Thought it might be interesting to blog my 3-week trip that will include several other disc golf activities in addition to the usual things done on disc golf trips � play courses & play tournaments. I left yesterday driving from the Twin Cities on my way to the IDGC for the Summit meetings this coming Thurs & Fri. Along with the typical disc golf travel log which will include one A, one B and two C-tiers, I�ll share several behind-the-scenes activities some of your volunteers do on behalf of players. If you have any questions or comments on the Blog content, please post those on my Ask Chuck Kennedy thread.

Car is loaded just before the rain ramps up for a long, wet drive. Gas was $3.39/gal in MN with fill-ups at $3.49 in WI and $3.79 in IL later today. Just before shutting down the computer, I got the first draft of the ratings update from Roger. Our Ratings group will start reviewing the draft while I�m on the road. Looks like Feldberg�s hot round at The Memorial will officially come in at 1098. We�ll be updating the �Best Rounds of All Time� list once the ratings are finalized.

Uneventful drive all day, which is a good thing when you�re driving a �moderately beat� 1994 Shadow that�s slightly understable in the wind, and it was windy and wet all day long. Smiled, but no time to stop and play as I passed Token Creek near Madison in the afternoon. It�s one of the best courses in Wisconsin.

Long drives have been my best time to generate new ideas. I have my notepad and golf pencil right there as I motor along on cruise control. That�s how this idea to do the blog surfaced. It�s also my time to catch up on �reading� with books on tape from the library. Almost made it thru the �Chopping Spree.� Friday morning I�ll get to find out �Who done it?� on my way to Lexington.

Drove 625 miles today, ending at the Red Roof in Indianapolis. Good thing they have High Speed Internet with 68 (non-spam) emails to check. Priority item was to redo the wording in a half dozen paragraphs in my next By The Numbers article for the FDM issue 3.

Kentucky might be the toughest state to play Pro GM with both World Champions Voakes and Greenwell patrolling their turf. I can hope there are at least 7 in my division to have a shot at 3rd on courses I've never played before. As it turns out, Greenwell couldn't make it and the two Sr Gms have joined us to make an 8-man division.

Made it the rest of the way to Lexington and got to the courses mid-afternoon. Walked around the new course Riney B then hurried over to Veterans to make the doubles. Teamed up with Pete Johnson from Mass and played with Bennett and Kevin? from Ann Arbor. They took us down with a -12 but Pete aced and won a few bucks for both of us.

Finished up at Shilito teeing on maybe half the holes but walking the rest. Stopped and taught about 8 teens the Bonpane grip and half of them added 50-75 feet to their drives with the grip getting the nose down. The other half had midrange discs where the Bonopane isn't as comfortable. I showed the players who use only one driver how to throw a pancake (upside down shot) for better accuracy on 50-80 ft upshots and they were amazed how that worked. Lots of fun helping out the rec folks when they're willing and you have the time.

Local course mule Darell Motley put me up for the weekend at his house (Thanks Darell) surrounded by the classic horse farms. I may have a photo when I can upload. He's been a big time promoter in Rock Crawling and he was comparing the simialrities in these two seemingly disparate sports.

"Kevin?" probably was Kevin Tomasaitis. Did he throw a wicked thumber?

Never saw a thumber in the woods but it was him. He beat me in the CTP throwoff today.

Had some sprinkles in the morning that cleared before tee off. Three courses were active at one time but all pretty close to each other. Pros played the new course at Riney B. Nice, new pads but only temp signs were ready. Interesting mix of holes. But some of the rough spots you'd expect for a new course in terms of initial tournament players helping the locals determine which additional trees might still need to come out. Not sure I've ever seen a double mando hole with two tees at 90 degree angles, where for daily play, you can pick which route you want to play.

TD and designer Lyle McCoon had joined our course designer group to learn the technical side of design. He had asked me how to set up some of the OB structure on a few holes there. Unfortunately, I went OB both rounds on one of those holes. :eek:

Non-stellar rounds on my part kept me off the top GM card in R2 at Veterans but I did splash chains for possible ace and threw in for 2 from 60 ft from my knee (no pad used :D) while under pine boughs.

Board member Peter Shive and I had dinner to talk over proposals coming up for the Summit meeting. Peter will make the meeting by phone since he's on tour and will be at St. Louis next weekend. Some potentially cool ideas percolating if we can get the resources pulled together to pull them off. Got back to Darell's later that evening and waited for Lyle to upload scores. Once they got online, helped by getting the course assignments setup so the unofficial ratings would calculate properly.

Time to get to work and claw my way back to the top card. Shot 51 at Shillito on the easiest course and made it with room to spare since Darell had trouble after fine rounds on Sat.

Finally got to play with Dr. Rick, Shive and former event champ, Jim Ashton. Old man Peter has the most D of the 8 of us but I had to tweak him a bit about it. On our first hole, I outdrove him but he proceeded to float in a putt from 50 ft while my 45 footer floated by. He then drove into the circle on a 465 downhill hole and made the 25 footer on hole 1 that the lead Open card in front of us didn't get within 60 ft.

We were all pretty spaced apart in scores going into the round so for most of it, there wasn't much scoring tension. However with 4 holes to go, Peter got a 3 shot swing on the hole and followed that with two birds including an amazing blind forehand on the double mando hole that pulled him into a tie with Ashton on the final hole. Jim rolled away from the pin on his upshot and Peter didn't. Peter charges into second by making up 6 shots in the final 4 holes. I hung on for last cash which is the most beyond entry fee I've ever won for last cash (check the payouts).

Awards were at an elementary school that had EDGE program baskets on the grounds. They ran some CTP competitions while figuring out final standings and prizes. I threw first and had closest for the longest time but it was only prelims with five closest throwing once for the final prize. Keven T got me in the throwoff for the DGA basket.

I helped do the upload for final scores and ratings then left for Knoxville around 6 where I'm typing from right now. Catching up on email, I got the file from Roger to do the next World Rankings. I have to turn it around quickly since Issue 3 of FDM is close to final editing. Second draft of ratings update was completed and should be ready for posting by Tuesday if not tomorrow afternoon. Flurry of email activity among the Hall of Fame members planning for votes on the next members who will be presented at Worlds. I'll be heading to Augusta in the morning.

I watched Peter take birdie on #21 and #1 that last round. Amazing! I heard Doc Rick put it out there on the 440' hole #20 too.

you stopping by Charlotte along the way there or back? Carolina Clash May 10/11!!!

No Charlotte this trip. I'll likely be playing a C-tier in Ottawa, OH on May 10.

Spent the morning at the Super 8 working on the World Rankings and answering a few emails regarding ratings. Talked with Dave Greenwell about some interesting projects he's working on. More about that when I visit him next week.

It was a cool, wet day leaving Knoxville and rainy most of the way to the IDGC. Made it thru a book on tape called something like Mrs. Pollifax and the Lion Master. Gas was $3.55 in OH (Fri), $3.59 in KY (Fri) and $3.49 (Mon) in NC.

Got to IDGC as they were closing and found out Dave had posted the ratings. Of course, I could tell that as soon as I booted up at the Microtel with the number of emails I'd gotten regarding the usual variety of ratings questions and issues. I think I'm caught up for the moment until even more people awaken tomorrow and see the new ratings are up.

Finished up the World Rankings and article for FDM #3. But you can read it here first: Dave Feldberg passed Climo to become #1 in the World for the first time. The 1098 at The Memorial sure helped.

Got to the IDGC around 9 to get to work on the Steady Ed course. Jason and I were going to get the eight remaining anchors installed for alternates we hope to try at the IDGC event this weekend. The flags had been there for a while and we started digging with shovel and post hole digger. In addition, we used loppers, pole saw and chain saw to clear a mix of items still remaining around these placements. We managed to get seven dug and mostly cleared but long 11 will take more work than can be finished tomorrow.

I heard good news that the Rules Committee liked what I did for organizing the Rules Q&A. They're reviewing the text now for accuracy. Essentially, what I did was first just copy/paste all of the Q&As together and assigned a number to each one. That created an 18-page doc that should soon be available for download. But the hopefully more valuable thing was consolidating the Rules Q&A to just 4 pages with condensed Qs and As that get to the heart of each issue so it can be printed for potential inclusion with the rules at some point. I also cross-referenced all of the newly numbered Q&As with the Rule numbers so you can quickly check the index and read all of the Q&As related to OB for example.

Staying up late to prep some info for the Tech Standards group regarding the upcoming initiative to review and update basket standards. Derek and Shannon just got eliminated on DWTS, so back to work. Gas was $3.45 in GA today with beautiful weather and not too hot.

Chuck, thanks for doing some work on the Rules Q & A's.

I must be on some great medication...in less than a year, the pDGA has solved two of its three greatest challenges---and with a serious, lengthy, careful expansion of its rulebook could accomplish the third.

First, the pDGA created a charity program that not only gives the sport a sense of a mission, it also encourages pDGA sanctioning from non-traditional pDGA areas. Then after nearly a decade of financial shenanigans, the pDGA publishes a detailed, public report on its own website, for all the world to see.

And now, Chuck pushes the dinosaur-like, logically-challenged and conflict-of-interest-riddled Rules Committee one step closer to an honest debate of the value of consistent rule enforcement.

Chuck, do what you can to spark this important rule debate. Do not let the foolish current RC rashly, hastily, and incompetently ruin another rules revision! Slow them down at all costs and suggest that they get a huge amount of input from credible rules change proponents before they repeat their blunders of the past like the lost disc revision or the flip-flop 2 meter OB rule clusterblunder.

I'd ask you to suggest they all resign in disgrace, but the old guard that has held the pDGA back for so long doesn't want to acknowledge the game has passed them by while the new guard solves problems the old guard created, so it's better that you or someone else volunteer to do their work for them and let them take the credit. take one for the team Chuck...and if you need a volunteer, count me in. I wouldn't mind giving those Innova icons the credit if it means the sport could plug the holes in its rulebook.

Started the day at 6am working on the PowerPoint slides for the Summit regarding the basket tech standards review. Had to make sure Stork and Homburg knew the plan. Got to the IDGC and Jason was ready to go for installing anchors. We spent most of the day lugging around shovels, water, Quikrete, level, pipe and anchors. Completed all seven so we'll test some of them out at the IDGC monthly on Saturday.

Got online at the IDGC in the afternoon for a quick break to keep up with the ratings email questions. Went out and took a few pictures of each hole to prepare for an online tour while throwing only a Zephyr from the short tees to test them out. Shot 61 on a Red Par 65 layout. Not bad and lots of fun. I think the plan is to cement the short tees sometime in the next few months and the placements are ready to go. We're looking at the possibility of sanctioning "Frisbee" class events next year so this was just additional testing.

Pat Brenner (sandalman) was the only Board member to arrive by 6 so we went to dinner and spent several hours going over PDGA issues and ideas. Very useful. Back at the motel, it's time to do the PowerPoint slides for my presentation on new ideas. Summit starts at 8 in the morning.

There is a rating/recording error for Ryan Johnson # 29274. Under my ratings detail I have two rounds listed from another Ryan Johnson # 35806. He is from Michigan and I live in Arizona and I did not play the event. (Northern Waters Series #1) Even though it did not change my rating I would like it to be fixed. My rating info should be the same from the Jan 29 update. --Thanks

Please contact dgentry@pdga.com All incorrect scores, PDGA number issues and other corrections go thru him, not the ratings group. Please post on my Ask Chuck thread so this blog thread is easier for others to read.

The Summit meeting kicked off at 8 with Dodge and Shive by teleconference and the other five Board members present. I'll be a little careful with my comments because I'm a guest but not a Board member. Membership is up and financial status looks good. I'm sure these details will be shared once approved.

Heard an update from the NT group and the Board discussed the Mission statement. Peter Shive had some issues related to the NT, Worlds and age based divisions which I'll let him share at some point. Looks like Media Active will likely be the group doing the Worlds DVD again but nothing formal yet. Cliff Towne and Stork checked in by teleconference to discuss how the Directory data might be shared with other entities.

I presented several proposals to maximize the use of non-cash PDGA assets. I've hinted at some of them earlier in the blog. Today's nugget is a concept for doing a global pro event on one weekend next year at perhaps up to 50 sites where the final results in each division would be based on the sum of round ratings for 4 rounds. More details on that later, probably in the FD Mag.

The traditional Summit doubles with teams based on ratings order started on schedule about 4. Top rated player is paired with bottom player, second rated with second from bottom, etc. Bob Decker and I hung with Ron Convers and Karolyn Garlock on the Steady Ed course for 15 holes then couldn't hold on the rest of the way. We tried out 6 of the 8 new pin placements Jason and I installed yesterday. Still some ground clutter to be cleared on a few of them but they'll look nice for the event on Saturday. Gorgeous day that got to the low 80s.

Another Summit tradition is to have dinner at Rae's Creek owned by long time Augusta disc promoter, Walter Clay. We ran into former Board member Pete May who is playing in the 65+ division in a tennis event this weekend. He switched from pro to am there also so we ribbed him a little as a two sport bagger.

Day 2 of the Summit Meeting kicks off with a report from Shayne who's working on the Wii disc golf game with assistance from the PDGA. They are planning to be ready for demonstrations at Worlds this year. Stork and Jeff Homburg called in to give the Tech Standards report on the disc standards update in 2007. In addition, there was discussion on adding "PDGA Approved" and disc name on new disc molds.

I gave a presentation laying out the plan for reviewing the basket standards and some of the issues involved. We hope to have the survey ready for members and manufacturers to respond during June. Are we ready to require a deflection device like chains on all new models? Right now, an open basket with no chains or any contraption above it can be approved.

The early afternoon had several Board business items which I'll skip until their minutes are approved. Some discussion on the ratings contract with Roger and I which is up for renewal at yearend. We discussed developing a way for members to earn ratings during sanctioned leagues. You'll hear more about this later in the year.

Summit doubles part 2 headed toward the Jackson course designed by Houck. We played 9 holes using alternate shot format with similar pairings based on ratings. Convers and Garlock valiantly tried to defend their Best Shot title from Day 1 but ran into the Bellinger/Kennedy buzzsaw. Board member Todd Andrews was helping Gentry get the new PDGA server installed while the rest of us were doing doubles.

Augusta has a monthly celebration downtown called First Friday and it was hopping. We had a late dinner at the Blue Sky which is one of three places owned by disc golfer Matt Flynn. Several of us enjoyed the view as the Roller girls had their booth on the street where we waited for our table.

Board members Convers and Decker joined Brian Graham and I in the IDGC Monthly event. Bellinger, Andrews and Gentry continued working on the new server and had left by the time we finished the first round on the Jackson course. Brenner had already left Friday evening during doubles.

Convers scorched the Open division with a 61. Graham and I were middle of the pack in Advanced. In the afternoon, we played the new Professor layout on the Steady Ed with 9 pins different from the HOF layout that's been played for the past year. Weather was pretty good all day but the course played tougher than expected with an SSA just under 60. Convers held on for the win but Josh Childs now holds the first record for that layout at 57. Graham slipped past me to take 2nd in Advanced and I took 3rd. I'm wearing the snazzy new IDGC collared shirt right now as my winnings (delaying need to do laundry one more day :cool:).

We're getting close to having the eight planned layouts/pin combinations ready for play on the Steady Ed. The plan is to only use these eight layouts most of the time on this course. This way when players come to visit, we'll have layouts with records that players can compare their scores against. In addition, the layout rotation timing would be posted on the website so players could decide when to visit if they have favorite layouts they like to play.

I would hope other courses that have multiple pin placements would adopt a similar approach. I think many players like being able to play layouts where they can compare their performance which is hard to do when a few pins are changed every so often and the course rating (SSA) and records are unknown.

Graham headed off to movie night with his family while Convers, Decker and I met up with Pete May, wife and tennis friend for dinner at the Beesknees downtown across the street from Friday night dinner. Pete was playing for 5th place in the tennis tourney on Sunday. Local Augustan James Brown's birthday was being celebrated with a cover band and the Doobie Brothers just down the street. We got there to see the cover band but the Doobies had already performed.

Mostly a travel day today which got me from Augusta to near Kingsport, TN to stay with John Whinery who generously offered to put me up for the night. It wasn't too hard to twist my arm since he has a beautiful private course on his property. Some of you might know that John was the photo editor for DGW magazine for the past several years.

I got there by 5 and we played a round with local pro, Tim Barr and Billy, John's neighbor. The course isn't real long but has 9 very challenging holes carved out of the woods and 9 more in the open. And similar to Moody's, he's got cows who frequent some of the fairways. Played a fun round plus John's also a good cook and whipped up some salmon for dinner.

Another travel day bookended by rounds of golf. Played Warriors Path State Park in Kingsport with Barr and Whinery. It's one of my favorite old school courses that's had a few upgrades over the years.

My schedule shifted around on the fly and I headed toward Bowling Green instead of Lexington. Drove 6 hours to meet Juliana and Shawn at White (my course 457) for a round before sunset. Juliana is starting to get back in the groove after her winter wrist injury. Went to dinner and covered a wide range of disc golf topics including the recent Summit meeting. Hope to see them at Worlds but Juliana will most likely be a marshal, not playing.

Chuck, whats your next 3-4 day driving/game schedule? You coming through Ohio. Let me know maybe we can play some.

I'm in Columbus tomorrow night and playing north of there on Thursday.

You still planning on hitting up the Parklane Drive Open? Should be a fun day of golf, Justin Gill has a lot of fun ideas for putting contests, and other random things to spice up the time between rounds.

Just asking because I was planning on going to Deis Hill in Dover on Friday morning. It may be to far out of your way though, but if you haven't played it before you should head over to it.

I'll be in Toledo with family from Thursday evening thru Monday morning. But I'm planning to play the Parklane Drive on Sat.

Headed toward Louisville to meet up with World Champ David Greenwell in the afternoon. Stopped to play a nice lakeside course in Elizabethtown about halfway there. Had an interesting experience at a traffic light when I pulled up behind an Amish buggy about to make a right turn. Since they don't use electricity, the rider on the right turns around and looks back at the car behind and blinks their eyes indicating they are turning... :p

Freeman Lake Park is nicely groomed with rolling hills and enough scattered trees and pockets for interesting placements. The 4 holes along the lake are pretty treacherous with water to your left on all of them and pins less than 10m from the water. Showed a local group some grip options and proceeded to demonstrate by parking a 320 ft hole with a high flex shot that snaked between two big cedars at the end. Love it when that happens in a demonstration!

Got to Greenwell's about 2 and we headed west for 60 minutes toward the town of English, IN where he's been working on a disc golf course on the Old English ball golf course. Now this is a ball golf course with terrain suitable for disc golf with lots of elevation and places with some narrow enough areas to be more like disc golf fairways. There will still be enough open crushes and roller opps you would expect on ball golf courses.

I was helping David and the course manager measure the distances from the five ball golf tee areas to the pin placements David had already marked and the manager cleared. David wanted to use the new technology we've developed in the design group for determining in advance the appropriate distances for each player skill level.

With David as a gold level player and me as blue level, we �had� to take some test throws here and there to check out landing areas. With 80 and 90 ft elevation drops on three holes, there will be some spectacular and fun holes to throw on this course which could be playable before July.

The main challenge now will be for David to determine which tees to use for gold, blue and white level disc golfers to throw from so the course isn�t too long. If everything is maxed out, it might be close to par 80 so there are several decisions to make to get the playability at a more comfortable par near 70 or so. I showed him how to enter the measurement info into the DGCD Hole Forecaster to help him make these decisions. Players will use carts and the price will be a very reasonable $20 but make sure to also budget for an excellent cheeseburger in their caf�.

If all goes well, David is planning a really big money entry fee event on this course for September where the top dogs in the sport would duke it out for perhaps $5K first prize and possibly more. Entry fee will be $1000 per player.

Got on the computer in the morning to show Greenwell how to use the DGCD Hole Forecaster and we entered some initial values from our measurements the previous day. We headed to Charlie Vettiner course which is one his favorite designs. This course is pretty well maintained although the grass needed a trim. It�s about half in the woods and half in the open. There are a handful of par 4s plus a par 5 to finish. It�s one of the better public courses I�ve played at this length.

As you might expect, Greenwell�s design tests a wide variety of shot skills. A good forehand and full command of your midrange discs is mando to do really well here. For a little humor, we were discussing whether hole 17 was too long (marked at 369 on the sign) to provide sufficient birdies for blue level. I max out at 340 for airshots on level ground. I proceeded to flex my drive right at the pin and park it 5 feet to the right. Unfortunately, I didn�t have my rangefinder handy but my guess is the hole may be more like 315-325 in reality so it�s OK for blue.

Ate at a great Mexican restaurant with David then headed to Columbus, OH in mid-afternoon just as the rain started. Ran into some car trouble with the brake light coming on just as I entered Cincy rush hour traffic. Pulled off the next exit and amazingly was able to stop at a Marathon station on the corner that actually had service bays. The mechanic took a quick look, poured in some brake fluid and I was ready to go for all of $5. Apparently, I have a slow leak that needs to get checked in the next several days. Had to be the fastest and cheapest service call I�ve ever had lasting less than 7 minutes. Of course, gas had jumped to $3.86 from $3.55 the day before when I should have filled up...

Made it to my cousin�s house by 8. Had some excellent Mexican food (again) prepared by his wife from England who he met on match.com (for real). That�s it for the day.

That course in English has an interesting story:

http://www.oldenglishgolf.com/

Most of the morning was catching up on DG email, checking and responding on half dozen DG forums I monitor, and getting caught up on this blog. Talked with Ken Rollins who is TD for Am Worlds 2010 being held just north of Columbus. I was going to take a look at some course upgrades he's been planning. However, a tough spring has delayed things so much of that work has still to be started. It's a rainy day anyway.

I headed north to my folks in Toledo and made two stops on the way. I drove around the course on the campus at Ohio Northern U in Ada. It was still cold and rainy so I didn't get out to play. I couldn't tell for sure but it looks like there are some interesting shots including one where the engineering students might have to be on their toes to occasionally deflect an errant shot with those heavy textboooks on their way to class.

I continued on my trek to Ottawa, OH which is the site of a C-tier this Saturday. Looks like a pleasant small town city park with some nice mature trees and lots of park amenities. Since I plan to play the event, I'll have more on it for Saturday's blog. It was still cold and rainy so didn't get out to play.

Got to my folks place for a home cooked meal and briefly saw my sister's family. This weekend is the birthday celebration for my almost 10-year old neice. I'm getting commandeered to help with the assembly of a backyard basketball hoop structure. My Dad and I spent the evening getting his router set up so my laptop has wireless access. Not there yet but the wire works fine as you can see.

Howdy Chucker

I was looking at the round ratings for courses like Paw Paw, Pawtapsco (Patapsco C pins) and DeLa which got me to wondering about the "dilution" factor for longer or more challenging courses where each shot becomes equal to roughly 7 rating points as opposed to 10, and whether non-linearities in the translation from score to rating are more important for these challenging courses.

Take I-5 at DeLa as an example. After your drive you may have only one tight route to the basket to save a three and many, many shots that will give you a four. Since a low round requires a large number of these high quality shots, it would seem that assuming a linear relation between score and round rating would fail at some point, and that point of non-linearity would come sooner for more technical, challenging courses.

In other words, the closer your score gets to a "magic round", the more points each shot should represent, especially for courses which require more technical shots.

You probably already thought about this stuff, but I am curious to get your input. DD

Good question, Dave. Since I'm trying to keep posts other than my blogs off this thread, I'll respond on my Ask Chuck thead.

It is too bad that you didn't manage to get out to play Ohio Northern University. Marc Queen did a great job putting together a course that is able to both avoid the main traffic areas of campus for the majority of the round, although to get back near hole 1 he has the final 3 holes going through relatively high-traffic areas.

We run a July tournament there, the Freedom Flight, and it isn't an issue at that time with school out.

As for the Ottawa, Ohio course... it'll be an interesting day tomorrow. I played it for the first time this morning (and again in the afternoon). I hope you remember a pair of cleats, you're really going to need them. Additionally some of the fairways are really close together creating a "DUCK!" situation. Just so you know, not the TD's fault for running a tourney at a course clearly not meant for tourney golf. He merely stepped in after someone else backed out and things were already in place for a tournament.


Seeya in the morning.


-Chris.

Went to play Ottawa Park this morning with my Dad - not the disc golf course but the ball golf course next to it. First time playing my old course from college since 1989 and playing BG at all since sometime in the mid-90s. Used some of my Dad's extra clubs and my Mom's empty golf bag.

Got off the tee OK and even popped a good 3 iron on this par 5 opening hole. Then it unraveled around the green. Took my 9 (plus whiff) and carried on. I "tin cupped" five new balls I now owe my Dad on the 4th hole but he said "senior rules" meant I still got no more than 10. Shades of the old form showed up on 7 & 8 with a bogey and a par - on in regulation on 8, lipped the 20 ft birdie putt and got the par 4.

We played with a cart but the game is still too slow and we only played 9 holes. While I'm tempted to go to the driving range to get good enough to crush them like I almost did a few times today, the temptation is just not that strong.

The rest of the day was family things like shopping with my Mom for flowers at the nursery and showing my niece my new laptop loaded with World of Warcraft and helping her create a character.

Off to Ottawa, OH for the Parklane Drive C-tier about 90 minutes away. Got to have McDs hotcakes before a long morning round. The weather was great but the course was wet and muddy everywhere from recent rains all spring long. Lots of casual water spots everywhere. In fact, after my first throw, I moved back 50 more feet to get out of the water (extra relief allowed by TD) and my disc was originally only 40 feet from the pin.

Toledo movers and shakers, Justin Gill and Mike Michalak ran the show for the person who was originally planning the event. They did a great job with special side events, homebaked goods and additional temp holes. Course was short but since it was new, some of the routes were more challenging than they will be eventually, plus the tees were natural and very muddy. (I understand cement tees are coming this summer.) No one needed a "stand & deliver" rule today because in several places you did it anyway.

Two guys from the courses planned for 2010 Am Worlds played today and we talked about their course improvements coming this summer. Clare from the Tiffin course provided a map showing the planned blue tees based on recommendations from my visit last May. Looks like cement tees this fall. Troy from Bucyrus played with me in Advanced in the afternoon. Several improvements are planned there this summer. The weather in general has been poor this spring so some of these projects have yet to get underway.

Fun but frustrating day for putting. Finished 5th out of 7 in MA1. I did win an Innova towel for finishing 4th in the CTP competition. I checked and it's less than 1cm thick so it's ready for action...

Happy Mother's Day! This will be family day so nothing disc golf related today. However, I'll take this time to comment on an issue that's a concern. I was talking with a fellow from the Cincinnati area yesterday to see if they might be bidding to host Pro Worlds in 2010. There had been some discussion over the past year that they might bid because the Am Worlds was also going to be in Ohio that year.

However, it looks like they haven't come together with enough resolve to do it and it sounds like one key reason is the financial aspect. Pro Worlds does not make money and usually is a money losing proposition when taking everything into account, especially when compared to Am Worlds. Plus, the expectations are higher for everything involved in Pro Worlds.

In the past, I've proposed splitting the Pro Worlds into two events with Open only at one Worlds and all of the other divisions at a separate Worlds, and I'll bring it up again. Open Women could decide which they would rather be at since they could be the feature division at the other Worlds if they chose that one.

This would share the organizational effort, event size and financial burden between two locations. In addition, many more sites would be able to bid because they would have the resources and courses appropriate to handle an event with 150+ versus 300+ attendees. The open field would be larger because several of the top masters and GMs would likely play in the Open division if these events were a few weeks apart. I think the older division Worlds wouldn't need to be in the summer heat especially at southern sites. Maybe New Zealand could host the older Worlds in January some day.

From a practical standpoint, a team could bid right now to do just the 2010 Open or older Worlds only. The PDGA would at least have to take it into consideration since there are no bids currently for the 2010 or 2011 Pro Worlds under the current format. If no bidders come forth, Pro Worlds 2010 may have to be hosted by staff in Augusta. And after seeing all the work they have ahead of them, I'm sure they would not be looking forward to handling that task, at least yet. Eventually, a Pro Worlds would be at the IDGC but 2010 is probably too soon if others can step forward for a few more years.

hate posting it here, but since you brought it up. WHY in HECKS name would a pro worlds be a money drain?

My response on the Ask Chuck thread.

Traveling to see Terry and Sheila Calhoun in Ann Arbor. On the way, stopped to have lunch and catch up on the news with my aunt and uncle just north of Detroit.

Late afternoon, Terry took me to see the Bandemer course in Ann Arbor he's been working on for several years now. Fun layout with three tees on each of its nine holes. Many locals play all sets for a 27-hole round. Mostly par 3s but a few are tricky enough that it really takes two good technical throws to get to the pin.

We headed back to Terry's house so he could show me his actual home course called BRATS (listed). It's a 9 basket layout that plays as 18 by playing the layout forward and backward. But his tees are in creative positions and not just right behind the previous pin. And all 18 holes have two tees.

The Calhoun's house hosts a menagerie of cats, dogs and a parrot even though they just became empty nesters with their son, Ben having recently left on the road trying to play 1000 courses. Sheila is a great cook and whipped up some asian soup and other goodies for dinner. And yes, I did see the hot tub made famous when Terry was a Board member...

Sheila and I are headed to Albion to play Victory Park, one of the courses planned for the pro divisions at Worlds, while Terry bicycled off to work. It's about an hour west of Ann Arbor and is the course farthest east of the 10 Worlds courses.

Albion is a small college town and the course is on the south edge of campus. It's in a nicely groomed park with mature trees with the first 7 holes on a big hill. The cement tees had been poured recently and the park dept was out all day putting dirt around the pads and spreading grass seed. We played the course, lost a few discs in the water and Sheila left for her volunteer work.

I stuck around and did some photography of the better holes and did some rangefinder measurements. My purpose for today and tomorrow is to photograph and measure the best few holes (my opinion plus asking players at each course I visited) on the courses that are currently close to being ready for Worlds. A handful are temp courses so photos of those will have to wait. I'm working with the other Wii software designer than the one working with the PDGA office. We are preparing flyover animations of the signature holes on each course to be incorporated in the Worlds DVD along with the final 9 holes at Timber Ridge which isn't in the ground yet.

The Victory Park course has several treacherous water hazard holes with the remainder of the holes having lots of chances for birdie. Take your shag discs for practice on the water holes. However, if it's warm, wear your bathing suit and hop in to retrieve any wet discs. The clear, fast moving Kalamazoo River water is pretty shallow in most places. There's a Coyote with my name on it for a lucky college student trolling for discs in the next few days.

I headed next to play Cold Brook on the way toward Kalamazoo. It's $5 for a day pass and I'm not sure how the fees will work for Worlds. This 24-hole layout will be pared down to 18 for Worlds. This is a mostly wooded technical course. I selected two of the wooded holes for animation, one which is an interesting par 4 just 360 feet. I almost got "goosed" twice. Once when Mom, Dad and goslings marched across the main highway just before the park entrance and on hole 20 where they were camping out by the pin.

Next headed to Oshtemo in Kazoo. This will be the course likely played by Open for the semis. There are several holes that are tough par 3s/easy par 4s for most of us but the big shooters will have some shots at 2s. The course winds thru the woods but many of the fairways are much wider than Cold Brook so there's more room to manuever including some roller opportunities.

Last course of the day was Begg Park back in Battle Creek. This will be the big boomer course for the Am divisions with hole 1 starting off at a wide open 630 ft. The wind will be a big factor here with only a handful of shorter holes thru the woods. There are lots of elevation shots to watch the discs fly.

Whew! I played 78 holes today with extra drives on several holes. Maybe all the golf on this trip is finally getting me back into shape since I'm not too tired. Hopefully lower scores will eventually catch up, too :). I got the photos I needed on this beautiful day since it's supposed to rain all day tomorrow. I didn't and won't comment on individual holes too much since I don't know what improvements Larry and his crew have planned to complete before Worlds. There's definitely some work ahead and I wish them the best for hosting a great Worlds.

Quite a change from yesterday. The rain is coming down in buckets. Glad I got to four courses already. Today I'm heading first to Kimball Pines in Battle Creek. It's still drizzling as I pull into their huge parking lot. This is where their annual Renaissance Festival is held and it finishes right before Worlds. The course is almost 100% wooded but the fairways are longer and wider than Cold Brook. There are some really nice par 4s here. Didn't throw any shots but at least kept the camera dry under the umbrella throughout the tour.

Next on the list was heading to Robert Morris in Kalamazoo. This is the one course I had played before in this area. Unfortuantely, they apparently "wimped out" with the weather and the gate was closed so "no go." As I recall there's a park fee here also and maybe they close with poor weather expecting no income that day?

I was torn between heading to Meyer Broadway half hour south of town or just heading toward Brian Cumming's place in Hammond, IN where I was staying tonight. I chose Brian since there will be two courses planned for Meyer Broadway and the temp isn't in the ground yet (but apparently marked). I'll catch them the next time. Ramona is a temp course also and Timber Ridge isn't in the ground yet, so I got what pictures I could.

I got to Brian's in time (1 hr time change bonus :)) to head to his recreational volleyball night. I played varsity V-ball as a setter back in college (U of Toledo) a long time ago and hadn't played power V-ball for maybe 12 years. This group was a bunch of guys from age 40-60 and we had a great time.

Brian's big disc golf project for the past several years has been at Lemon Lake near Crown Point in the NW corner of Indiana www.pdga.com/course/courses_by_state.php?SearchState=Indiana&order=cit y (http://www.pdga.com/course/courses_by_state.php?SearchState=Indiana&order=cit y) Although the Course Directory shows two courses, they have roughed out a third Gold level course (eventually) at the same park that currently just has rubber mats at the shorter Silver (Blue) level positions. This course was played at the recent Lemon Lake event at the end of April.

As has been the case in many areas in this region, it has been wet, wet, wet this spring and difficult for our course developers to get much done. No exception here where the mower hasn't been able to get to several areas yet that are rarely wet.

I had played the Red course with Brian in the winter when I passed thru and was looking forward to play the Blue course which is a little longer. We talked about placements for three alternate pins so the course could be more consistently blue level and also looked at possible options for redesign of a troublesome hole (11).

Before heading back out to play the new Gold course, we met with April the park manager who has provided great support for disc golf. She was inquiring what they needed to do to get big events at their park which Brian has been building towards with this excellent disc golf complex. We discussed the fact that the PDGA still has no bidder for Pro Worlds in 2010 and 2011. <font color="red"> After further discussions, they are going to look into preparing a bid for Pro Worlds for 2010. </font>

We talked about the need for staffing which Brian has covered since several in his DJ company have been key players for helping run events already. Plus, it sounds like they have a core group of volunteers in the area to draw upon. A far as facilities, Merrillville is within 20 minutes with convention type facilities and another course suitable for Open level is in Valparaiso about half hour from there. The Lemon Lake complex will have a fourth course catering to white level by the end of the summer matching the number at Highbridge.

One of Brian's course workers, Mike Triumph, that helped get the new course ready for play joined us for the Gold course round. I'm not sure if they were being good hosts or I played well but I took 16 skins off them and shot 55. Course record was 53 at the event.

This new course has the potential to be the best course in the region for "real" golf with a max par at 68 from the Golds (7-3s, 8-4s, 3-5s). It has elevation changes on most holes which are mostly wooded but there are two big boomers over 1000 feet in the open (back-to-back).

Brian borrowed some design ideas from playing at Worlds last summer with a split route hole shades of Woodland Bear 2. He couldn't find any triple trees for a basket placement so everyone can rest easy :D). So the course has some flexibility, we identified four par 4 holes that can have alternate pins at par 3 positions dropping the par to 64 for recreational play and even tournament play when you have multiple courses running simultaneously and time to play a round is important.

We had thought about playing the league night at Olympia Fields which Brian oversees but doesn't run. However, our legs were beat from the volleyball and two rounds, especially the new gold which is long and still rough. Since Brian's a DJ I played him a song when we got home to see if he could identify he artist. He couldn't figure it out. It was demo I made in 2000 for the one song I've ever written and recorded for fun.

We headed for dinner and talked about Worlds bid possibilities and the finances involved. We went thru the Gold course hole-by-hole to talk about design tweaks and how to complete some of the parts they haven't addressed yet for the Gold tees. It's been a fun visit with Brian and lots of potential disc golf action happening here.

Brian and I decided to go check out the facilities in Merrillville if he decides to prepare a Pro Worlds bid. Not that it matters regarding Worlds, but our brunch at Bob Evans there was excellent. The Radisson has everything we would need for Worlds. However, they also might charge more for rooms than our players might tolerate.

The cool thing is that because Brian and his DJs have done gigs all over the area, he has connections at several banquet halls there. So, it may turn out that the host hotel might be more affordable with player meetings and Flymart down the road. Too early to tell but Merrillville is definitely a good place for HQ.

Left just after noon for Milwaukee as Brian was preparing for several DJ gigs tonight and this weekend. Road construction was bad thru Chicago no matter which way you chose. First time I paid over $4/gallon on the trip but likely not the last.

Finally got to Dretzka Park about 4 to get in some practice for tomorrow. Looks like we'll play two rounds of 27. Terry Miller was set up and getting ready for doubles at 5:30. Played thru a few Am groups and some asked about my unusual grip (Bonopane) so had a few lessons and successes.

Staying with John Dorn tonight and possibly tomorrow night. Even if you don't know John, you've probably seen his disc artwork on many Worlds discs and other big events over the past 15 years. We'll be talking about artwork for Brian Cummings upcoming events and potentially Worlds 2010. He's also spiffing up some lo-res artwork for our course designers group.

Tonight might be a WoWfest (World of Warcraft) with the oldest group of players. We'll have three of us online slaying dragons and questing for online fantasy gold with the real "gold" on the line tomorrow in the tournament.

All set to go to the Greater Milwaukee Open and play with three other GM Pros. It's going to be a long day at Dretzka with two rounds of 27 from the long tees. They added the usual extra nine holes across the street. Wind was bouncing around in the 15-20 mph range but sunny. Parred the first hole (16) then the wheels came off with 54555 which happens to only be good as a zip code in Wisconsin. However, four holes later, threw in my first ace of the year potentially for $156. It also happened to be the CTP hole for everyone. Two more aces thrown that round but neither were in the ace pool. One was on the same hole I aced so they had to give us each a CTP disc.

The ace fired me up and I got back to tied for second at the end of the round, three back of first. Afternoon round I was determined not to repeat that scoring sequence but still went 34455 through there. No ace or rally this time and ended last. Another person in the ace pool aced so the payout was $78 plus $10 from players in my group. With another CTP won in the PM, came out $21 net ahead plus two discs for a decent day.

In a weird finish with two holes to go, Tom "Big Daddy" Jenkins was one behind Paul Pazanin. He proceeded to nail the right goal post on 16 about 70 ft off the tee on a 425+ hole. Paul then proceeded to nail the left goal post. I cleverly avoided the cross bar on my turn. They both foured. Jenkins didn't realize he was only one behind and he aggressively ran his putt on the last hole without realizing that had he made it, he tied Paul for the lead. He missed and Paul won by one.

If one person's ace lands IN the basket, and the other person's ace is a "wedgie" ace... Does the first ace get the CTP? It was closer to the center of the inside of the basket. ;)

first in or split it up :)

Well, I could have maybe claimed it based on the fact he wasn't in the ace pool and I was "first in" but we both got the same type of CTP disc so it was fine.

Today was mostly a travel day to get back home but I did play two courses designed by Don Ticknor with most of the clearing and installation also done by Don. Some of you may have met Don as TD of events near Eau Claire, WI and he was our salesman at PW2007 lasy summer. The first course called Wildapple is on his 40-acre property near Osseo in central Wisconsin. It's a challenging 5700 ft layout with the front 9 zipping in and out of a wood lined open field. The back 9 is quite elevated and mostly thru the woods with one big open field 725' boomer. Considering the amount of lumber to deal with and this rough spring downing even more, Don has his hands full keeping up this gem of a course.

The second course happens to be the second course at Tower Ridge near Eau Claire that just opened. It's right next to the original course on similar wooded terrain laced with relatively wide cross country ski trails. The course is still pretty rough and in current form is perhaps best suited for intermediate level players based on the hole distances and where the bends and doglegs are located. However, there are multiple pins, more clearing and some hole realignments planned so this should eventually become a great companion for the original course.

Almost forgot to mention that Tick locked his key in the back of his station wagon. Luckily, a horseman and his wife were coming back to the parking lot and he had a roll of stiff wire we could borrow. Couldn't manipulate the wire in the 1/4" opening Tick had left in the rear window to tap the lock inward. I asked Tick where the key was located. We could see it on the deck below the trunk window and the back seat was down for a clear but torturous shot at it. After several tries with 6 feet of snaking wire, he hooked the key ring and dragged it thru a minefield of stuff up to the window. I grabbed the ring and wiggled the key thru the window crack.

I got back home about 8:30. I'll post a wrap-up with some trip stats tomorrow.

One purpose for blogging this trip was to highlight the volunteer activities being done on your behalf by many people. When you join the PDGA, you are indirectly representing the PDGA whether you intended to or not, sort of like top athletes becoming role models whether they like it or not. The unfortunate thing for the PDGA is that the PDGA usually doesn�t get much credit for activities done by locals. The local club or just the individuals get the credit. People ask what the PDGA does for them locally and all they need to do is look at what their local PDGA members do to enhance the DG scene in their area.

The PDGA budget currently can�t afford to send direct dollars back to local scenes beyond what the local members receive in direct and indirect member benefits. I�m no different from other local volunteers although I was likely perceived to be working for the PDGA on this trip. However, only the portion of my trip related to the Summit meeting was specific to my contracted work with the PDGA. Most of my activities were just as a volunteer.

In that spirit, I�d like to thank the local volunteers that helped or provided services for me along the way such as lodging, meals, installing courses, running events and good disc golf discussions. Hopefully, those reading this will recognize and continue to thank the volunteers I mentioned as I trekked back and forth thru middle America. For everyone I mentioned, there are many others unmentioned who also work with these volunteers and I much appreciate their efforts also.

OK, here are some stats: 4034 miles in 3 weeks and 4 days (got to get the 34 in there ;)) visiting 11 states. $570 in gas at $3.70 avg per gallon at 26.1 mpg. ($500 to be reimbursed in lieu of not flying and renting a car for the Summit.) Twenty five courses were visited with 21 played, 3 walked and 1 not in yet. 17 courses actually played were new to my lifetime list bringing my count to 469. Of the 25 courses, I was asked to provide design comments, advice or assistance on 14. Ten of the other 11 courses could probably have used some help: 3 needing better routing, 5 needing some revised hole lengths, and 5 needing some trees removed.

Played 4 events including an A, B and two C-tiers plus Summit doubles and skins. Entry fees = $224, Cash won = $370, Merch won = $65 retail. Talked or played with 9 current or former World Champs all who won 9 different pro or am divisions. Stayed with friends for 9 nights, family for 5 and motels for 10 with 6 paid by PDGA. Hope those of you reading this found this blog interesting and not just filler for the lack of other posts some days on the D-Board. :D Hope to see and possibly play with you on the road some day.

Thanks- I enjoyed reading.

How much you spend in gas? How many miles a gallon?

You must have missed it in my last post. :)

Whoops, missed that paragraph :D