Wednesday, July 22, 2015

I wish I was in Kalamazoo

Never thought I would say that but that is where the Professional Disc Golf Association world amateur championship is held this week. Though I am qualified to play in the Grandmaster division (for those born in 1965 or earlier), I was unable to get the time off work to allow me to fully participate in the event. 752 people did and here is the breakdown by division as well as a couple of pics from a temp course created specifically for the event as 9 different courses are used with players playing up to 6 different ones in four days with the top half of many divisions playing more on Saturday.





Seeing the pics from the event as well as those from the player meeting and swag from the event was ok. However, the same person who took the pics (the one from my division whose performance caused me to change divisions as listed two posts ago) posted a video of his foursome being introduced. That broke me. Even before I started playing in events this year, I knew that I would be another face near the bottom of the leader board in the Amateur World Championship which was a reason I gave up the vacation time for someone worse than me in bowling who is participating in a similar event and due to handicap technically has a chance to win significant money.

Playing in the event is something I want to experience at least once. I was assured that if my weight is at 250 next May when I have to register having already qualified that I will get the vacation time. For me next year is not guaranteed. In my last year of league bowling and tournament ball golf, I was thinking next year and injury prevented me from participating. I have a year to try to stay healthy while still being able to afford to go to Madison, WI next summer.

Note: In all the men's divisions under 70, players went six rounds on six different courses. The top third plus ties played a round and the top four a nine hole final. The person whose play made me decide to switch divisions finished tied for sixth.

Monday, July 20, 2015

Walk like a madman

The title caused two different annoying songs to earworm into my head. My apologies if the same happens to you.

For the company healthy living week, my company had a 42 day walking challenge and they supplied pedometers for anyone interested in joining it. Since I was told that I would have to be put on a randomly drawn team to participate, I declined the offer since I did not want to blame other people if they underperformed causing the team I was on to lose since I know that the nature of my job along with playing tournament disc golf causes me to take a whole lot of steps.

Now that the challenge is over, one of the people in it was kind enough to let me have his pedometer so I will be monitoring my steps for 42 days starting on July 17 finishing on August 27. I only have one scheduled tournament in that time and due to elbow tendinitis, my participation in that is currently questionable. However, due to the kindness of my two best friends (a statement I would have never thought I would make in the 20th century), I will probably be going to Gencon Indy at the end of the month for the 13th and probably last time since future years should be at the disc golf world amateur championships which is also held about the same time.

Here is the list of the top 25 walkers out of the 106 entries. I removed names and replaced a couple spots with either what I would have won or significant goals to potentially better.


There are multiple buildings in my company as well as people who work at the customers' locations so that is why only one of the top 12 work in the building which I do. My goal is to finish with the second most steps of those in my facility which should be doable.
 
To be honest, I am not interested in wining a water bottle since I already have one gathering dust in my locker and the t-shirt that I could win are not made in 3X so it would not fit me. I will after the 42 days are over provide the total steps I take in a future post.

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

recalibration

I was eagerly waiting for the 2015 disc golf season since ages for divisions are based on year of birth  making me the young one in the 50+ age group thinking I would have a chance to win.

Before my first tournament, I looked at the entry list in my division and my expectations dropped. Every tournament round played is rated based on what propagators (players who have played in many rounds over the past 12 months) score in that round as well as everyone's score and the ratings of the others in my division are significantly better than me (anywhere from 5-8 shots per round)

In spite of that, I played against them and was pleased with the people I met and they were the people I was hoping to face in that division. Though I could compete for a 6-12 hole stretch, over a two round tournament, I was no match. Even though I was fourth out of 12 after one round in a tournament, I was still 9 shots out of first and after my second worst tournament round over the last two years, finished 12th 31 shots back. My overall rating after the three events I played in 2015 dropped the equivalent of 2 shots per round.

Over the Fourth of July weekend, I played in a club event which had one amateur division and after my best ever tournament round, was 7th out of 29. The second round was difficult for me and I ended up 16th. That event allowed me to gain enough player points to qualify for the 2016 world amateur championship next summer. I am eligible for this year's event but due to work/vacation issues, I can not go.

I decided to look at the play of the top amateur in the 50+ division. He has played 17 tournament rounds over the past 10 weeks. His worst rating of those rounds is better than my best one on July 4th weekend. Noticing that, I decided to for now play in the lowest rated open age division with players whose ratings are close to mine giving me a chance to compete.

Since the Illinois Open Series disc golf tournaments show hole by hole results on their website, I was able to create this showing the individual rounds both the top player in IL (and as far as player points #1 in the US) and me. (This was created a week after the original post after a tournament played on Sunday where I finished 16 shots out of first but one from cashing.)

 
(Click on it to read)
 
MG1 refers to Men's Grandmaster Amateur which is the name of the 50+ age division
MA4 is Men's Amateur Novice which is the lowest open amateur division