Month: May 2008

Disc Golf Etiquette

by frisbeebrain, posted in DaLearning Curve, DeLaBlahg, disc golf instruction, etiquette, instruction

In the world of disc golf, many players are unfortunately not even aware of the ‘etiquette’ concept. I’d guess that most players have had no exposure to ball golf prior to discovering disc golf, and everything about our version of the sport is more casual. Most courses have no pro shop, no marshal, no tee times, and feel much more like what they are: a public park where people can come, go, and do as they please.

However, anyone familiar with ball golf knows that etiquette is a big part of that game. Golf is a self-officiated game, with no referees, umpires, or the like to point out when a player has broken a rule or committed an infraction. But ‘golf etiquette’ is specifically concerned with the unwritten rules that have less to do with the scoring part of the game and more to do with respect for the other players in your group and on the course.

According to Merriam-Webster, etiquette is defined as ‘the
conduct or procedure required by good breeding or prescribed by
authority to be observed in social or official life’. In the ball-golf
world, this translates to a universally-understood group of social mores that all serious competitive or even learned recreational players observe. The more casual nature of disc golf means that the rules of etiquette for our sport will differ as well, but we still have to act within unspoken but generally agreed-upon mores.

I personally enjoy a disc golf setting that simulates this aspect of ball golf as closely as possible, and if you’re reading this Blahg odds are that you treat your rounds of disc golf as more than just tossing plastic for a couple hours as well. If that is the case, please read the non-exhaustive compilation of disc golf etiquette guidelines and let me know what you think. Tell me if you agree or disagree, and if there is anything I overlooked (which I’m sure is the case).

In general:

  • Groups should be no larger than five players. If you must play in a herd, be very sensitive to smaller groups behind you and go out of your way to offer to let them play through.
  • If you notice that a group behind you is waiting for your group, offer to let them play through. Everyone should be able to play at the pace they desire if possible.
  • If you notice a player on a nearby hole getting ready to throw or putt, and see that you are in their sight-line, stop moving and talking until they release their disc.
  • If possible, try to grant the requests of other players, however ridiculous they may seem to you (like “don’t talk to my disc” or “don’t stand directly behind me-even if you’re 15
    feet away”. It’s always easier to just take the high road and
    let it go.
  • One big difference between ball and disc golf is the fact that it is common for disc golfers to start on a hole other than Hole #1. This is okay, but if you do ‘jump on’ in the middle of the course, take notice of the groups on the preceding hole(s). It is bad form to start on, say, hole 7 if there is a group putting out on hole 6. That group will suddenly have to wait behind a group that just jumped on, and that ain’t cool. If you do ‘jump on’ in the middle of the course, try to find a spot where you don’t interrupt another group’s flow.
  • If you feel compelled to share etiquette tips with others, make sure to pick your words and tone carefully. Most players are not ‘rude’ on purpose, but out of blissful ignorance. They don’t consciously plan to aggravate you. And they may be disc golfing for the first or second time ever, so try to enlighten them with a smile rather than scold them with a scowl.
  • If you see an errant disc disappear into the rough near you, from another hole, take the time to give the unfortunate thrower an idea of where to look for her/his disc
  • If you find an abandoned disc, attempt to reunite it with its owner. Ask the groups ahead of you if they left a disc behind, then either turn it in to Lost & Found or call the phone number on the bottom.
  • Some obvious ones: Pack ALL of your trash, including cigarette butts; pick up and remove your doggie’s doo
  • Speaking of dogs, keep your dog on a leash, and don’t bring a dog on the course at all if he/she is likely to bark uncontrollably or chase random discs

Within your own group (these are subjective, depending on what you and your playing partners find acceptable):

  • Stop moving and talking when another player reaches the teepad. He/she may not seem ready to throw, but everyone has their own pace and focus strategy and deserves silence and stillness when it’s their turn. Same goes for putts and to a lesser degree upshots, since you may be standing far apart in the middle of a long fairway.
  • Stay perceptively behind the disc of whoever is out (the player whose disc is furthest from the hole). This one is obvious, but also easy to violate.
  • Don’t talk about someone else’s game unless they bring it up.
  • Don’t talk about your game too much.
  • Don’t talk too much, period. Unless your regular group likes to talk nonstop, of course, in which case- gab away! But keep the volume at a level that doesn’t force other groups to listen to your banter.

That’s all I can think of for now, but I’m eager to hear feedback from others.

Ace on hole 15

by frisbeebrain, posted in Ace, DeLaBlahg, DeLaveaga

The view from hole 15 at DeLa (to the left, over the canyon) is pretty almost any time, but especially on a clear day, in the early morning. The backdrop was crisp and clear there today as we arrived at the halfway mark of our round, with Gregory and Assaf both giving me a run for my money (or in this case bagtag) once again. I think at that point Gregory was at +2, I was at +3, and Assaf had rallied back after a rough start and stood at +5.

I had the teepad, and promptly threw one of my most recently-purchased gummy Beasts a few feet from the pole. Assaf also put his close enough for an eventual birdie, and Gregory strolled from the place where we nornally wait our turn to the tee. As he walked over and then went through his back-healthy routine of simulating a left-handed drive (for spinal balance), I commented on the wisdom (or lack thereof) of a remark I had made in the beginning of the round. After Gregory had thrown a so-so drive on #1 and hit an early tree on his upshot, I said out loud ” I think Gregory is gonna be a pushover today. He has visions of sugarplums dancing in his head.” (Gregory is dating a new woman and seems quite enamoured). Anyway, I think Gregory used it (the comment- and maybe the woman too, come to think of it) as motiviation, as he played a very tenacious round and led most of the way.

As Assaf and I recalled my comment and how Gregory seemed to be feeding on it, he launched his drive. From the place we were standing – under the oaks to the left and in front of the tee – the disc is visible for the begiinning of the shot, then disappears for most of its flight. For that reason onlookers typically glue their eyes on the basket area waiting for the disc to reappear. I saw the red cobra emerge from the left, then slam the chains and settle in the cage maybe one second later. Assaf and I went crazy, and Gregory seemed stunned into momentary paralysis. We had to convince him it was in.

So that was pretty cool.

And then, as if there was still a little magic in the air, a father-and-daughter twosome played with us on 16 since it was their last hole. Dad nailed a 130-foot par ‘throw’ from a spot near the right pin placement. And that was pretty cool, too.

The pebble has been snatched from my hand- almost

by frisbeebrain, posted in DeLaBlahg, Jack Tupp

I haven’t had too much time to play disc golf lately, with the exception of the tournaments mentioned in my previous blahg entry. Too busy with work, travel, and other stuff. But I found time today for a round with Assaf, and quite the interesting round it was. In the immortal words of basketball legend and noted sage Karl Malone, “The pebble has been snatched from my hand.” Well, sort of. Almost. Check it out:

We agreed to play a semi-speed round, and thought that the rainy weather would translate into a less-crowded course (it did). The course was wet, but the rain didn’t fall the entire time we played. Now Assaf has never beat or tied me, and he’s only come close a few times. But for some reason he plays better golf when he’s running from hole-to-hole (he recently played an entire 28-hole round in 40 minutes and shot a +2, which is only one more than his personal best, I think). I, on the other hand, am more likely to shoot my best when playing at a normal pace.

When Assaf got pars on each of his first six holes, hitting all his makeable putts, I knew I was in for a match. Then, on hole 7, my par putt hit the front rim and rolled WAY down the hill behind the hole. After my desperation upshot stayed in a tree still 35 feet short, I ‘saved’ a triple bogey 6 with a nice uphill putt. Suddenly I was three strokes back and Assaf was looking pretty solid and comfortable with the quick pace.

We both bogeyed 8a and birdied 9, but I also birdied 10 and 12 to tie the score (he also bogeyed 11). Historically, I’ve pulled away at this point, either due to me stepping it up, Assaf leaking oil, or both. But not today. Most people know that hole 13 at DeLa is know as I-5 , as in “What did you get on that hole, dude?” “I fived!” Well, today a five would been fine. In reality, my second shot rolled halfway down the slope to the left of the fairway, and my third shot – after hitting a tree in a fruitless attempt to get out of jail – rolled right past me and continued ALL the way down into a wet, slippery, deep crevice within the ravine. For my fourth shot, I had no choice except a 30-foot toss to get some kind of look, my 5th left me still far from the hole and in jail, and in the end I needed a good putt to ‘save’ and plus-four 7 on the hole. Assaf collected a routine 4 (basically par for hole 13), and I was right back to a three stroke deficit.

On holes 14 and 15 we posted back-to-back star frames, and then again on 18, and the thought did occur to me that I had just birded three holes out of four and not cut into his lead at all. For the most part, Assaf played really solid today. He didn’t miss any easy putts that I can remember (he usually does), didn’t have any disaster holes (his only double-bogey was due to a lost disc on hole 19), and just seemed to play up to his potential the whole round.

Going into hole 21, Assaf clung to a one-stroke lead but coughed it up with an errant drive. It was once again tied, and stayed that way until hole 24. Then he birdied and I bogeyed, and his lead was up to 2 strokes again. It didn’t occur to me until just now, but I hadn’t led in this round at all!

On hole 25 we both got par, and the same on 26. Still a two stroke lead for Assaf, with two to play. On 26a, I birdied, and Assaf’s putt did everything but go in. It hit top nubs and bottom nubs, and even a little chain, but no go. One stroke with one to play; Top of the World.

After my birdie on 26a, I had honors to throw first. My wimpily failed attempt to be aggressive with my lefty hyzer over the road for birdie resulted in a safe par look, Assaf’s drive turned over a little too much and flew past the tee for hole 1. Assuming he would still get a par, I went for the 100-foot birdie but still kept it close enough for a par myself. Assaf’s upshot snagged the oak to the right and in front of the basket, and his putt to win slid off the cage on the left side. A handful of onlookers near the bench (who know us) groaned because it was that close. We tied at +3

So Assaf didn’t quite snatch the pebble from my hand like Kung-Fu, but he did tie me for the first time. And if he keeps playing like he did today, it’s only a matter of time. I’ll stave him off for as long as I can, but when he finally does beat me, no one will be happier than me.

There is a joke there somewhere about pebbles and Rocs, but I’m done for now.

2nd Place, whether it matters or not

by frisbeebrain, posted in DeLaveaga, Faultline Clasic, Local Tourneys

I play in the ‘Pro’ divisions, and in NorCal that means stiff competition no matter how big or small the event, whether I’m playing Open or Masters. It’s also dawned on me that in tourneys my distance is now a little less than the average competitor. I can barely throw 400 feet, and it seems almost everyone I play against can throw further. The only way I can be competitive is to play really clean golf and hit lots of putts, and both require a great deal of focus. For this reason, I find the important tournaments a little stressful, or at least mentally taxing. How do I define important? If a tourney is PDGA sanctioned, affects my player rating, costs more than $75 to enter, spans two or more days, or all of the above- it’s important.

The Faultine Classic, which is one of two annual PDGA events at my home course, DeLaveaga DGC in Santa Cruz, was played last week and it’s what I consider an important event. Not only does it meet all of the above criteria, how well I do in that event factors into whether I get to represent Team Santa Cruz in San Diego in December- a match play event that has been going on for more than 25 years. So at least in the context of my personal world of disc golf, it’s important.

For events like the Faultline, I’ve conditioned myself to try to make fun, socializing, imbibing, and even enjoyment secondary to score. My casual rounds provide me with plenty of time to indulge those visceral benefits, and I guess I’m one who feels compelled to feed the need to test (prove) himself from time to time. Then there is that whole different kind of disc golfer, and my friend Gregory is in that second group. We use DeLa bag-tags and occasional small monetary bets to inject a competitive element into our weekly rounds, but Gregory feels no need to take his competitive jones any further than that. He hasn’t played any kind of tournament for years, even though he’s pretty good and has been getting better and better over the past few years.

I somehow convinced Gregory to be my partner in a worst-shot doubles event at San Jose’s La Raza and Hellyer 9-hole courses, part of a celebration of the 10-year anniversary of the installation of Hellyer’s course (one of the courses I’ve helped to install). Part of my logic in convincing Gregory to play was the fact that the 18-hole tourney would be a low-key, fun-first event. Indeed, it was just that, and as a good contrast to the Faultline, it served as an example of what I’d consider a competitively non-important event. Following is a summary of both events, and why I enjoyed each immensely for what they had to offer.

The 2007 Faultline Classic

The Faultline is a pro-only event, meaning no amateur divisions are offered. Either play with the big boys and girls, or don’t play. It’s also billed as the California State Championships, but this year it had a bit more local flavor due to a conflict with one of disc golf’s majors, the US Disc Golf Championships in South Carolina. For that reason current World Champ and lifelong local Nate Doss, among many others that usually attend, were absent. Add to that the fact that the club was a little lax in getting the word out, and the divisions were wide open for locals to win. And win they did.

Jon Baldwin won the open mens division, Jim Hagen won Masters, Kristi King won women’s open, and the final nine was all locals- Jon, Don Smith, Stan Pratt, and quasi-local J. Michael Barry. Usually, when I follow along as part of the final nine gallery, there is maybe one local participant in the top four and I root for him. This time all four were friends of mine, so I felt conflicted. In the end, I’m glad Jon held onto his four-stroke lead (barely) to capture a win that will hopefully (and deservedly) put him on the map. He’s a disc golfer that makes the most of his abilities and does everything well, on the physical as well as mental side. Plus he’s a truly good guy. But the other three are, too- hence the ‘conflicted’?

Side Notes:

  • It was especially gratifying to see Stan gets results in a tournament equal to his abilities. In my opinion it was only a matter of time, so hopefully he can use this as a springboard to continued success.
  • J Michael Barry qualifies for the age-protected Grandmasters division, but he now often chooses to play Open. No wonder! He won the SF Safari, and finished 2nd in the Faultline, with only a spit-out birdie putt preventing him from tying Jon on the last hole of the final 9 (hole 27). Michael provides inspiration for those of us trying to play their best golf after 40.
  • Prior to this event, Jon Baldwin and I tied at the last three major events at Dela (two Masters Cups and a Faultline). Thanks to his -14 in the first round this year compared to my (ugh) par, that streak ended rather abruptly
  • I ultimately finished 2nd in the Masters division, one stroke behind Jim Hagen, and after that horrid first round 2nd place tasted pretty good. My gameplan worked out for me, as I minimized mistakes and hit the birdie putts when I had them (after the first round). The last two rounds I had only three total bogey strokes, and had the best score both rounds. Jim has been playing great golf this Summer and was bound to get me sooner or later.
  • I played all three rounds with Doug Werner, a great guy and excellent golfer who I think is still getting better. Thanks to Doug I found out about the Hellyer/LaRaza event, and got the chance to play him on his turf for once.

Hellyer and La Raza worst-throw doubles

There are several things I want to comment on here, but I’ll first summarize by saying that the entire experience was positive for me and for Gregory. Sure, we finished 2nd in Open and won a little cash, which will help the next time I try to convince Gregory to play in a tourney, but I think that factor was minimal. After all, this was what I consider a ‘non-competitively important’ event. Translation: I was able to make having fun a priority. So here are some observations:

  • Hellyer- The course is basically the same layout as the last time I played it, years ago, and even locals will admit it’s just so-so in terms of challenge and variety of shots. But they’ve really made the most of the land they have there. The whole course seemed so much more developed and groomed, and, dare I say, landscaped.
  • LaRaza- This was my first time ever playing the 9-hole LaRaza, and I was impressed! For a flat course (again, you work with what you got) the length and numerous trees and other foliage made for a good test of disc golf skills. This course is seasonal and will soon shut down for the Winter, so if you want to check it out, do it now. They have a tourney coming up soon (see http://www.svdgc.org for details) which can make for a great way to play the course with locals.
  • Worst-shot doubles-If you’ve never played worst-shot doubles before, it’s completely different than anything else. The best shots count for nothing, long putts are even bigger than normal, and part of the strategy is selecting which of your companion twosome’s throws are worst each hole. Gregory and I shot a +2, and the winners (Stick and Manny, with whom we played), shot a par. Those guys were great, by the way, and very helpful considering neither G or I had ever played LaRaza.
  • The South Bay Disc Golf Scene- I was pleased and impressed to see the turnout and cameraderie, and felt very welcomed as a representative of Santa Cruz. several people made a point to express their appreciation of us coming over the hill, and I will for sure be back for another event. I also got the chance to see my old friend Sean Hager, a regular playing partner from a decade ago and fellow Hellyer course installer.

In the future I’ll try to treat this space more as a blog, with more frequent, less lengthy entries. If you read this entire post at one sitting, I’m impressed!

Keep on Chuckin’!

Why putting is even more important than you think

by frisbeebrain, posted in DaLearning Curve, disc golf instruction, instruction, putting

My goal with this entry? To convince you how much your entire disc golf game is affected by your putting ability and consistency.

I’m sure even non-golfers have heard the saying “Drive for show, putt for dough.” Well-know cliches are usually well-known because they are so completely true, and this one is no exception. If you need a translation of what the clever one-liner means (or even if you don’t), I’ll tell you- using disc golf terminology: People love to see someone crush a long drive. But if you throw a disc 430 feet on a par 3, 450-foot hole, then miss your 20-footer birdie putt, your impressive drive gives you no advantage over my 370-foot drive and routine 75-foot upshot. As we all know, disc golf scores are comprised of total number of throws, and gimme drop-ins count just as much as hurculean hucks. So that’s the essence of the saying, and it’s very true. But like most homespun homilies, it’s also over-simplfied. Simply put, it doesn’t come close to painting the complete picture of the importance of putting.

How’s this for a picture? Imagine an inverted (upside-down) pyramid. At the top, you’ve got the big, broad end that normally is the foundation of the pyramid. This is your driving game, the throw on each hole that hopefully gets you most of the way to the basket (hence it’s occupation of the broadest part of the pyramid). In the middle you’ll find your upshot/approach shots, and at the bottom – the small, pointy “foundation” upon which the rest of your inverted pyramid is balanced – you’ll find your putting game. Many people will want to flip the pyramid over, seeing their driving game as the base of a good score, since it does the most work in terms of distance travelled between teepad and basket. But you need to see your complete game as building upon a solid foundation of putting. To show why, let’s look at a hole in true inverted fashion- backwards.

If you consistently make almost all your putts inside, say, 25 feet, and a majority inside 30 feet, you are indeed putting for dough, but you’re also doing something just as important: You’re taking a great deal of pressure off yourself on the shots before the putt. For instance:

  • You’ll have more confidence in agressively running for long putts if you know you can hit the comeback putt.
  • When you do rip that killer drive on the long hole and have 30 feet left for a rare, envy-causing birdie, you’ll step up with a positive frame of mind, as opposed to thinking “If I don’t make this putt my killer drive will be going to waste!”
  • On the holes where you find yourself with a challenging upshot, hoping to just get close enough get a look at par, a consistent putting game will help immensely. You’ll be able to imagine a 30-foot radius around the basket and know that if you can get your second shot anywhere within that radius, you can par the hole. This usually provides several alternative routes you can visualize, and takes away that familiar pressure of thinking you gotta base every shot because you have no confidence in your putting game
  • The common thread to all three previous bullet points is confidence vs. pressure, anxiety, negative imagery, and forced conservative play

If you’re now convinced like never before that a better putting game is the key to finally finsihing in the cash in tourneys, taking your friend’s bag-tag, or maybe just breaking par, here are a few obvious but useful tips for getting better:

  • Practice. You hear it all the time, and like anything else, if you don’t devote some regular time each week to improve your disc golf putting, you won’t. It takes a little as 10 minutes a day for a few weeks to see significant gains
  • Use the inverted pyramid concept in practice to build up your putting game. First work on those short putts (15 feet and in) that just kill you when you miss ’em. Practice those until you get to the point that when you have them in a round, you approach them knowing you’ll make ’em, and you do. After that, slowly work your way outward until you’re feeling good about those 30-footers that right now cause your heart to flutter during a round.
  • Watch the players that not only hit most of their putts but seem to do so with confidence and calm. Instead of picking one person’s style and trying to copy it, try to see the basic balance and fluid form that most good putters have in common. Then, during practice, incorporate that good form into your own unique physical abilities

If you use these tips to beat me someday, make sure to let me know. It’ll make me feel a little better as I hand you my tag. Really.

Want to Play Better? Be a Sponge. Absorb, Squeeze, Repeat.

by frisbeebrain, posted in DaLearning Curve, disc golf instruction, instruction

I’m speaking to all disc golfers here, but primarily to those of you who really love to play, maybe even get to play 2-3 times a week or more, but still feel like you could get way better. The Am 2’s who want to (and should) move up to Am 1, and the Am 1’s who want to (and should) start challenging the pros. Of course everyone has room to improve, though, and can hopefully gain some insight from this article.

When you think ‘Be a Sponge’ you probably think I mean something like ‘Soak up all the advice you can’, or ‘watch all the top pros you can.’ While neither of those are bad ideas,
I’m kind of thinking of the opposite ‘sponge’ metaphor. The first thing to do when you want to shoot better disc golf scores is to wring out all the potential you currently have, even as you work to improve and expand your skill set. In any sport, when you hear about an athlete that ‘maximized his or her potential,’ or ‘overachieved,’ it’s usually in reference to someone whose physical game is greatly enhanced by an extraordinary mental game, drive, focus, or all three. Such people squeeze the most out of their physical potential. I’m not saying you have to dedicate yourselves exclusively to disc golf, a fitness
regimen, or anything like that. Just use your head. Figure out ways that you waste strokes during a typical round, and eliminate the waste. I’ll address some specific ways you can do this  here and in a follow-up post, but you yourself know which areas you need to focus on most. Here are some basics to get you started:

Drives

Many disc golf courses play through forgiving wide-open flat grassy park land, allowing you to see the basket you’re aiming for no matter where you land. Other courses –DeLaveaga in Santa Cruz, CA, for instance- are not so forgiving. Therefore at DeLa it is much more important to throw your drive accurately than it is to throw it far. You can save many strokes by not always trying to throw a drive as hard as you can – focusing on a smooth, accurate delivery instead – when your odds of reaching the hole with a birdie-look are small. In fact, if you take this ‘accuracy first’ approach, you?ll be surprised at how quickly your distance improves as well from increased smoothness. Side Note: I first exposed myself (heh-heh) to this concept by reading Golf In the Kingdom by Michael Murphy, an author of local notoriety. It is one of the many golf books I’ve found useful with parallels to disc golf.

Approach Shots

Have you heard the golf term ‘Game Management?’ It refers to the mental side of golf in general, specifically to making smart decisions during a round based on everything you know about your abilities, the course, and the conditions. In disc golf – and especially at DeLaveaga – I think game management comes into play on the second shot more than any other. Either you have some kind of look at the basket for birdie and have to decide whether to really go for it, or you’re in trouble behind trees or down a ravine. Either way, your decision on each shot comes down to the basic risk/reward ratio. If you are not familiar with this term, it is the comparison of the risk on a given shot (disc hits front of basket and rolls down into ravine, hundreds of feet below), to reward (Birdie!) A smart disc golfer considers risk/reward along with his/her own abilities on that day (tired, nursing an injury) when making shot decisions. Sometimes, when I know I’m not in the groove, I’ll play it conservatively simply because I don’t want to chase my disc down into a ravine. But other times the discipline to be able to recognize my limitations and manage my game accordingly means winning vs. losing.

Putting

Much of what I just wrote about approach shots applies to putting, in terms of risk/reward. But putting requires special attention unto itself, because until you put the disc in the basket you ‘re forced to keep doing it. Plus, strokes can pile up quickly on the green. On the mental side of putting, I’ll just say for now that you need to first decide exactly how you want to proceed (go for it hard and straight, go for it with a safe lofty shot, or lay it up), then execute the shot decisively. Make sure you know what you want to do, then do it with full confidence and focus. More to follow in part 2, but questions and input are always welcome at jack@schoolofdiscgolf.com.

Is NorCal truly the Epicenter of Disc Golf?

by frisbeebrain, posted in disc golf

You may have noticed the slogan ‘Epicenter of Disc Golf’ attached to the DeLaveaga Disc Golf Club logo on shirts, discs, and the club website. Our claim to such a lofty label has historically been twofold. First of all, the slogan’s origin was back in 1989, shortly after the famous earthquake that postponed the opening of the World Series between the SF Giants and Oakland A’s. The epicenter – or point of origin – of that earthquake was Loma Prieta in Santa Cruz, only several miles from the DeLaveaga Disc Golf Course. So in one sense the slogan was a play on words. But back then there were far fewer total courses in the world, and DeLaveaga was unanimously considered the best in the world. So the claim, coursewise, did have some validity (and still does, considering many pros and ams still deem DeLa tops in the world). But now I’m thinking the claim has validity in regards to disc golf players as well.

Think about it. Santa Cruz is where Nate Doss calls home, and Nate is a pretty hot disc golfer right now. The 2005 World Champion has won two of the past 4 National Tour events, and is ranked 1st by Marshall Street Disc Golf (http://marshallstreetdiscgolf.com/discgolfinfo_ranking_2007.html). Nate is also 2nd in NT points, 3rd in cash on tour, and his PDGA player rating of 1031 ranks 2nd. Pretty hot. But an epicenter doesn’t really mean much unless it radiates in all directions, with its effects noticed the most nearby. Note: This is the real point I’m trying to make. Head a little bit Northeast, and you’ll be in the stomping grounds of Josh Anton, winner of the Masters Cup NT event in Santa Cruz. Go south a couple hundred miles and you’re in Santa Maria, home of KC Wide Open winner Kyle Crabtree. Further South you’ll come across Steve Rico and Micah Dorius, but at that point you’re in SoCal, not NorCal.

Here’s another way of looking at it: What do Nate Doss, Josh Anton, Steve Rico, Kyle Crabtree, Greg Barsby, and Micah Dorius have in common, besides being top-notch disc golfers? They all play primarily or part-time on the NorCal tour, and they have six of the top 12 spots for NT points. Among them are four of the top six-rated golfers in the world, and six of the top 12 money leaders this year. Although my assertion that Santa Cruz is the Epicenter of the Disc Golfer world is a little bit tongue in cheek, I think there is good evidence that more talent is based in Northern California than any other region in the country. I’d love to hear a case for an area of the same size that can top us. OK, you in the Northwest . . . you’re close, but not quite!

Da Blahg is Back with Dawn Patrol Disc Golf

by frisbeebrain, posted in disc golf

First of all, DeLaBlahg is happy to be back online, and ecstatic to be a part of santacruzdiscgolf.com. Eventually the DeLaBlahg archives will be moved in entirety to its new home here, but for now a little fresh and current blogging.

I played a true dawn patrol round this morning at our glorious course, starting at 7:07 AM as the sun began to rise over the ocean. The mixture of orange and pale blue hues in the sky, absolute quiet, and air as fresh as that anywhere in the world repaid me right there and then for dragging myself out of bed at 5:45. Then it was time to start throwing discs, and the amazing aesthetics dissolved into the background replaced by the difficulties associated with 40-degree temperatures.

After earning bogeys on three of the first 4 holes and feeling like my cold rigid body would never loosen up that day, I told Assaf that I would be “ecstatic” if I could just get back to par today. And believe me, I meant it! Standing on the tee for hole 5, just getting par on all of the remaining mostly long holes seemed an arduous task. Some days are just like that.

Anyone who has read my blog knows that I’m constantly looking for ways to stay positive and focused. This time, after collecting a couple pars on holes five and six, I decided I’d project my situation onto the Masters Cup. It’s our biggest tourney of the year at DeLa (obviously, as an NT event) and I asked myself ‘what would I do if for whatever reason my first round in the Masters Cup started like this? Would I pack it in and decide six holes into an 81-hole event that it just wasn’t my year, or maybe start attempting risky long putts in an attempt to surge back quickly? I hope not. On days when the putting touch isn’t there, and maybe the luck seems a little cruel, you just gotta grind it out- so that’s what I decided to do.

On hole 7 long I needed a downhill 40-foot putt for par- and got it. Hole 9 wasn’t much different, and 11 (now in the sadistic long-left placement) required an improbable hyzered skip shot for a routine par. Finally on 12 I collected a birdie, and after a typical 4 on hole 13 I was done bogeying for the day.

Mixing in a few more birdies (15, 19, 21 and 23) enabled me to crawl back under par for the round, and if it had been the first round of the Masters Cup I would have been satisfied with the strong finish. I think it’s more grafifying to shoot a -1 on an off-day than a -7 when I’m feelin’ it. And even if the round had continued as it started, we had the course pretty much to ourselves for 2.5 hours and the weather warmed to t-shirt weather. All things considered, and with the right perspective, it was impossible to have a “bad” round.