Mid-Nationals

[damonshort]

Good luck to everyone going up there this week.

[Dan Michler]

thanks damon!  i'm really excited and can't wait to get up there tomorrow and start playing! (no boring ass lab work for 9 days!) those courses look so sweet.  highbridge gold is over 9000 feet.  its 6 rounds long so i think our experience at worlds last year will hopefully help us in not burning out our arms before the final round.

my goal is to be in the top 20%, so we'll see how it goes.  right now it looks like 41 players are in the blue pool so that would mean i need to be in the top 10.  Ratings-wise I am in the bottom half of the players signed up right now, so I've definitely got my work cut out for me!

I think we all know Brett is capable of winning this thing so I'll do my best to keep his extremely fragile mental game intact  

did i mention i can't f*%ing wait to get there?

[CEValkyrie]

Can't wait! Got most of my stuff packed. The courses look sweet.  

[Dan Michler]

These courses are really amazing!   We saw a bear our first day here  
1st round is this afternoon so we're killing time at a library in a nearby town now.

[CEValkyrie]

Incredible!! I can't believe how awesome it is up here. We saw a Black Bear Cub when we drove in. My cell phone does not get service anywhere up here & we had to drive 20 miles to get to this library in Ashland. The courses are AWESOME. By far the best courses i've played. Bruce & Jon, think Flip City on Steroids with a little Byron with huge elevation added.  

[shawn]

did you win yet?

good luck all

[mirth]

After round 1 yesterday it looks like Brett's holding his own in a 6-way tie for 3rd at -3, 1 stroke behind the 2-way tie for 1st.
Dan's in an 8-way tie for 15th, 4 strokes off the lead.

Results w/round ratings can be found here:
http://www.pdga.com/tournament/tournament_...eRatings=1#Blue

[Bruce Brakel]

Of those guys at the top, Hall and Vagi are true contenders.  Gacioch [pronounced gotch'-oh] is a pretender.  Is round 2 up yet?  

[Bruce Brakel]

Brett is hanging with the third place pack but Matt Hall is running away with this.  

[damonshort]

Brett is hanging with the third place pack but Matt Hall is running away with this.

Brett's still got a chance at 2nd maybe. Won't Matt Hall get into USDGC some kind of way anyhow?

Dan's shooting for the top 10 and he's still in it too.

Hope they found showers again....   Then again, if *everybody* smells that way...    

[kyle]

Looks like Brett finished in 5th and Dan tied for 14th.
Good job guys.

[Dan Michler]

thanks guys.   just got home.   that was an awesome trip to say the least.   i've never really been any place like that before.  you would have to see the land and the courses to really understand how amazing it was.  we were definitely roughing it out there though with that "campground"     that place is really still in the middle of the construction phase, but they pulled off a great tournament.  there were definitely several highlights to the trip including watching my bag roll off the top of my car on the highway and discs go flying everywhere on both sides of the road     i found all of them though  

as far as the golf goes i'm pretty pleased with how i played and i managed to cash in a pretty tough field.  the payouts were great and the player pack was pretty good too.  a couple of the rounds were really close to being great for me but ended up just okay.  i really ran out of gas and didn't feel to good for the round today, but i think the same was true for alot of players.  Matt Hall is already sponsored by Gateway and had the gateway owner following him for the whole tourney.  he is this year's Jernigan and is soon to be 1000 rated, so it really wasn't much of a competition for 1st place.  Brett played very consistently though was right there with a chance at 2nd place today.

[CEValkyrie]

Dan & I are back after a great week of disc golf! We pulled in on Tuesday at 6pm & saw a Black Bear Cub off of C a mile or so from the course. Dan had a great roller down C as his bag skidded off the top of the car on the way to the the courses. The showers were working by the end of the week so I didn't stink as bad as my last round score .

I am still in awe of this facilty . This is what you dream about & think about as you drive by parks & the countryside saying "that would be a great place for a course or this would make an awesome hole". Highbridge is still a little rough around the edges but as the months go on it will get better as they continue to work on it. At the beginning of the week I thought i'd lose a few discs but did not. As the week came to an end the rough started to thin a little since paths were made from searching parties. I helped with my fair share of drives into the rough .

The player packs were good. Awesome tournament stamped disc, Champion Coyote, Mid Nationals mini, Discovering the World Mini, Highbridge Hills DVD, Lightning #2 Helix, The Maximizer Disc, PDGA Course Directory, Lots of stickers, Ganocafe Mocha Mix, Marshall Street Can Holder, & Glaceau Vitamin Water. Did I miss anyting?

The tournament was run great. We started on time every day & it was awesome having a 2 minute warning shot off by a rifle. 6 rounds of great disc golf over 4 days was just about enough I could take. These courses will test every part of your game. Top pros will love these courses as will almost all disc golfers.

The payouts were fat. I got 145 for 5th place and a 15 dollar dga flex fit hat for a ctp prize. There were a lot of ctp prizes and several bags given to those who hit aces.

I chose not to get the meal pass but I heard the food was great. The Highbridge crew did everything possible to make things comfortable. They worked their butts off. Spotters were scattered throughout the courses.

The weather was great. Cold early in the week then constantly warming up every day. No rain the entire week.

I want to thank everyone involved with making this event happen! I hope this facility stays in the ground for years to come. John is a great guy and has devoted a lot to put thes courses in the ground. Go check it out! I'm glad I skipped Michiana & IL State Championships to attend this event. If you were not there you missed one great inaugural event. Thanks for the memories!

I'm pretty pumped with the 5th place finish. This is one of the tougher fields i've played in. Dan was bombing all week. He birdied #3 on Granite which is a bomb!!  

[CEValkyrie]

you can get a brief glimpse of Highbridge Gold. This is hole #9 with the basket on top the the tee area of the ball golf course that was never finished.

my shot really sucked on this hole. i threw a hyzer & on it's way to the basket it clipped the power lines and kicked straight left.  

[CEValkyrie]

Highbridge Gold #13. The basket is about 20 feet behind the last tree in the middle. Routes to left & right.

I have no idea who is throwing in this pic.  

[CEValkyrie]

Practice basket.

If you look past the practice basket there is a tee about mid picture. That is hole 7 playing to the bottom of that hill. It is 1140ft long. Dan took a nice 4 on that hole while I managed to 6 it both rounds.  

[CEValkyrie]

Hole 17 of Granite Ridge on right & you can barely see the basket of #18 on the top left.  

[SERG]

Peter Middlecamp has a photo gallery of pictures.

The first couple show Dan and Brett. Brett has some driving pictures on page 5. I had to take a break so I haven't found any of Dan yet.

Looks like some pretty sweet courses.

[Clonefan94]

It's asking me for a username and password Serg.

[SERG]

Sorry:

username: PDGA
password: discussion