Cali-to-Vegas-to-Zona
Imaginative Section Headings, Huh? I did those myself... -doug

Cali

After the tournament on Sunday we all headed back to Sam's house and had one of our usual chat sessions, disc golf being the subject, of course. Monday morning was moving day and this time it was to one of our favorite places, Bamba and Nancy Rico's house. We stayed with these guys last year and they are truly great people. They always make us feel so at home and they are just fun to be around. Freddie is Bamba and Stevie's cousin and he is a cool cat as well he is staying with Bamba and Nancy right now so we hung out with him all week.

Monday afternoon when we arrived we still had enough daylight to play a round at the Rico's home course, Veteran's Memorial Park (aka Sylmar). The course was set up in all long positions which made it very different from last year. Sylmar is really a nice course when it is set up in these positions. The six of us Bamba, Stevie, Freddie, and the crew all played a practice round. Afterwards we headed back to the house, ordered some food, and played with Freddie's little boy Freddie jr. He is a very cool kid and at a year old he says frisbee as much as he says mommy and daddy.

Tuesday we were up for some more practice at Sylmar. Bamba and Stevie had to work so the three of us and Freddie decided to go play. On the way to the course we stopped by a local golfer's house, Gary Sandaval, his house is practically on the course. Gary was a cool guy and he also bought a lot of plastic from us which was greatly appreciated. Gary went out to the course with us and since we were there to practice we decided to putt for awhile before starting a round. We must have putted for an hour before we started a game of 21 which lasted another hour and a half. The game was 2 points for in and 1 point for chains no points for metal which Freddie and myself regretted agreeing to since we hit metal more than anything. I think our shortest putt was from 50 feet and the longest being 100 feet. It was more like a jump putting game.

After Cam beat us all in 21 Gary had to leave so Freddie, Worm, Cam and myself all decided to play a round with something at stake. I opened my big mouth and put up the D&B. The D&B is this cool thing hanging on my bag that has this cool blue water in it that drips down on a wheel kind of like an hour glass. I was feeling confident that with the five strokes they had given me I wasn't going to lose. Wrong! I did give them a run for their money but in the end it was Worm who came away with the D&B. I have already demanded a rematch.

After the round we went by the grocery store and picked up some things to cook out. Wednesday Bamba and Stevie had the day off so of course we had to play more golf, Sylmar seemed like our home course at this point. Gary joined the six of us and we decided to play some doubles. Wouldn't you know that when we flipped for partners the #1 and #2 golfers in the world get paired up. Bamba and I were partners, Gary and Freddie, and Worm was odd man. Cam and Stevie only missed 1 hole out of the 22 that we played shooting an incredible -21. I'm pretty sure that is the record for any doubles action.

After the round and another game of 21 this time from more makeable ranges we headed over to Stevie's house. His parents invited us all over for dinner. Bamba and Stevie's parents are as nice of people as I have ever met and we had a great time hanging out with daddy Rico. After dinner Cam and Freddie took on Worm and Stevie in a game of basketball. It was fun watching these guys battle back and forth but after the score was 9 to 8 they took a water break and were all too exhausted to finish. We headed back to Bamba's and later in the evening Bamba pulled out all of his old sweet disc for us to rummage through. Cam had 2 old whippets that he wanted to trade for some San Marino Rocs. Old whippets are Bamba's favorite so if anyone has whippets please let us know because we are Bamba's search team. Keep in mind he is willing to trade sweet San Marino's for whippets.

Anyway Cam and Worm came away with some pretty sweet discs, they drooled over all the disc before they finally narrowed it down. Oh, how we all wish we had been playing long enough to get our hands on all the old discs. Actually Worm has been playing long enough he just never collected. I suppose Rocs and Aviars will never be like they were in the early 90's, which really sucks! Anyway it is Thursday and I think we are heading out to Las Vegas tonight to get ready for the Gentleman's Club Challenge a b-tier event. We played this one last season and from what we hear the tournament is full so it will probably be even bigger than last year. Cam and I both are defending champs and hopefully we can do it again. Again I just want to say thank you to Bamba, Nancy, Freddie, Gabby, Stevie and their parents for their hospitality and kind nature. It is truly a pleasure to hang out with these guys and we wish we didn't have to leave.

Vegas

We arrived in Las Vegas Friday mid-afternoon. They had random draw doubles for the pros and Cam and Worm decided to play. I on the other hand just decided to practice the course. That turned out to be pretty difficult between trying to play through a group on every hole and dodging the sprinkler system that was spraying water all over the fairways and tee boxes I barely got any practice. After doubles was over we hooked up with the Winnie Crew, Carlo Pelg and Dan from Cali and went to the Orleans Casino for a Vegas Buffet! It was really good food for a good price and it was amazing to watch how much 7 guys and myself could eat. Dave out did everyone by finishing off with about 8 different desserts.

That night we shared a room with Carlo and Dan. Saturday we played two windy rounds, 24 holes each round. None of us really played that well in the wind. The tee pads were also very slippery which made it very difficult to throw the way you wanted. They were slippery on Friday as well everyone was complaining so we all got together and asked the T.D. what he thought about letting everyone tee to the side or directly behind for safety reasons and he said no to the idea. I don't understand, WHY??? Anyway that night they had a party and food for everyone at some bar. Cam and I didn't go but Worm went with Jon Drummond and John Spencer, the guy that we stayed with Saturday night. He lives right by the course and offered us a place to stay, which was much appreciated as well as the delicious breakfast he cooked for us Sunday morning before the round.

Sunday we only had to play one windy round of 24 and I was really glad because I rolled my ankle twice in one week and it hurt to put pressure on my right foot. I hobbled through the round and much to my surprise shot better than I had on Saturday( go figure??). I was already so far out of the cash that it didn't really matter. Cam and Worm tied for 9th place. Stevie Rico made it two in a row winning by a few strokes over Barry Schultz and Dave Feldberg was third. We would like to thank all the people in Vegas who supported us! We sold a lot of discs and other merchandise which really helped us out a lot at the time.

That night after the awards ceremony the B-boys, Winnie Crew and the Flying Eye Crew drove to Laughlin, NV to The Palms Casino. We heard about it from Jeff Hoepner they had hotel rooms for $24.00 a night and when you signed up for the players card which was free you got a free night and buffet. Deal of the century!! Each crew got a room and that night we all went out gambling. It was a fun time. Monday it was more gambling and buffets. We stayed the night and woke up Tuesday morning in route to Phoenix,AZ to play The Memorial, one of our favorite tournaments.

'Zona

We didn't arrive in time to play a round on Tuesday so we headed over to Karen Borges's house. This is the second year we have stayed with Karen and Jim Garnett and they are really cool people. Karen and Jim toured the summer of 2000 so they know how it is to be on the road, they always hook us up.

Wednesday Karen went with us to Fountain Hills to practice. We have heard a lot about this course and it was beautiful. The course plays around this huge pond with this fountain in the middle that shoots up every hour 300 feet in to the sky. The course isn't extremely long but there is plenty of water to throw in and a little elevation. I liked the course a lot it was really nice and the scenery around it was awesome. Arizona is a really pretty place. After the round we headed over to Vista Del Camino Park (AKA Shelly Sharpe) to see who was in town and to practice a little more. We hung out at the course for a while putting under the lights. The course is so cool like that, you can play a lot of holes at night and there is a bar on the 12th hole not to mention the host hotel is on hole 7 and 8. Thursday we headed back to Shelly Sharpe to play all of the holes and hooked up with Lesli Denmark and Steve Brinster for the remainder of the round. Afterwards we headed over to Dukes (the bar on the 12th hole) for some dinner. That night I took Todd Breiner to the airport he was in town for the PDGA summit meetings.

Friday morning was round 1, 27 holes of The Memorial. It was pretty cold in the morning but warmed up fairly quickly, unfortunately the wind came with the warm temperatures. I played really good the first round shooting a -1 (7 birdies). That score put me in the lead by 5 over Sue and 6 over Juliana. Cam and Worm played the afternoon round and it was really windy. I caddied for Cam and he shot -3 which wasn't bad considering the conditions. Worm shot +4. Saturday the second round was at Fountain Hills and Cam and Worm had the early morning round which was good because they didn't have to deal with the wind. Cam shot -12 which was good enough to tie Stevie Rico and Ken Climo for second, Barry Schultz led by one stroke. Worm shot -3 which kept him around the middle of the pack and with 118 pros that meant he was still in cashing position. We started about 1:15 after the pros and of course the wind brewed up. I made it through the wind pretty good with my CE Eagle shooting a +4. Juliana shot +5 so that put me in the lead by 7. That night the three of us Nadine & Emmit, Steve & Lesli and John & Ritchie (Cali boys) all went to Los something or another. Let me just say this was the worst service I have ever had. These people were unbelievable!!! We got in trouble for scooting our chairs around to make room for everyone, they tried to scam us on our bill by charging for things we didn't actually ask for not to mention many other things. If I do find out the name of it I will let you know just to make sure no one ever has to experience this place!

Sunday morning was the third and final round and we had the early tee time, 8:00 a.m. It was in the upper 30's that morning but I made sure to wear layers which by the end of the round was getting really hot. It warms up really fast in the desert. Sunday was kind of a weird day for me because it was the first time I had been leading a supertour with Juliana in the field. I was ready to play but when the 2 minute warning sounded we realized Juliana was not there. She was sick and decided not to play the last round I guess. We had to pull a girl from the second card to play on the lead card. To start the round I was kind of lost and not focused because of the absence of Juliana but I finally started to play and ended up shooting +4. Sue shot +3 to take 2nd, Nadine Larkin placed 3rd and Laurie Cloyes came in 4th. It felt good to win a supertour and some cash but I was kind of frustrated that I didn't get to battle with Juliana for the win but there is always more tournaments for that.

After the round I grabbed a bite to eat and then caught up with Cam on hole 12 to caddie. Cam shot great golf and as always made some stellar putts shooting a -10 to take 2nd one stroke behind Stevie Rico who made it 3 wins in a row. Ken Climo came in third one stroke behind Cam and Barry ended up tied for 5th after getting a 2 stroke penalty before the 3rd round started for scoring his card wrong from the second round. Worm shot a smoking -12 to jump up to 22nd place. After the round we went to Dukes for the awards ceremony. Let me just say that this tournament is one of the (if not the) coolest supertours of the season. Dan Ginnelly is a great T.D. and really puts on a quality event. Thanks to Dan and the AZDGC for all of their hard work, it really shows! We are going back to Cali to play the El Dorado Open a b-tier this weekend. We will let you know how it goes and hopefully the wind won't be following us back to Cali.