Sometimes you put a lot of pressure on yourself to perform well at whatever it is that you are doing. Often times if you enter a sporting event, anything less than first place is failure. The Silver Medal at the Olympics is the reminder that you were so close to winning but you didn't. When that passion and that desire hits you in your chosen area it is really a sign of two things. One, that you are doing what you should be doing. Two, that it is time for you to make a choice. The choice you have to make is wether or not you are going to be serious about what you are doing or wether you are going to step back and just let it be. Even on a beautiful Saturday this past weekend I think I faced the reality of this decision. Not that is hasn't been made several times before. This past weekend was the Deer Mountain Invitational. This was really my first chance to play a competitive round with some of the new discs that I had been using and a chance to play a very private course that is only open by special permission. I thought very little of how I should fare in the tournament. I mean I wanted to make the cut but the reality was that I was simply there to enjoy the game and enjoy the moment.
If you know nothing of Deer Mountain, there really isn't words to describe the challenge that it is. I know of no other disc golf course like it. Any description of words that I could type here would fail to capture the magnitude of what it is. I know there are some courses out there that have the lore about them as great courses or courses that are a true test of champions. I have had my opportunity to play some great courses. There is nothing like Deer Mountain. There are times when I am so captured by the beauty of the course that I feel completely at peace. There are times I am beyond fearful of the course itself, both from a disc golf standpoint as well as a physical standpoint. The best goal to have at Deer Mountain is to simply not loose a disc.
The invitational tournament itself is hosted by the owner of the property, Jim Canon. He charges nothing of the people who play. He provides a payout of over $1000. He finds people to feed us lunch. He finds people to run shuttles between certain holes (yes, it is very much needed). What does this man not do for this tournament is the real question. Everyone who ever gets the chance to play this course owes their experience to this man. He deserves more than he will ever get in return for what he does for this course and disc golf in general.
The format is simple. One round with the best 20 scores moving on to a finals on a super 9 layout. If the regular 22 hole layout wasn't enough to make ones arm fall off, the super 9 layout certainly will. Being it was my first time playing in this tournament, I was put on a card of people who mostly played in lower level, age protected divisions at your typical sanctioned tournaments. It simply meant that I knew I was likely to win my card if I played my game but would have no good sense what I might need to shoot in order tomake the cut. The round started off great with a birdie on my first hole. But the reality of the course soon sank in as just a few holes later I went bogey, bogey, double bogey. It was tiem to refocus and simply play my game and do what I could to simply be at par. There were moments of glory the rest of the round including carding one of only two known birdies on a hole called Razor's Edge and throwing a drive close to 500' on City Side for an easy par. At the end of the rounds I was 7 over par after a bogey on the last hole and a bogey two holes before while attempting to go for a long birdie putt. There were a couple of times when I had putts hit the band on top and one single chain basket decided that it didn't really like my disc all that much as it let it slide right through on a dead center putt. Some bad luck and some poor decisions.
After turning in my score card and watching as my parents, who had already been spotting, help get the scores figured out the dread of reality sat in as I quickly realized the cut would be made to include scores 6 over and better. While I was no where near winning, it felt just as bad as that Olympic Silver Medal. It was the you did great today but not good enough. I have kept asking myself why I decided to go for that putt or why I couldn't have had one of at least three unlucky bounces go the other way. But in the end, I can look back and say, you know I had an incredible time. I got to play with three guys who I have never played with and enjoy all of their company. I got to see and talk to some of my other best disc golf friends. I got to eat good food. I got to play a course that not many other people get to play. I didn't loose a single disc. There was no real stress in this event for me. I was relaxed and enjoyed the experience, more than I can remember recently. At the same time I now have the bug to do better the next time I see this course. And I will see this course again.
I am still in the middle of trying to figure out if I will be changing up my entire bag of discs. I have enjoyed throwing some new discs as of late and have scored quite well with them. I learned that sometimes a small change can make a big difference. I have learned that knowing the course and being smart is more important than one might think. I learned that knowing your discs is vitally important. I learned that my mental game is stronger than I realize if I allow myself the time to think. I learned that there is always risk but that if you never give yourself a chance, you are never going to make the right decision. Back to the world of PDGA sanctioned events in the coming weeks. Back to the next chance to make my breakthrough.
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