what the conditions give you, play your game and you can still shoot well (I was the only person in my group to birdie a par 4 right after the wind picked up in that second round). Smaller steps on my run up will produce more predictable results. It is okay to sacrifice distance to be sure you know the angle that your disc is going to fly on. Now I just have to remember these things and well as remain mentally strong in the middle of the round. A bad mental game will produce bad bounces. I am not really sure how that happens but it is absolutely true.
The next stop is Am Worlds. I guess we will see what happens.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Friday, June 14, 2013
Playing With The Big Boys
It was almost a week ago now that I played in the 303 Open. This was my second tournament of the year playing in the Open field since this was a Pro only event. I figured it was worth playing from the standpoint that I would be playing with better competition and might get a better feel for what it is going to take to get better at this game. I really came in with no expectations as to how I would fair, but after finishing just below the middle in my last event playing Open, I was hoping to fair well.
Most of my dreams were crushed in the first round with the second round not offering much more. In one day I am pretty sure I had my single worst day of tournament disc golf since last year. I could blame it on the wind, but clearly that was not the real reason. I could blame it on some bad bounces but that only had a minor contribution to the overall circumstances. In reality, it was not being prepared to play the course on that day. When Sunday came around and we played a course that I frequent, I played a much smarter game and ended up shooting a 960 rated round. Go figure.
The best part of the tournament was getting a chance to play with Pat Blazek. I believe he is currently the second highest rated player int eh state of Colorado and is someone I respect and have had plenty of opportunity to talk with in the past, but never play with. It was fun to watch him and see the little frustrations that he had on the course. It was fun to see how he kept his mental game strong despite the errors and how in the moment it was one shot at a time. It was fun to watch how he made decisions as to what shot to throw next. I know that I am rather far behind him in skill but I feel like playing with him was a really good learning experience as to simply how to play the game.
Moving forward, I feel that my pre tournamnet prep needs to be done better. While I can play a course and know what the hole looks like, weather conditions could significantly affect what shot I end up throwing during a tournament round. Wind is still something that tends to baffle me from the decision making process. Even when I knew something was going to happen during the second round in the wind, I still made the choice to throw the shot I intended to throw and sure enough the wind did what I expected and made the shot land out of bounds. Not good. Having multiple shots on every hole allows one to play the wind conditions better. Sometimes it is making the choice to throw a different disc, and sometimes it is being confident to throw a completely different shot. I need to learn this decision making process and how to be smart about which shot I throw and when.
Another step forward and another lesson learned. Now it is time to put it all together as the next two tournaments I play could be the biggest of my young disc golf career.
Most of my dreams were crushed in the first round with the second round not offering much more. In one day I am pretty sure I had my single worst day of tournament disc golf since last year. I could blame it on the wind, but clearly that was not the real reason. I could blame it on some bad bounces but that only had a minor contribution to the overall circumstances. In reality, it was not being prepared to play the course on that day. When Sunday came around and we played a course that I frequent, I played a much smarter game and ended up shooting a 960 rated round. Go figure.
The best part of the tournament was getting a chance to play with Pat Blazek. I believe he is currently the second highest rated player int eh state of Colorado and is someone I respect and have had plenty of opportunity to talk with in the past, but never play with. It was fun to watch him and see the little frustrations that he had on the course. It was fun to see how he kept his mental game strong despite the errors and how in the moment it was one shot at a time. It was fun to watch how he made decisions as to what shot to throw next. I know that I am rather far behind him in skill but I feel like playing with him was a really good learning experience as to simply how to play the game.
Moving forward, I feel that my pre tournamnet prep needs to be done better. While I can play a course and know what the hole looks like, weather conditions could significantly affect what shot I end up throwing during a tournament round. Wind is still something that tends to baffle me from the decision making process. Even when I knew something was going to happen during the second round in the wind, I still made the choice to throw the shot I intended to throw and sure enough the wind did what I expected and made the shot land out of bounds. Not good. Having multiple shots on every hole allows one to play the wind conditions better. Sometimes it is making the choice to throw a different disc, and sometimes it is being confident to throw a completely different shot. I need to learn this decision making process and how to be smart about which shot I throw and when.
Another step forward and another lesson learned. Now it is time to put it all together as the next two tournaments I play could be the biggest of my young disc golf career.
Monday, June 3, 2013
It Means No Worries For the Rest Of Your Days
So this past weekend was the 6th annual Sakuna Matata Disc Golf Tournament hosted by Disc Diva at the incredible and extremely private Sakuna Pines disc golf course. Since I started playing this tournament four years ago, it has always been one of my favorites for a number of reasons.
First, lets be sure we understand this course well. This is probably the tightest course in the state of Colorado. It is not tight as in if you get off the fairway you have no hope, it is tight in that most paths to the hole are only a matter of feet wide. Many pros have said that the course is more luck than skill at times and I can see their point, but if you hit a tree then it wasn't a good shot was it? The real challenge of this course is keeping a straight head on your shoulders and making sure you play the mental game right.
This tournamnet might be classified as my best tournament to date. After the first round I was in second place. After the second round I was tied for second place and after the final round I somehow ended up in third place. The tentative round ratings are 970's, 950's and 930's. Now that might change, but it was really good for me having three rounds over my rating. Perhaps it only equals what I did at the Colorado Open on average but it still felt better.
Really those first two rounds felt really good. There was something in the air that day or the way I was playing, or perhaps it was the lucky shirt that I wore, but I was hitting lines really well and making shots. I was playing smart and finding myself in good positions most of the time. My only complaint was that for the most part, the baskets hated me. I cannot begin to count the number of putts I had that hit chains and didn't go in. Sure, most of those were side hits, but at least two of them hit dead center and did not end up in the bottom of the basket. One was so bad I was alrady reaching down for my mini and I was left in a stooper. I still can't believe it. Basically I count 8 strokes that I should have had in those first two rounds, which ultimately would have won the tournament for me, even if we leave my one less good round from Sunday as is.
Sunday was the real learning experience for me. I think I tried to push too much as I was sitting tied for second place only two throws behind the leader. The leader blew up and finished in a tie for 4th but both of the guys I was tied with shot better than I did. I wanted it so bad that I knew I would have to try a bit harder. I ended up hitting more trees and finding myself in much tougher spots on the course. Finding yourself in tougher spots will ultiamtely make the round harder. Playing smart is really the most important thing. When you know where the tourble is on the course, make sure you stay away from it. Know which shots will get you into more trouble and work hard at just playng smart. When you are in the tournamnet play your game, pushing is the one thing that will ultimately cause you to start thinking over your head. That leads to trouble. Trouble is bad. Just sayin'.
On another note, I had some set goals for what I wanted to shoot coming into the tournament and for the most part on Saturday, playing within my own game I was able to accomplish this. The first round was almost easy in accomplishing this. The second round forced me to push a little, but when I pushed within myself, it was no real issue at all. On Sunday when I pushed in relation to the competition, that is when I finally strated to watch it fall apart and when I did not meet the goal. With that in mind, the line is now, "Play within yourself!"
The next challenge that awats is a pro only event, my second pro event of the year and one that will ultimately test this theory of play within yourself.
First, lets be sure we understand this course well. This is probably the tightest course in the state of Colorado. It is not tight as in if you get off the fairway you have no hope, it is tight in that most paths to the hole are only a matter of feet wide. Many pros have said that the course is more luck than skill at times and I can see their point, but if you hit a tree then it wasn't a good shot was it? The real challenge of this course is keeping a straight head on your shoulders and making sure you play the mental game right.
This tournamnet might be classified as my best tournament to date. After the first round I was in second place. After the second round I was tied for second place and after the final round I somehow ended up in third place. The tentative round ratings are 970's, 950's and 930's. Now that might change, but it was really good for me having three rounds over my rating. Perhaps it only equals what I did at the Colorado Open on average but it still felt better.
Really those first two rounds felt really good. There was something in the air that day or the way I was playing, or perhaps it was the lucky shirt that I wore, but I was hitting lines really well and making shots. I was playing smart and finding myself in good positions most of the time. My only complaint was that for the most part, the baskets hated me. I cannot begin to count the number of putts I had that hit chains and didn't go in. Sure, most of those were side hits, but at least two of them hit dead center and did not end up in the bottom of the basket. One was so bad I was alrady reaching down for my mini and I was left in a stooper. I still can't believe it. Basically I count 8 strokes that I should have had in those first two rounds, which ultimately would have won the tournament for me, even if we leave my one less good round from Sunday as is.
Sunday was the real learning experience for me. I think I tried to push too much as I was sitting tied for second place only two throws behind the leader. The leader blew up and finished in a tie for 4th but both of the guys I was tied with shot better than I did. I wanted it so bad that I knew I would have to try a bit harder. I ended up hitting more trees and finding myself in much tougher spots on the course. Finding yourself in tougher spots will ultiamtely make the round harder. Playing smart is really the most important thing. When you know where the tourble is on the course, make sure you stay away from it. Know which shots will get you into more trouble and work hard at just playng smart. When you are in the tournamnet play your game, pushing is the one thing that will ultimately cause you to start thinking over your head. That leads to trouble. Trouble is bad. Just sayin'.
On another note, I had some set goals for what I wanted to shoot coming into the tournament and for the most part on Saturday, playing within my own game I was able to accomplish this. The first round was almost easy in accomplishing this. The second round forced me to push a little, but when I pushed within myself, it was no real issue at all. On Sunday when I pushed in relation to the competition, that is when I finally strated to watch it fall apart and when I did not meet the goal. With that in mind, the line is now, "Play within yourself!"
The next challenge that awats is a pro only event, my second pro event of the year and one that will ultimately test this theory of play within yourself.
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