Monkey Butt. That was the phrase this weekend, I'm not sure
why, it just was. It had nothing to do with the tournament itself,
maybe people were just suffering from severe cases of it.
The weather on Saturday was great, cool with a small breeze,
I thought this was Georgia. On Sunday it was flat out cold in
the morning, warming to a brisk 50*(?) in the afternoon. I am
always skeptical about first time tournaments, but this one went
off really well. Kevin Misiak and crew put on a good show for
us this weekend, and there were very few complaints. The tournament
filled up, and a waiting list started Saturday morning (begin
the first complaint), but Kevin handled the mob well by adding
a 19th group (insert second complaint). Keep in mind that I had
no problem with Kevin's actions, but some people did complain
about back ups caused in the woods. To this I say: Well morons,
it is the woods at Redan, there are always back ups in there.
!8 groups, 17 groups or 19 groups, it doesn't matter. When you
have hard holes, people tend to take longer playing them. Also,
we had no significant delays in the lead groups, so if you don't
want to wait, shoot better. The only problem (?) I had was that
for the third round, the lead group in the pros had to start on
hole 4. I'm not sure if it is really a problem, I think it is
more curiosity that leads me to ask why? It is always been my
impression that the Pro Open division was the marquis division
in the field, and that they always finish on hole 18. We are
not a protected division, in fact, we are the only non protected
division (Pro Women are the closest, but they can compete in our
division, we cannot compete in theirs. Square vs. Rectangle theory).
I have seen this happen before, but I have never gotten off my
lazy rear and asked why. Below I will only give you my recollection
of what happened by round, and that will mainly consist of the
leader group, and its members through the weekend. I don't know
what everyone else did, I was only paying attention to my ability
to miss a five foot "drop in" put on hole five in the
short position. Yuck.
Round one started on hole two for me, I was accompanied by Richard
L., Haji, Sasoon, and Dr. Bob B. I'm not sure what everyone shot,
but Haji and I shot seven under par, and I think Richard shot
a four (?) under, whatever it was, it was good enough to make
it to the leader group for round two. Tim E. (Chim Chim) shot
a five under, and Vidal shot a four (?) under to round out the
leader group for round two, which began after a well reviewed
lunch at Los Collinas with Chop and my brother Steve. I told
people who asked that I shot a "conservative" seven
under the first round, I did really, I didn't take any chances
on drives that I wasn't sure of. Well, the second round I started
on long one, and parked it for an easy two (which beats the double
circle six that I started last year's Hotlanta with- ouch!).
I got threes on short two and short three, and I wasn't too happy,
but the two on short four was okay. Now I par medium five, and
decided that it was time to stop playing "conservative",
and to get more aggressive. So I take a five on long six, aggressive
golf is definitely not my style, back to "conservative".
I end up shooting another seven under, Haji shoots a two under,
Chim Chim shoots another five under, and I think Vidal shot another
four under. On Sunday morning, the leader group looked pretty
much the same except for the fact that we traded in Richard L.,
for a newer Rand E., who shot an eight under for the second round.
We were sitting like this for the third round: Ryan -14, Chim
Chim -10, Haji -9, and Vidal and Rand at -8. The third round
sucked for everyone. I shot four under, Chim Chim shot 2 under,
Vidal and Rand shot 6 under (I guess the round didn't suck for
them), and Haji shot one or two under. So for the final round,
we went in like this: Ryan -18, Vidal and Rand -14, Chim Chim
-12, and Haji at -11(?).
Now, during the final round, we were a little more civil to each
other, no more messing around and making fun of each other, this
was not a time for jokes this was a time for golf. Well, for
most of us it was. After a bad joke, Vidal put Rand's putter
in one of the trash barrels, make a mental note not to mess with
Vidal, his mean streak is ugly. Rand put a charge on until about
hole ten where the wheels came of and at that point it was Vidal
coming after me hard. I must tell you that I have little voices
in my head which tell me to throw bad shots on the course, especially
during the final round, they are tough to ignore so most of the
time I don't try to. Going into hole 15 on the long left position
I had four strokes over Vidal, and a few more over Chim Chim (note:
these are not the two you want behind you going into hole 15 on
the long position). I decide that I am going to play safe. Oh,
I should translate, safe equals five. Vidal takes a four and
I think that Chim Chim did as well. Now, I'm three strokes ahead
with three holes to play, and here is 16, no strokes should be
gained or lost here. Voices I say. So I try to park short 15
from the tee pad of 16, there goes a stroke not just to them,
but to the entire planet as well. For those of you who have never
played Redan, hole 16 is 200 feet of the easiest, most natural
hyzer shot on the planet, and short 15 is 45* to the right, and
through about a mile of bushes and trees. Great, now I've got
two holes to defend two strokes, one of which (18) I have thrown
horribly all weekend. Vidal puts one down the middle on 17, and
Chim Chim tries to stall his disc over the trees, and fails, circle
five. I just about wet myself on the tee pad, but manage to roll
one within 25 feet. Vidal missed his put of about 40 feet, and
I realized that if I wanted this, I had to hit the put. Putting
under pressure is something that I can do well for some strange
reason, and I was able to hit the putt giving me a three stroke
lead into 18, which we all uneventfully took threes. I finally
win in Atlanta (we don't count Elberton, that is closer to Athens,
neigh!).
We all had a great time, and I have to thank the staff for running
the event so well. I have to thank the boys at LYNX Disc Golf
Services for supporting me, and for paying for the LT-4 conversion
for my car (oh, I billed that to you guys so you don't have to
reimburse me for it). I don't know what else to say except for
the fact that Doug was afraid of the woods so he didn't play,
don't let him try to tell you any different. Monkey Butt.
Oh, here are the ones who cashed:
1st Ryan
2nd Vidal
3rd Haji, Rand, Scott R., Mel S.
7th Jeff P,
8th Chim Chim
