2004 PDGA World Championships

[Dan Michler]

i'll predict damon finishes top 10     he was playing some good golf after leagues at bevier.  i think he's got the stamina to outlast those other grandmasters      

The only other prediction I have is that I'll finish ahead of Brett    

[Jon Brakel]

All packed up and ready to hit the road in the morning. I'm going to try to take some pictures and get them loaded onto the website every night. We are supposed to have wireless access at the hotel.

[Jon Brakel]

We got to Des Moines at 2:30 this afternoon. The free wireless at the Sheraton is nice, but a bit finicky. It keeps going in and out. They probably don't have enough WAPs because the signal strength is always low.

Haven't seen anyone from Illinois yet, but then I haven't really looked yet either. I'll get some pictures up as soon as I take some.

[Jon Brakel]

I started the gallery for 2004 Worlds pictures. There's only one photo in there so far and it's just the welcome PDGA Worlds sign on the Sheraton sign. But I'll get more up there as the week progresses.

[Dan Michler]

brett and i have practiced 4 courses.  good lord, Big Creek and Walnut Ridge are frickin hard as hell.  I heard Ewing park is also a bastard.  hopefully i can keep it under +10 at these courses.  Tee off at 7:30 AM tomorrow baby!  good thing Diron isn't here,  7:30 is too early for that little baby    

[CEValkyrie]

Don't have much time to post too much info. Using PDGA computers in the  host hotel. Awesome player pack & we've played some ball buster courses.

Nate won the putting contest today & hit an Ace in practice on a hard !@# hole.

[Jon Brakel]

These two World Class players, Brett and Dan, allowed me to join them for a round on Sunday. We Played Big Creek. The only way to play this course is to throw whatever off the tee pad to keep it in the fairway. Lots of 400+ holes with tight fairways and nothing playable once you are off the fairway. I shot it +18 and I thought I was playing fairly well. These types of courses are why I'm a TD for Worlds!  

First tee off for singles is in less than two hours. I'm caddying for Bruce today since this is one of Becky's and my days off. We also get Wednesday off. On Wednesday I'm going to try to get a bunch of cool pics.

[airspuds]

watch the E pool

bob walsh
roy carey
bart z (spelling)

[mirth]

After yesterday's rounds here are some highlights:
In Open:
Barry's currently sitting 5 strokes ahead of the competition at -4. He shot a 1080 rated first round!
Cam Todd is at +1, Climo +2.
Chris Heeren's +5.

Advanced:
Brett is currently sitting tied for 5th in his field at +1.
Dan's 11th at +3
Steve's 31st at +9

Adv Masters:
Bruce is 19th at +21 (leader is +10)

Adv Grandmasters:
Damon is 21st at +7 (leader is -4)

Adv Women:
Diana is tied for 25th at +27 (leader is +15)

Junior < 16 Boys:
Adrian Jr is in a 4 way tie for 21st at +10 (leader is -2)

Junior < 16 Girls:
Kelsey is destroying the competition, currently sitting in 1st at +21. 2nd place is 18 strokes off the pace.

Junior < 13 Girls:
Kiralyn is in 3rd (last) place at +55 (leader is +40)



Lots of DG left folks, go get 'em!

[CEValkyrie]

Just got back from a ballbuster round at Big Creek. Go figure, I shoot a +4 & move up a few spots. Looks like i'll be making the top (72)  pool for the great shuffle. Dan shot +8 & moved up a spot as well.  

[mirth]

All results are after 3 rounds.

Barry is holding onto first in Open with a -13, however the pack has gained some ground on him today. 2nd place is 4 strokes back from him (Markus Kallstrom & Cam Todd). Schweberger and Climo are tied for 4th at -8. Chris Heeren is sitting tied for 13th place 10 strokes back from Barry. Kurt R, of Tourist fame, is tied for 21st with a -1.

Brett is now sitting in a 7 way tie for 9th place in the top Advanced pool (pool G). The current leader is -6 at the moment, a full 8 strokes ahead of 2nd place.
Dan's in a 3 way tie for 52nd place with a +13, also in the top Advanced pool.

The Nastiness is embroiled in a 15 way tie for 42nd place in Advanced pool H with a +20. However, he's only 5 strokes off the leader.

Bruce is now tied for 33rd place in the top Adv Masters pool at +21, 15 back from the lead.

Damon's 22nd in Adv Grandmasters at +28, the leader is +6.

Diana's holding onto 31st place in Adv Women all by herself with a +62, while the leader in her pool is +23.

Adrian Jr has moved up 4 places to 17th place. He's currently sitting 20 strokes back from the leader. The top two kids in the < 16 Boys are rated 933 & 953!

Kelsey has continued her dominance over the < 16 Girls division, thoroughly beating the competition into submission. Kelsey may be sitting +33 but 2nd and 3rd places are at +57 and +86, respectively.

Kiralyn is holding her own in < 13 Girls with +81. The leader, rated 744 to Kiralyn's 577, is +59.

And there you have it!  

[Jon Brakel]

Johannes who is in first place for MJ1, is a great player. It would be nice to see someone from Sweden come in first in that division.

[Jon Brakel]

Added some photos to the gallery.

[mirth]

Thats a nutty players meeting! Were all 900+ players there?

[Jon Brakel]

Thats a nutty players meeting! Were all 900+ players there?

There was one jr. player who wasn't there. He left early. He didn't hear the correction in the directions to Maytag. He missed the first 7 holes of that round. Ouch.

[mirth]

wow.

How's the weather been? Pretty cool, almost cold here.

[Jon Brakel]

wow.

How's the weather been? Pretty cool, almost cold here.

Saturday and Sunday were great. Monday I caddied for Bruce and I think it was fine. It is getting so hard to remember individual days because we are so busy. Tuesday was cold and misty in the morning and cool and cloudy in the afternoon and then became sunny in the evening. Today was very cool and mostly cloudy all day. The weatherman said cool and sunny for today, which would have been preferred.  

[mirth]

After 5 rounds, three left until the Semis!

Barry's back on top after briefly sharing first with Cam Todd.
1 - Barry -24
2 - Cam Todd -20
3 - Ken Climo -16
3 - Aaron Wield -16
5 - Brian Schweberger -13

Chris Heeren's sitting tied for 12th with a -9
Kurt Raffensperger is tied for 43rd with a +3

Terry 'T-Dawg' Miller is currently in 3rd place in Pool B with a +9, 3 strokes back from the lead.

Advanced player action today:
Brett is tied for 28th place (7 way) at +23. The leader in pool G is -3
Dan is in a 5 way tie for 56th place at +30.

Steve Waters is in a 6 way tie for 24th place in pool F at +26.
Nasty Nate is leading a 3 way tie for 30th with a +27.
Pool F's leader is currently sitting +16

Advanced Masters:
Bruce is tied for 21st place with a +34, 17 strokes back from the leader who is +17.

Advanced Grandmasters:
Damon's tied for 25th with a +39, 29 back from the leader.

Advanced Women:
Diana is in 33rd place, 62 strokes back from first with a +110

Junior Boys < 16:
Adrian Jr is tied for 20th, 30 strokes back from the lead with a +30.

Junior Girls < 16:
Kelsey continues to dominate her division, with a comfortable 33 stroke lead on 2nd place.

Juinor Girls < 13:
Kiralyn currently is 33 strokes back from the leader, at +110.
One notable piece of trivia about Kiralyn and Kelsey's 2nd round, the only one to be rated so far, is that Kiralyn played at a level 40 points above her current rating. Kelsey's 2nd round was at a level 30 points above her current rating. The girls are getting good!

Since I'm on the subject of rated rounds for the Juniors, Adrian Jr has had two rounds where he played 20 or more points above his rating. The other two rounds were below his rating. The two above rounds were 873 and 883! If this continues, we're gonna have to start thinking about bumping him at league...

Good luck to everyone in your final three or four rounds (or more) of the main tournament!

[SERG]

Since I'm on the subject of rated rounds for the Juniors, Adrian Jr has had two rounds where he played 20 or more points above his rating. The other two rounds were below his rating. The two above rounds were 873 and 883! If this continues, we're gonna have to start thinking about bumping him at league...

Sorry for the short thread drift:

I'll have to agree with Mirth...Adrian is currently the Am Division leader at Parkside leagues. There's only two weeks left and he's 16 points ahead of second place.

[mirth]

I was half joking about bumping Adrian, and it really isn't thread drift Serg...

I'd say *maybe* bump him full time once his rating breaks 880 or 900. Until then, I think he's just a really good am pool player.