Winchester IFO

Headed up to Jim Barnett Park today for the Winchester IFO (Identified Flying Objects) in Winchester, Virginia.

The morning round didn't go too bad. I only had one bad decision on #9. Shanked a shot in to the woods and instead of playing a safe out and trying to save the bogey I tried to be the hero and unlike John McLean I did die hard. I ended up playing the next shot out to the fairway and two putted for the double par.

But I recovered and held on for a 61. My goal was to stay under 60 so I just missed out on that. I was 3 shots behind the MG1 leader and tied with the other player in the division.

MG1 division - Ed Steele, Bruce Tobias and me...

My goal for the second round was to not do anything too stupid. My upshots during this round was my saving grace. I missed at least 3 birdie putts but didn't 3 putt any holes this round. We all stayed pretty close but Ed hurt his back early and it started to show. He just couldn't throw off the tee well. Most of the round Bruce and I were within one stroke and on hole 7 he took a 5 and that gave me a 2 stroke cushion.

Then came #15. I was 3 stokes ahead with 2 holes to play. All I have to do is safe down the middle. What do I do? Grip lock a shot to the right. Bruce cooly throws a laser shot down the pipe and almost hits an ace and is parked for an easy birdie. My upshot wan't the best but I had a chance for par. But I gacked the putt and took a bogey and now the lead is 1.

On the last hole Bruce pulls a wide drive that goes OB so all I have to do is throw a safe shot and go for the par. I was able to trow my Mamba where I wanted it to go to about 50' short for an easy lay up for par. Bruce took a 5 which gave me the win.

With my 61/58=119 I was able to shave 11 strokes off from last years scores of 65/65=130.  

(L-R) Bob Cannon won Masters, Stephen Miller won Open, I won Advanced Grandmasters and Tom Coffin won Grandmasters. Austin tied for 4th in open division. I had to use an IFO sticker for my trophy. Since the other MG1's were walk ups Brandon didn't make a trophy. So I held up my "better late than Never" Sherando Spartan trophy from a few weeks ago. Brandon is sending me the IFO trophy when he get the chance to make it.

Spotsy had a good day today.

Battle in the Blue Ridge

Walnut Creek Park just south of Charlottesville was the location for Battle in the Blue Ridge. It's a two day tourney and I didn't want to drive both days.

Luckily there is a KOA campground just around the corner from the park with nice log cabins. I took Friday off and headed down a day early to relax and practice a few shots at the course. I got the 1 room cabin for me & Austin. Billy & Sean reserved the large cabin right nest to us.

I brought my Discatcher to goof around with and Billy brought his after grillin' some steaks for dinner we set up next to the horseshoe pit and played some Disc "shoes".

Saturday morning and I was feeling good and the round went OK but could have been better. There were only 4 in the grand masters so we played all rounds together and started on #9 each round. This round was short tees to short baskets. There were plenty of birdie opportunities.

I missed an easy par and birdie putt that cost me 2 strokes. Hole #10 should have been an easy par. I practiced it on Friday and did fine. I kept the mistakes kinda low and was only a few strokes in last. 

The afternoon round was from the long tees to the short baskets. It started great. I threw a good drive on #9 to start it off and hit a sweet 75' shot with my ROC 3 straight at the chains for a birdie. But just a few minutes later is where it all fell apart on hole 10. It should be just an easy straight shot down. Nothing fancy just easy and safe. What do I do? End up in the thickest, darkest rough and ende up with a double bogey. A sweet 6 on 16 and that pretty much killed me for the rest of the weekend.

Billy on #17 tee,

The final round was going to be the real test. Long tees to long baskets. I was 7 stokes back so unless I played super great and someone else blew up bad I wasn't getting out of 4th place. All of us had our bad holes and par was like hitting a birdie. The gusting wind didn't help much either.

Just like in the other rounds #10 was my nemesis and it cost me 7 strokes all weekend. I was able to keep up with the guys and it wasn't a badd round because I was expecting a lot worse. I ended on #8 and launched a sweet drive that landed me close enough for a long birdie shot but ended up with a par.

Billy, Kevin, Barry & me...  to keep it less confusing Kevins were  K1(me) &  K2. on the last tee.

I could have done a lot worse. I kept it close except for the blow up on the middle round. I'm keeping up with my goal for the year. Even though I finished 4th out of 4 in MG1. I would have not finished last in Intermediated or Advanced. I also played better than my rating all three rounds. 

Bob won his Master trophy on the last hole and Austin threw two 1000 rated rounds to take the lead and a 965 rated round to take the Advanced trophy.

For all the scores...

Battle in the Blue Ridge