Sinnissippi Open (05/10/08) PDGA C-Tier

[CEValkyrie]

I'll post more later but WOW! Thanks to all that made this happen.

Scores are up. They look pretty accurate. I don't think the round ratings are. I'll check for errors this week.

Pulled in the in-laws house at 12:30 and woke up at 7 to start entering scores. I'm tired

[Sr.]

Sinnissippi is a excellent course. Had a real good time playing in that well run tournament. The temp holes were awesome! Thank You everyone who made that possible.

[damonshort]

A really enjoyable but loooooong day. Brett & Co. did an incredible job, esp. with the weather.    (That course must be completely treacherous in the wind.) I'm surprised Brett has a voice left after blitzing through all the prizewinners (he almost made it before complete darkness settled in  )

I know I'm not alone in saying that I'd kill to have that course an hour closer to Chicago. 

THANKS!!!

[CEValkyrie]

Thank you! I was not sure what to expect. I had no clue there would be 150 people show up to play. I appreciate the local player base welcoming the event.

Thank you!

Sean Ryan. Sean contacted me a while about about getting this event going. If it weren't for Sean this event would not have taken plance. Sean also helped move pins and promote the event locally.

Tim McNinch. www.fadegear.com Thank you for donating 6 bags. They were excellent first round CTP's. I am impressed with the bag. Tim also helped get pins moved.

Scott Pitner.  http://www.paperorplasticsports.com  Scott took a chance coming out. Thank you Scott! I have never seen such a big stock of plastic at an event. I believe it took up 8 picnic tables. WOW! Scott still has CFR Destroyers and TeeRexX.

Dan Michler, Tom McManus, & Adrian Gutierrez Sr.
These 3 guys were at the park from 7:00AM to 9:30PM.

Dan helped tremendously with the course. He chose the pin positions and created the course information sheet. On Friday we set up the tee pads
and marked the baskets. On Saturday he was a major volunteer. Without him the course would have been really overbooked.

Tom helped with course setup and teardown as well. He was another major volunteer on Saturday. This guy is hard nosed guy and a work horse.

Without these 2 guys we wouldn't have started until 11pm. Tee off was at 10am exactly. Not too bad!

Adrian Sr is another work horse. From watching merch to checking score cards he gets it done. Thanks for having the Mach 5 in the car to make the 25th hole. He was there until the end just packing boxes like crazy.

Others. If I miss your name I am sorry. There are guys that did jobs that I had no idea they were doing. These guys stepped it up and made it happen. Thank you for your efforts.
Spike, Chris Jordan, & Ryan Jones. Writing score cards.
Ryan Jones, Rob Strasser, Doug Paytne, & Dan Pastore. Scoring and sorting.
Dana Vicich, Brad Dow, Ben Singer, Scott Reek, and Chris Jordan. Course teardown.
Dan Pastore and Rob Strasser. Awards Ceremony. Awards finished at exactly 8:48 PM.
- I am terrible with names. He is a local from Sterling. He helped up pack up Scott's van until the end. We pulled out of the park at 9:30PM.


Without all of you this event was not possible. I appreciate your effort and contribution in making this event a success.

[Dan Michler]

Pitner's stock is impressive to say the least.  Anybody playing any future events that he brings his merchandise to can expect to find every disc they might ever want to throw, and he never seems to run out of anything even when the event is overfilled.

[Tom McManus]

Two more people to add to the list. Brad Dow and Ben Singer, they both helped with the break down of the baskets and picking up the tee pads. These guys all need to be mentioned one more time:

Dana Vicich
Brad Dow
Spike
Chris Jordan
Ryan Jones
Rob Strasser
Doug Payne
Dan Pastore
Scott Reek
Ben Singer

I believe it was Alan Webster who stayed with us to get Scott's massive stock of plastic loaded up.

They were all helpful in making the event a success.
If Brett hadn't been as well prepared as he was I have no idea what time we would have tee'd off. Thanks to Adrian Sr. for having the foresight to bring an extra basket. It allowed another 5 people to not go home dissapointed. Michler did a heck of a job as usual.

Thanks to everyone who preregistered for the event. It helps to make things run smoother. And thanks to the locals who supported Brett and the event. 

[Tom McManus]

A couple of personal observations and notes:

1. I got home at 4:40 AM Sunday. We left Sterling a little after 10 PM and I couldn't stay awake, I made it to the Dekalb oasis and slept until 3:00 AM in the truck.

2. Thanks to Doug Payne for spotting my disc on hole 5 E. My disc was lodged in a tree overhanging a 35 foot drop off. I don't know who was more nervous, me or the rest of the group watching me putt from the side of the top of the cliff.

3. Brett had some difficult decisions to make on Saturday as far as the size of the event. Do you go with a four hour round or do you send 40 people home disapointed instead of 25 people?  Do you keep the event at 120 with 24 baskets or do you add 15 more people and figure out a way to make it work?  I would think that the last 15 people who got into the event were pretty happy with the four hour rounds.

4. I really appreciate all the people who stepped up and helped out on Saturday. It made a difficult day a little less difficult. With multiple people stepping up and helping out it made a really big difference.

5. Sinnissippi Park is a great course, it was my first time playing. There should be an event there every single year.  Everyone from the area was great and was glad to see an event take place.

6. We sure lucked out on the weather, yesterday was brutal. It started raining on Saturday night as we were pulling out of the park.

[Bruce Brakel]

Smart call on the rest area rest. 

The decision whether to run floater groups is a tough one.  I'm glad the tournament was a success.  Maybe next year you can split-day it. 

[pickax]

If the TD has a good reputation, the tournament is sanctioned and well publicized, and it is on a decent 18 hole course, I do not think you can run a tournament in northern Illinois without either turning people away or running split days.

Brett, your list of players/volunteers stepping up and helping out shows how much of a team it takes to run a good tournament. Looks like I missed a good one to play.

[DiscCrazy]

Brett,
I want to thank you for the great tournament. I had a great time and I got to meet a lot of new guys at this tournament that are not normally in the Chicago area playing. I hope this was a good time for all that played and look forward to Brett's next tournament. Great job everyone that helped. I really enjoyed the day.

[CEValkyrie]

If I could hit the rewind button.

1. Offer online registration.
2. Doubles on Friday night & tournament registration.
3. PreRegistration only for event.
4. Player check in 8 to 845am.
4. Player Meeting at 9AM with Tee off at 9:30.
5. 2 Rounds of 27 holes.

I am sorry to those that got turned away. It sucks badly.

Sinnissippi is awesome. I hope everyone enjoyed the alternates. I wanted to jump on the course during that 2nd round.

[stpitner]

Just wanted to tack on a post so that everyone knows that I'm still alive lol.  I should NOT have driven all the way home.  In the morning I left for the course at 4AM running on 2 hours of sleep.  However a stop at Dixon Walmart Supercenter to buy windshield wipers (cuz it was raining and the van needed new wiper blades badly!) and a stop for dinner at the Oasis on I-90 helped me manage to make the trip and arrive home at 12:30pm.  I think I slept until 11am the next morning heh.

Thanks to everyone that helped me pack up.  I don't think I've ever had the van loaded that quickly before.  Now I have the fun process of inventory   I discovered on Sunday that one of our neighbors cut our cable line while they were mowing - and I'm without an internet connection at home until Tuesday.  That's why I haven't posted yet.

I really do appreciate the comments about the inventory.  I try my best to make sure that I'm well stocked, and I greatly appreciate all of those that made cash purchases at the event.  That really goes a long way.

[CESAROE]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who made this one of the greatest tourneys I have ever played. The tourney was run unbelievably well especially considering the turnout. Brett really knows how to run the show (all of his helpers too). The disc selection was unreal. The course is a beauty. I hope this can become an annual event. Actually, I think it would be a cool course to see an annual doubles and singles tournament at. All in all I think everyone had a great time. Thankyou so much to all involved. There were even 2 young ones who spent all day near hole 5 fetching discs. Awesome day!

[DiscCrazy]

There were even 2 young ones who spent all day near hole 5 fetching discs. Awesome day!

Did anyone know these two kids? I know I used there help twice. The second time through I gave them each a disc that I had in the truck that I never used. I think they like that. If anyone knows who they were please tell them that their help was greatly appreciated and thank you very much.

[Tom McManus]

There were even 2 young ones who spent all day near hole 5 fetching discs. Awesome day!

Did anyone know these two kids? I know I used there help twice. The second time through I gave them each a disc that I had in the truck that I never used. I think they like that. If anyone knows who they were please tell them that their help was greatly appreciated and thank you very much.

I don't know who they were but at the end of the day I gave them $5.00 each. I know that they also received some tips from other people.

[stpitner]

wow did those kids do great lol.  They live locally, and came over on their bikes originally to just play some disc golf and then look for snakes down by the creek.  I talked to them for a while in the morning, and they decided that they wanted to watch everyone play.  I guess they eventually thought it would be cool to go in and get your disc.

All I can say is that all of you were very generous.  I know that they received someone's player pack that I let them each buy a DX disc with, and I think they each went home with something like $20 each.  So like I said, you guys out there were very kind to those guys.  I was VERY surprised to see them hang around all day long, but with those kinds of tips, I understand why

[whtsx2005]

Well I guess people can't say enough how great this tournament was. I'm glad that I got to play in this tournament as my first ever and go away with some great memories. I had such a great experience that I plan on going to more tourneys throughout the year. Met some great disc golfers: Alan Webster, Sean Ryan, Tim McNinch and of course Brett. I would just like to thank everyone who made this possible and everyone who helped out and also the Sterling Park District, who manicured the course leading up to the tournament and was out there at 8 am picking up tree limbs on Hole 16. I had been a little disappointed that there had not been sanctioned tournaments at Sinnissippi for a couple of years when the course was certainly capable of one. Thanks for bringing it back and hopefully years to come.

[danav]

We were on hole 6 2nd round and i all of a sudden looked up and a champ glow roc thrown by kris hutter is flying towards the basket.  the heavier set kid is walking around by the basket and about gets nailed!  he jumps and screams...funny as hell!

[skipache]

haha i saw that too, it was funny!

[paulpriest]

I second the thanks that have already been posted on here.  Many thanks to the park district, to Brett, to Scott, to the local guys who helped out with moving the baskets, to the other discontinuum guys who helped out with course prep.  It is always the sign of a great tournament when you can shoot poorly and still have an awesome, awesome time.  Of course, the fact that the course is so great helps.  I was still out there till just about dark throwing holes after the tournament finished.  Just throwing all my discs on hole 7...awesome.  Came close with the roc once or twice too.  Now if we can just get the putting to catch up with the driving.  Also, I had a great time playing with you guys (Neil, Dan, Brett) on Friday.  Congrats to Rob, Scott, Kris, Matt on your play.

Wow...such a great, great course.  Definitely one to play again.