Well, it is still literally the day of the tournament. Not a normal timeframe for me to post my thoughts on a tournament but I think it is well worth it. Today was the Pro Day of the 2013 Mile High Classic. For the past three or so years the Mile High Classic has been run by a group of guys that I consider to be my close Disc Golf friends. They are really a fun group of guys and they work hard to run an event that none of them play in. Three guys all working together to run an event with the support of a club and several volunteers makes for a great time. I did spend some time yesterday volunteering for the am day of the event as I am not officially moved up for B and C tier events.
Even though this years Spring Fling was supposed to be the last disc golf tournament at the famed Johnny Roberts Memorial Course in its current layout, the city of Arvada has taken their sweet time in the reconstruction of their park and as such, the course was still available to us. Sorry Marsha, your event is no longer considered the last in the current configuration.
Something I do not normally do at tournaments is play the doubles event the night before the tournament. I used to as it was a great way to get more practice in, but I have decided that playing the day before a tournament is not a good idea. I have improved significantly since determining not to play the day before, so it seems to make sense. This tournament, since I was not playing the am day the next day, allowed me to play the doubles event. This was a lot of fun minus the storm that blew through during the round. I got paired with Eagle, who is only 16, but has been cashing in Open for some time. We played super well together and ended up shooting 14 down. Now another group shot 15 down but they failed to play a mando. We agreed to split the cash and call it good.
I think this was the first time that I did not feel overly nervous headed into a pro event. Spring Fling last year I was super nervous and messed up the first few holes. Spring fling this year started out with a less than stellar round. And this years 303 Open fell victim to the same reality in the first two rounds. This time around, having made the declaration of moving up on a consistent basis, I stepped up with little or no nerves. That doesn't mean that I didn't wake up this morning feeling sick. And that doesn't mean that I do not feel super sick right now. I blame that mostly on amount of sun I have taken in over the past two days. But, I still stepped up and had a very solid first round shooting 4 down. The second round was of course the more difficult layout and I ended up shooting 2 over. I would have liked to have been a few strokes better and I certainly left some silly ones out there today. I had a couple of unfortunate out of bounds discs and missed a few short putts each round. I know it could have been much better. I ended up finishing in the top half of the open division and only one throw out of cash. Of course I am still not taking cash as I am looking to play Am Nats and Am Worlds next year.
One of the things my dad pointed out to me at dinner afterwards was that I was a lot stronger mentally today than I had been in the past. I took one double bogey the first round as my only blemish in that round. Without pushing, I was able to get those two strokes back in the next two holes. I didn't let it get to me and I didn't think about it too much. I didn't think about the horrible bounce I got on my tee shot and the bad up shot I had from there. I just went out, played my game and got a couple of birdies. I am still not satisfied with where I am at mentally and will keep working to be stronger in this. I feel that some of the bad shots I had today were a result of lack of focus. I am learning and I am also very aware of the reality that playing in Open will help improve this much more than playing in advanced.
I am inching closer to earning an invite to pro worlds next year though I fear that it will be too little too late. I will need one more pro event than I currently have on the calendar and I am not sure that it will be possible. Time and money are hindering the goal at this point. Blah.
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