2009 Worlds !

[keitherboo]

Kenny, I think the craziest part of your story is that in 6 of the 7 rounds, the person that shot the hot round was on your card, with one of the rounds it being you!  What a crazy unimportant coincidence.  That being said, nice playing and that sounds like a heck of a semi finals for you.

[fathergod]

Finally made it back tonight. My thoughts on the week.

Dave N. & I took off Friday afternoon. We played a new 9 bagger down in South Holland then Mokena. Dan met us for a round then we headed to Gridley.

Saturday we stopped in Alton to break up the drive. Alton has grown in very thick. It was a great morning for disc golf and the course is sweet! We played a practice round at Blue Valley. Wow that course is long. Grab your driver and throw it 18 times + fairway drives. Kenny met us on hole 5. We finished just before dark.

Sunday we played Water Works in the morning. What a course. It is one of my favorites that i've played. It has everything and more. After water works I went over to Cliff Drive. That is a very fun course with a technical front 9 compared to a longer more open back.

Monday I got up and went to a private course called Thornfield in Stillwell, KS. It is a very difficult course with tons of tough par 4's with heavy rough and woods. The land is absolutely awesome. In the afternoon I finished my final round of practice at Rosedale. This is another fun course with a wide varitey of terrain.

The player meeting was very long and boring. That's my only knock of the event. Congrats to Tom McManus for his points trophy!

It was raining Tuesday. I got to play with a very fun group round 1. Thru 7 holes things were going pretty good. On holes 8, 9, & 10 I decided I couldn't throw a driver off the tee and went 5, 6, 5 which bascially cost me getting into the semi finals. Those are holes where at worst case you should go 4,5,4 if not 3,4,3. I played pretty solid the rest of the way. A 69 is not acceptable.

Wednesday morning was a nightmare. The rubber tee pads were very wet and muddy from the day before. I struggled all day from the tee and could not get up and down for 3's. Not one part of my game was working. That 64 was pretty brutal. I was thru 2 rounds without one 2. I decided I could actally throw at Rosedale and played very solid shooting 53.

Thursday was a good day for me. I got off to a hot start. I got my first 2 on my starting hole #3. I had a throw in on #8 and 2'd #9 to go -3. I picked up another 2 on hole #14 to go -4. I managed to avoid disaster on the back 9 picking up my only 4 on #17. On my final hole of the round I skip aced #2 to go -5. If you saw that hole you wouldn't believe it was aced. That's my 2nd worlds skip ace both being over 300ft. I felt really good heading over to Water Works. I played solid but could not pick up birdies with several missed putts. On hole 12 it took me 4 strokes to get up and down from 100ft. I had one 2, one 5, and 16 3's for a score of 55.

My goal had been to make the semis. After arriving at Cliff Drive Friday morning I looked at the board from the A Pool and it looked like I had to shoot a 54 or better. After the first 5 holes I was even. I bogied #6. The frong 9 has all the birdies. I decided to throw a roller on #8 which cost me a stroke. I missed holes 9 & 10. Going into the last 8 holes I was +2. There are 2 realistic birdie opportunities for me on those holes. I missed both. With my tournament coming to an end I was taking some big risks trying to get some lucky 2's. On my final hole of the tournament I tried to throw a big anhyzer trying to get it to S back on the road for a skip. I drilled a dude on a motorcyle and it kicked in bounds. It was a crazy way to end my tournament.

It was a fun but frustrating week. There is always next year.

Man, what a great way to end it!  I've never laughed harder than the time I got distracted at a Streamwood tournament during my run up and fell into the mud on the first hole of the tournament!   I had to play in some damn muddy pants haha

[CEValkyrie]

On Friday afternoon Dan, Dave, Kenny, & I headed over to Rosedale. After we played the top course we headed down under. From what I understand Rosedale Park is the highest point in Kansas City. When playing the top course there are several areas where your shot can go down some steep areas to the down under course.

The down under course is by far the most unique course i've ever played. It's super tight in the woods and there are some nasty drop offs. I'm actually suprised the park allows people to play down there. The new baskets are pretty sweet. The pole is a yellow with the rest of the basket being bright orange. It makes spotting the baskets really easy.

[Arok]

Here are my thoughts and experiences from my week at worlds.

I left last Saturday morning from Macomb.  My first stop was the Westin (Host hotel) to check in and get my players pack.  This hotel was super fancy and connected to a very nice mall.  I knew I was in the right place as there were disc golfers all over the place.  The players pack was huge including 2 shirts, 5 discs, towel, ching golf bag etc...  From there I went directly to Water Works for a Practice round.  I played with three really cool guys that just flew in from Portland.  Not thinking about it, I asked them who else from their state come to worlds.  They all laughed and mentioned that Avery and Dave Feldberg came from Oregon.  The course was absolutely awesome; I shot six over in the practice round and had a blast.  After the round I went to my car to go the next course and it would not start.  I had to get my car towed and it was still only the beginning of the first day!

I was lucky and got the tow truck driver to drop me off at blue valley where I met up with Brett, Dan and Dave on Hole 5. 

Saturday and Sunday consisted of going to all the other courses to get in a practice round.  The mini golf course was sweet, lots of longer holes and elevation changes that required you to crush a mini.  Dave and Dan kicked my ass in mini golf, I went OB 9 times.  We played with Becky from San Francisco CA.  I think she won the women's division.  About half way through the mini round we hit the backup; this backup was caused by the players and gallery on the card in front of us.  It was Climo, Feldberg, Ken Tank Franks, and some guy who was really good at putting with minis.  Feldberg almost lost his Beaver State fling mini in the bushes and was freaking out!  There were about ten people looking for it before they finally found it.

Tuesday morning we played Water Works in the rain.  I played with big dog Terry Gallops from NC, this guy is like 6'6'' and 240 lbs and could crush a thumber about 400 feet.  He shot the hot round which was a 50.  I had four birds and shot a 52 which put me on the lead card going into round two at Wy-Co in the rain. 

Wyandotte Park is a longer course with lots of long holes.  It was raining pretty good for the start of the round and continued to rain heavily for most of the round.  I was on the lead card with Justin Atwater-Taylor who absolutely tore it up shooting a 56, that is amazing considering that he took a triple circle 9 on hole 13 which has ob flags going down the left and right side of the fairway which make you have to place your shots perfect.  I gained 6 strokes on him that hole and I only shot a 59.  Wiggins shot the hot round which was a 53.

Wednesday morning I was on the second card at Prairie Center with Blaine Kinkel.  After shooting a round with him I know why this guy wins tournaments.  He shot awesome parking many of the holes to shoot a 47 which was the hot round.  This round was probably one of the most fun rounds of golf I played all year.  Everybody on my card was very complementary of each other.  There were lots of high fives and cheering going on.  I was happy to shoot a 50 thinking to myself that there is no way I could keep up with Blaine the way he was shooting.

Round four was at Shawnee Mission park which I personally thought was the easiest of the courses that we played.  I was on the second card and I played this round with Beckett Carduff who was on fire and shot the hot round which was a smoking hot 46.  He birdied 7 of the front nine holes.  This was by far my worst round of the tournament.  I took a 5 spot on hole 16 cause I hit a tree and kicked into the woods.  The rest of my card birdied the hole.  I shot a boring 54 that round.  Diabetic Dave killed it that round shooting a 48 and Dan shot a 49.

Round five was a Blue Valley.  Going into this round my goal was to just hold my place which was 21st after the shuffle.  Taylor and I went to the course together I had a 1pm tee time and he had a 1:10 tee time.  I shot this round with Ben Askren who brought along his beautiful girlfriend to distract me for the five hour long round.  Ben shot lights out with back to back birdies on holes 5 and 6 he shot a 62 which was the hot round.  Birdies at blue valley do not come easy, I had only one on hole 15.  I was happy to see Dan and Dave on hole 16 when they came to caddy and give me some mental support to finish out my round.  I was happy to make a big putt in the wind to take a 4 on hole18 which is 856 feet.  I shot a 67 that round which was respectable.

Round 6 on Friday was back at Shawnee park, this was my chance to redeem myself from that 54 that I shot last time.  I was on the 6th card.  I shot a 51 which was better but I was not happy with it as I missed quite a few putts inside the circle.  I did manage to redeem myself with a bird on hole 16 which I took a 5 on the time before.  I felt really bad after this round because I missed a 15 foot putt on the easiest hole of worlds #5 which is only 200 feet dead straight.  Dave shot a 49 which was a good round.

Round 7 was the semi finals back at Prairie Center.  Going into this round I was in 23rd place, my goal was to hold my spot or maybe make it into the top 20 if things went right.  Prairie center has OB on practically every hole.  I started my round on hole 6.  I made a 40 foot putt to start the round and things just felt good.  At eight holes in to the round I found myself sitting 5 down.  At this point I realized I need to play safe and away from the OB.  My drives just kept landing inside the circle leaving me with a 15 to 20 foot putts on many of the holes.  I did not miss any putts in the circle that round and ended the round with a huge birdie to shoot a 44!  That was the round of my life, everything went perfect, and I scooped 14 people to make it to the top ten.

Overall this was by far my best Worlds/Disc golf experience.  I was lucky to get to play with great players from all over the country including a player from Switzerland.  Every body that I played with was extremely nice and happy to be there playing disc golf in Kansas City on those awesome courses.

Kenny that's awesome man! It's all about putting in that comfort zone! Good times man!

[CEValkyrie]

Here is a photo of hole #2 at Cliff Drive. I had been looking for a picutre of this hole. Lauren Lakeberg posted this on facebook. Thanks Lauren!

The pin is down the fairway and slightly left. What you don't see is the drop off that runs down the entire right side of the fairway. The smart play is to keep it left!