Coyote Hills Ice Bowl

Tournament “Post-Mortem”

So the expected practice sessions didn’t happen. Nor did any pre-tournament planning. Nor did any construction work on the cart.

But at least the chili got made for the potluck lunch!!

Since there was no practice, I was just going to look at the tournament as form practice and not put too much pressure on the score. After some confusion about the location of the potluck (changed from last year), the four of us (myself and my cardmates John, Cameron and Connor) trudged out to hole 6b to begin the marathon. I had not thrown a practice putt before the round, and my first drive was outside of circle 1, so I did the smart thing and laid up to the basket to start the round with a par. My next 2 drives (holes 7 and 8) put me inside the circle for birdie putts (which I made), so I was starting off with a -2 after 3 holes. At this point, I decided to stay conservative and only putt inside the circle. I threw a perfect drive on 9, but missed the birdie putt. I threw a horrible drive on 10, but made an obstructed par putt. Holes 11, 12, and 13a were basic “drive-approach-putt” holes, as my drives weren’t even close to the circle. Hole 13b gained me another birdie, then a poor drive on 13c forced a layup to the pin for a par putt.

I’m now -3 after 10 holes. Time for Bill’s “Silly Mistake of the Day!”

As part of the charity event, I always buy mulligans before the round to help increase the amount of the donation to the food bank. As they were 3 for $5, I bought 6… and expected to use 2 or 3, since my normal approach to the idea of mulligans is to use them to replace a putt that I should have made. But to use them… you need to remember that you HAVE THEM AVAILABLE TO YOU. My drive on hole 14 kicked a tree and went hard right into the trees.

Did I use a mulligan…? Nope.

My recovery shot went about 30 feet before hitting a branch and bouncing backwards, so my distance gained was about 10 feet.

Did I remember my mulligans this time…? Nope.

My next shot actually made it back on to the fairway … barely … but still only gained me 40 feet or so.

How about now…? Not a chance.

My 4th shot actually got (relatively) close to the green, but behind some branches that precluded any possibility of an actual putt, so I settled for getting up and down for a double-bogie 6. (Hole 14 was one of 3 par-4 holes in the layout [2, 14, and 17])

THEN I remembered my mulligan purchase. <Sigh>

I was frustratingly back to -1, but shook off the irritation and got back to work. I got pars on the next 3 holes (15, 16a, and 16b). I birdied 17, but then bogied 18 with a badly faded drive into the left rough. I pared the first temporary hole by overshooting the short uphill drive and missing the comeback putt.

Then I did something that I’ve never done before… I rattled off 5 birdies in a row (and only used 1 mulligan to replace a missed 15’ putt.) My drives on holes T2, T3, T4, 1a, and 1b all landed within 20 feet of the pin, and gave me the chance to redeem my hole 14 “brain-fart” and get my score back to respectability. After parring holes 2 and 3, I bogied hole 4 due to a bad drive. By now, I was certainly feeling the long round in my arm as we were through 25 of 27 holes. I managed to par hole 5 by hitting a very good approach from a pretty poor drive, then put my drive on hole 6a within 30 feet and canned the last putt (with the help of another mulligan.)

The finally tally was a 6-down 78, which was good enough to stay in the top third of the draw. Along the way, I had used 8 mulligans, although, for the life of me, I can’t recall where.

(1 was a drive on hole 18, 1 was the putt on T3, 1 was a drive on hole 2, 1 was a drive on hole 4, 1 was the putt on hole 6a,… and there were 3 more in there somewhere…)

Then it was time to take a pressure off of some really tired feet, eat some good food, and feel really good about helping out the Project Share food bank. Hats off to the Carlisle Coyotes, who put on this event every year, and give us all the opportunity to have fun and give back to the community at the same time.

Positives:

• My accuracy within 200 feet was really good today. It’s much easier to score well when your putts are all from circle 1!

• Shot selection and decision-making was better than it’s been in a while (except for hole 14!!!)

• Release-angle control, height control, and speed control were all on point. I was dropping most of my drives into the landing zone that I had chosen. (To paraphrase my grandfather, I was “Throwing where I was looking, instead of looking where I was throwing!”)

Negatives:

• I need to focus more on driving with my back leg and keeping my mechanics “back-leg-focused.” When I go back to allowing my weight to shift BEFORE my rotation starts, the delay causes me to pull my backhand to the right. This is one of the new mechanics changes that I am working on, and it is fundamental to the form.

• I need a better battery setup for the camera. I’m not sure that it will last for a full round at this rate.

• I also need to get the final work done on my cart. If I can’t get any practice in, I’ll be working on that.

Next week is the Geibel Classic, a one-round tournament celebrating the OG disc golf wild man himself, Bill Geibel! The tournament will be held at D. F. Buchmiller Park in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Buchmiller DGC is where I learned to play this sport, so there will be plenty of distracting memories. Again, my plan is to get some practice in this week, but the lack of daylight and the weather may dictate otherwise.

Until then...

See you on the course!!