CCR Open

[Tom McManus]

The CCR Open is taking place in Lansing Michigan this weekend with a number of DISContinuum Members representing the Club.  Brett "Coach" Comincioli will have his hands full in the open division taking on 6 players over a 1000 rating and two more over 990.  It looks like a course that suits Brett's game, let's see if the last two weekends Brett has spent running events will give him some mojo out on course, here is hoping for finish at or near the top.  Before the year is out, Geoff Bennett may renew his club membership, Geoff is coming off a strong showing at St. Louis Open, finishing second in a field of 29.

In the Advanced Division Taylor Cimala, Jonathan Dobberstein,  and Dave Nelson are representing the club.  Both Double D and Taylor "Get out of my way, I am going to jump putt" Cimala, are coming off early season victories. The Dobber has picked up his game, I think this is an event where the Illinois players put togher a strong showing and come home with some plastic.

In Intermediate Dan "Whiplash" Michler is representing Discontinuum.  His rating says Intermediate but right now his game is all about Advanced. Look for Dan to make a strong showing in this Intermediate Field, it won't be long before Whiplash is back plying his trade in Advanced.

[Bruce Brakel]

The Grand Woods courses will favor Brett's game.  They are more about control and accuracy than power.  If the water is up, there's also some serious risk reward with some driveable baskets close to o.b.  Of course, this favors Barry's game too, so good luck, Brett.

I have not seen the Waverly golf course set up or read anything about it.  I would expect it to be a power course favoring Big D players like Bennett, Henry and Themm. 

The advanced division looks brutal.  There are about 50 players in and over half of them have advanced ratings.  There are several players that have finished in the top 5 at past Am Nationals. 

[CEValkyrie]

Dan, Dave, & I had a good time. We left Friday morning and managed to get some practice at Bridgeman, MI. Most of the travel was rainy so we were happy to get out of the car during a dry period. When we pulled into Lansing at 5pm the course was jam packed. At least there was no rian Friday night.

We tried to get some practice in. The 18 hole course was packed with doubles and casuals. To make it worse the 18 temporary holes tied into the regular 18 hole course so it was impossible to avoid conflicts. The course was not clearly marked and several of the holes were complete surprises when played on Saturday. IT was very frustrating with the lack of marked tees. At least they got out during the round Saturday morning to place the hole # flags.

Motel 6 ended up working out just fine. Not bad for $40/night.

I started on the East course. It was the easiest of the 3. I played very blah! 4 birdies and one bogey. A solid round would be -5/-6. BS shot a -10.

In the afternoon I played the west course. I was throwing decent but made some critcal errors. A shot into the water on #4 and 3 putt  on #7 really killed the end of my round. A +3 was pretty brutal. I felt these 2 courses played to my strengths but it just didn't happen.

We played Waverly this morning. This course is a long temporary course on an old ball golf course that is now closed. I played  ultra conservative in pretty windy conditions. There were many par 3 holes that were out of reach. I had lots of layups and tap ins. Any putt out of range I just laid under the basket. The par 4's were very challenging and a few very nice risk/rewards situations. 2 birdies (1,12) and 2 bogeys (10, 18).  I was very happy with this round.

I was able to watch the final card play 18. Barry threw into the water taking a 5. Mike Henry swooped up from the 2nd card shooting a super hot -6 and winning.

It was a fun weekend. Nelson represented team element and won a decent stack of preselected discs for his 5th place finish. I came home with a $100 shirt. We were on the road by noon central time.

[Bruce Brakel]

I've seen Mike Henry throw 550 feet out at Byron.  He can 3 a 1000 foot hole.  I'm not surprised he played well on the long course.  The week before CCR he was practicing at Holly, sharpening up on the kinds of technical shots you find at Grand Woods.  I guess it paid off. 

The TDs' lack of organization and attention to details does not surprise me.  The CCR TDs are decent guys but they are not detail oriented. 

[acedeucelefty]

Taylor continued his solid play, finding himself on the lead card going into the final round.  He said he was leading after 9, but missed some must deuce holes on the easier East course, while the two he was battling with cashed in.  A third place finish at an A-tier is not bad and will earn plenty of points as he goes after the points race.

I had a mediocre first round on west, a better but frustrating round on the ball golf course and a very frustrating round on the easy East course.  Not the finish I had hoped for, but cashed for two pre-selected discs.

The tournament was fun, but disappointing for an A-tier.  The West and East courses try to cram 36 holes into a course barely big enough for 18.  The holes were not marked well at all and given that the flow was disrupted for all of the temp holes, there was one sign on either course indicating where the next tee was at.  My group almost played the wrong hole on saturday.  The ball golf course was a lot of fun.  Wide open, extremely windy and cool shots.  It was too bad they couldn't borrow or invest in some fly mats.  There were several holes where the tee pad was a mud pit.  I think somewhere around 18 holes of the 54 we played had cement tee pads.  The rest were natural.

Overall it was fun, but if they keep CCR at an A-tier for next year they will need to beef up the attention to basic details. 

[Bruce Brakel]

The PDGA collected $1000 in fees and eleven new memberships from the CCR.  So they are fine with how it all went.    

And, over the years the PDGA has eliminated virtually all of the tier standards except for the ones that relate to money and the reporting of scores.  So there is very little a TD must do to meet A-tier standards other than add the cash to the pros and send in prompt results with money to the PDGA. 

It is really up to the players to communicate among each other which tournaments meet their expectations for an A-tier.  I'm sure Mike Henry's expectations were met!