Today brought yet another wonderful day of disc golf at the Badlands DGC in Federal Heights, CO. This day was going to be unique for a few reasons. This was the first tournament that I played with a bag made up entirely of Trilogy. It is also the only tournamnet I will play after my disc golf tour and before going to Minnesota for Am Worlds. These were the last competative rounds I will have before the biggest tournament for me. Then again, isn't the biggest tournament always the next one?
There was not much effort put int the layout at badlands and it ended up being set up in a particularly long layout. Long is not typically my strength, and ultimately this caused me to set expectations rather low at the start of the day. At the same time, I was confident in my new discs and my hope was to simply play my best and have fun doing it.
In the first round, with very nice weather, I simply decided to play. I was in a group with Jack, Andrew and Eagle. All of them have been beating me consistently this year so far. Jack did not play well. Eagle did not start off well. Andrew started well but faultered in the middle. The long and the short of the story is simply that I held my own on this card. I did not win the card, Eagle did that, but I played extremely well and paid little attention to where other people were. I played my game and I played it rather well. My Swans, my new putter, were working rather well and things just seemed to be easy. I shot what is my best rated round so far this year and ended up on the lead card going into the second round. I was tied with two other guys on the second card so, a nice tight group at the top.
In the second round the winds picked up and my lack of experience with these particular discs showed its ugly head on several occasions. It caused two bogies fairly early on in the round. But, I began to fight. I know, fighting is not typically what you want to have to do in a round of disc golf, but when you do it, you had better be able to do it well. After making two more mistakes about two thirds of the way through the round, I canned a huge approach shot from about 100 feet out for a birdie, into a headwind none the less. Then I made a wise choice to take a little bit more disc on the next shot and ended up with back to back birdies. From there on, I played good golf and ended up shooting plus 1. Not bad after being three up at one point.
These two rounds were my best back to back rounds so far this year and for the first time this year I had to turn down cash. This is a confidence booster. This is going to set the tone for the rest of the season. Things are only going to get better from here. Now it is time to buckle down and get some good practice in before going back to Minnesota.
I learned that I can play with the best. I learned that I really like my new discs. I learned that I need more time with them to understand them better in more difficult circumstances. I learned that playing my game is more important than worrying about what is going on around me. I feel like I have had to learn that lesson a lot. I learned that I will still make mistakes. I learned that I need to keep my emotions under control.
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