So,
My last tournament of 2017 was the Pureline Championship played at Sherwood Hills. If this had been the first tournament I played in 2017, it still might have been the last one I played. It was so bad that after the tournament, I might have donated my discs to someone more deserving like the guy who plays frisbee catch with his dog.
And I was really looking forward to this tournament. I almost played it the year before but thought it might be a bit much for my second ever tournament. Apparently, it was a bit much for my 18th ever tournament/event. I invited my dad to come join in the fun because it's close to his home turf and even though it's a longer course, we could rent golf carts to cruise around in. So, my dad got to watch me play my worst round ever. It didn't start that way.
The first hole was a short uphill shot. You had to shoot out of a small gap and avoid one guardian tree but neither of those things are exceptionally hard on this hole. I was first to throw and put my disc five feet from the basket. Drop in birdie. Booyah! That's how you start a tournament.
I thought you started tournaments by chucking the first shot in a pond.
Maybe he would have if this course had a pond.
Then the wind started blowing and my disc golf world was blown apart. I mean, it really started blowing. A player on a different card told us about a shot that ended up being blown behind the thrower, netting negative distance. Nothing I did seem to work. I either didn't compensate enough for the wind with my disc blowing or rolling to the right or compensated too much and watched my disc fly an amazing distance to the left. It was incredibly frustrating.
I had one shining moment during the two rounds after the wind started blowing. I was getting ready to putt from the tree line, where the wind had blown my disc. I was about 40 feet out from the basket. I got into my stance and got ready to throw and about 10 feet to my left, a dust devil whirled into life. I looked at it like, "Are you freaking serious?" It reminded me of the putting meme except that it wasn't good weather for everyone else when they were putting. They just didn't have to deal with a tornado. I mean, how do you read the wind on something like that. I mentally shrugged because my game couldn't possibly get any worse. Missing this putt was not going to cost me the tournament. I focused back on the basket and gave my putter a toss. Since I led off by saying this was my one shining moment, you already know that it went in. Even though I was probably in last place at this point, I raised my arms in victory. This day really sucked (or rather, it really blew) overall but I will always remember that putt.
In the end, I didn't come in last place.
Tell 'em why.
Yes, do.
One of the other players in my division didn't finish the second round.
Maybe he gave his discs to the guy with the dog after the first round.
Or he finished the second round in Oz.
So I came in second to last, 8th out of 9 players, in Advanced Masters (MA40 in 2018 terminology).
And that was the final note in my 2017 season. The last memory of the season that would haunt me through the winter. Guess what some of my off season training focused on?
Now, the 2018 season is getting close. Tomorrow is kind of an opening event for the year for me. I didn't plan on playing in any tournaments/events until March but this one is indoors so I'm in. I played one event in the snow and vowed to never do that again. In fact, I vowed to never play in the extreme cold, regardless of snow. We haven't really had any snow or extreme cold this year but I still don't plan on participating in outdoor events until March. This one, The Iron Man, is 100 holes of disc golf over 6 hours. I'll let you know how it goes.