Pro Am Worlds 2008 Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Three Rivers

[Bruce Brakel]

We went to Battle Creek today to play a couple of the Worlds courses, Kimble Pines and Begg.  Kimble is a tough course.  Most of it is cut through a piney woods and parts of it are fairly open.  It is tougher than Brown Deer but a lot like Brown Deer with lots of elevation changes. 

Begg is half fairly open like Dineen and half technical short holes in the woods.  Begg is hilly too and the course designer made good use of the maxim, "Walk up, throw down."  Begg has a cute island hole in the middle of a creek.  We threw multiple discs in the creek and got them all back.  Begg is pretty short, especially the wooded holes.  Begg will definately be used for the women and juniors but I'd be surprised if they put the Open players on it. 

The courses at the Kalamazoo Worlds will be about as good as the courses at the Iowa Worlds.  I'd say better but I have not seen Three Rivers yet nor have I seen the redesigned Coldbrook. 

[tree]

Is there a list of courses for 2008 Worlds? Is there a date, yet?

[damonshort]

Is there a list of courses for 2008 Worlds? Is there a date, yet?

August 8-16. Obviously not everybody will be playing all of those days....

[Bruce Brakel]

Last I heard they were talking about using Coldbrook, Oshtemo, Kimbal, Begg, Robert Morris, Three Rivers, that nasty little course by the university whose name i forget, possibly Timber Ridge, and a course to be named later. 

[tree]

Thanks for the info

[tacimala]

That nasty course by campus is Knollwood and only the juniors will be playing it I believe. I'm designing the website for the tourney so I'll post up the URL once it's up and running here in a few weeks.

They are using Timber Ridge, but it's only going back in temporarily and then taken right back out afterwards to never be seen again. It is too bad too because the course is a lot of fun and one of my favorites. The Albion course will be used, as well as a temp course in Albion and another temp course in Three Rivers. Scott Wilson redesigned half of the Three Rivers course and it's a ton harder and a lot of fun. I would compare it to a less elevated Toboggan actually. Lots of cool shots and a few holes are really going to pain some players. As for Coldbrook I have not played the changes either but my buddies all say that the changes are really good and it has made the course a few strokes harder overall and the flow is a lot better (which was very necessary).

[Mike S]

I have played Three Rivers 5 or 6 times now, and always thought it was a fairly good course...  It always struck me as being pretty easy but punishing if you got off the fairway (lots of thick brush and thorns).  I played there again on Thursday and the layout of the front 9 was completely different, and WAY harder.  That is an awesome course now.  Really tough, with a lot of holes that require precise setup shots.  You will see a lot of scoring spread on that course.

[Bruce Brakel]

Kelsey and I played the Adrian course yesterday, Victory Park.  The course might be used for Worlds.
The course is right on campus.  If Adrian makes Kelsey a good deal, she won't have any reason not to keep her game sharp while in college. 

The course is in a park-like setting with no thick woods or schule.  There are lots of scattered mature trees, good elevation changes, and interesting water holes.  One of the most interesting holes plays diagonally across a river, maybe 350 feet.  Playing the bank and then crossing, or crossing and then playing the far bank are not good strategies due to trees on either bank.  However, there is a big island in the middle of the river with bridges to it, so playing to the island and then over is an option.  That's how we both played it. 

The course has three long holes that are a par 5 and two par 4s.  It also has a couple of short holes that are tee, all water, then the basket.  It is a good course.  Bring a disc retreiver of some kind for this course. 

[tacimala]

There will be two courses in Albion that are used for worlds, one permanent and one temp. Ideally the temp course will turn into something permanent once it is in!

[smyith]

how many courses are their total?
and any rough idea on # of players?

[tacimala]

There are going to be at least 8 and up to 12 at this point. That could change though as a lot of the park districts over there are excited and offering to put courses in. Amount of players I would probably say just short of 1,000.

[tacimala]

Initial site was released today. www.2008discgolfworlds.com

[can't putt]

Nice work Taylor!  Lots of information, good organization, intuitive and easy on the eyes.  It'll be fun to see it progress.

[Fox Metro Discer]

Great website!

[Mike S]

Initial site was released today. www.2008discgolfworlds.com

When I try this at work I get:

Access to this web page is restricted at this time.
Reason: The Websense category "Sex" is filtered.

WTF??

[tree]

I did not have trouble accessing last night around 9:30p.

[Mukey]

Initial site was released today. www.2008discgolfworlds.com

When I try this at work I get:

Access to this web page is restricted at this time.
Reason: The Websense category "Sex" is filtered.

WTF??

Me too! Talk about anal company web filter programs!

Plus, I don't think sex is an element of disc golf at all. Unless they've had bikini-clad hotties at a fly mart that I'm unaware of...

[Bruce Brakel]

We played Oshtemo and Three Rivers [Meyer-Broadway] last weekend.  They are improving the long and short tees at Oshtemo so perhaps the short course there will be used for women and juniors.  The Oshtemo course is much improved since the last time i played it.  I used to think of it as a schuly waste of time looking for lost discs, but now it is a good course. 

Three Rivers is a funky Jeckyll and Hyde course.  They had a short open nine holer there and then got funding to expand the course.  Instead of redesigning the course, they added a long, challenging back nine in the woods.  And then when you finish you're like 800 feet from the parking lot and they could have just put in a hole there.  It is still a good course.  It's just funky with the two unrelated nines slammed together that way.  Oh, and watch the tees signs because the numbers on the baskets are not all correct and the course routing is counter-intuitive at times.

There's no water on either of these courses. 

[Bruce Brakel]

I might add, Kalamazoo is probably just as close to my house as it is yours.  It is half way from Waterford to Chicago, seven miles closer to Chicago, actually, but the average course is a little closer to Waterford.  If anyone wants to meet there to play some Worlds courses, I'd be happy to show you around if it works with whatever else I got going on. 

On our next trip we'll probably play Robert Morris and Coldbrook.  If the snow stays light, maybe that will be sometime between now and Christmas. 

[Bruce Brakel]

Lets go for three-in-a-row.

Here are the qualification criteria.

I've qualified.

Qualification Standards

-All previous Professional World Champions
-Top Point earners on 2007 PDGA Tour:
-Automatic MPO 900 pts, MPM 500 pts, MPG/S 150 pts, FPO 25 pts, FPM/G 20 pts
-Other players who finished in the Top 25% of Points earners within their State/Province:
--Minimum Standards: MPO 500 pts, MPM 300 pts, MPG/S 75 pts, FPO 15 pts, FPM/G 10 pts.
-Senior Divisions - all male Pro members born 1947 or earlier who played a Tour event in 2007 & all female Pro members born 1957 or earlier who played a Tour event in 2007
-Top Finishers at the 2006 Amateur Worlds: MA1 Top 5 & Winners of all other Advanced Divisions
-International - 2007 Euro Pros and leading 2007 Asia / Australasia Pros
-Players from States and Provinces with zero qualifiers under 2-5:
--1 Invite to player with most points & 1 invite to player with most events played
-Other players with a 1000+ player rating (as of 1/30/08) who played in a Tour event in 2007.
-Pro Worlds Sponsor Exemption
Note: 2007 PDGA current membership required under qualification standards #2-8 above