I - Zero - S

Having run Scrabble tournaments, I appreciate the work required to run disc golf events and occasionally end up helping before, during, or after.

For me, the best area events are the Illinois Open Series (IOS). Mike Krupicka, the PDGA head of Illinois, is the one in charge and treats the events like a sports competition as opposed to a hangout and there are things done at an IOS event that are not at any other which I appreciate. This year, having played in three of the four events, I got a poster displaying the artwork used for the trophies.

I can even go to their site shortly after an event (including the most recent one which had 180 players on three courses) and see a hole by hole score by all players there from pros to a nine year old whom I only beat by twelve total shots in August.

My only issue with their events is the same one that often happens and that is inability to play to my expectations most of the time.

The September 22 event (the 99th in the series) was my 22nd in the IOS and since I have figured out the mathematical odds of sports teams, cities, and Canada from failing to win a title, it is appropriate to do the same for my failure:

So why have within 22 events, I have only two seconds and one third? In many of the events, I was overmatched (defined by me as playing against at least one person whose rating would be expected to finish at least ten shots better). Before I was officially diagnosed and treated for arthritis, I would choose to play in MA3 rather than MA4 since MA3 was on a Sunday which would give me one day off before the event. I do admit in one event I should have played in MA4 as all divisions played on that Sunday.

Even though I am better than I was in the middle of the decade, the top local players in the MA50 division are still significantly better than me and it would take having a lot of things go my way like it did in September to even think about winning. In a non IOS event in 2019, my best lifetime combined two round rating still ended up one shot out of first against a top local player.

In the IOS events, there was only one time of the 44 rounds played where I had the best score in the division but on that day in the second round, a more experienced player on the more difficult version of the course made up the gap in three holes and pulled away for a comfortable win. In the event I finished second by one shot, my rounds were the 3rd and 2nd best of those in MA50 and within the first 21 events, the closest I came to winning was 5 shots and there were two events I lost by more than 30.

There is optimism for 2020 and beyond as long as my body stays viable as physical issues were a big part of the poor first half of my 2019 season. However, I know anything can happen at any time physically to me including while asleep.