I am not really sure what to say today. It is the day after the Phenix One Day Series 2014 Opener. This is not something I participated in last year because they were not sanctioned. But this year the guys at Phenix made the wise decision to sanction these events and now I have even more events to play. I am quite thankful for this. I am big fans of the guys at Phenix simply because they are working hard to make disc golf in Colorado better than it already is. They are working to put more events out there for the local players and to support the players who play in their events. I honestly had a blast playing in my first PODS event, but it has left me in a weird place where I am literally not sure what to think at the point.
The biggest news from this event is that I can no longer say that I will be able to accomplish all my goals this year. That is a sad reality with only three events under the belt for the year. I finished last in Open, 16th out of 16. The sad part is that the round did not feel that bad and at the same time, it was blah at best. The current projected round ratings make me feel like the days when I was playing in Intermediate hoping to move up to Advanced. I long suspected that the best scores would be rather low, but I had no idea that so many people would be able to shoot as low as they did.
We played two rounds at Badlands on the traditional 18 hole layout with fairly easy pin positions. In talking with the guys from Phenix running the tournament, layouts will get more difficult throughout the season at other PODS events. But for the first one they were trying to keep things simple for themselves and for everyone playing. It was almost too easy to the point where I had no idea what to do. My putting was off for the most part and I am not entirely sure my head was in the game. Still I shot my first tournament round under par for the year in the first round and proceeded to give my second away on the last hole in the second round (worst decision of the day and a serious lack of focus at the end). I only had three holes of 36 total that I took anything worse then a par. It also means that I had very few birdies, something that was needed on this layout.
What I learned is that my mental game is simply not working correctly at the end of tournaments. We are all well aware of the meltdown I had at the Meltdown a short while ago. While this was not nearly as bad, for the second straight time I finished with a three putt where I should have had a one putt. I also learned that I am not yet making the right decisions on disc selection. I am also not controlling all of my competative energy. As in the start of the Memorial, the last couple of holes in the first round proved to provide the same kind of nervous energy that made it tought to control distance. With so many tournaments in the upcoming weeks I need to buckle down and figure the mental thing out as well as figuring out how to make better decisions in general. More deep breaths and one more second before every throw.
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