Course Closed

[Jon Brakel]

Fairfield was officially closed to non-tournament play during the tournament this weekend. In reality, of course, it was not. We had some belligerent casuals who insisted they were going to play. One of them played one hole and walked off. One group we let play in a four hole gap. Most people refuse to accept that a course in public park should be closed to the public. We make the comparison to ball fields that are reserved for games but usually this doesn't persuade them. Many soccer fields are closed all the time except for organized league events. Doesn't matter to the casual disc golfer. It is a really difficult job to keep them off the course. Unless you enjoy being called an M-Fer all the time. When it comes down to it we stop short of getting into heated arguments. Sunday afternoon Brett and I were putting the names of people that registered after pre-reg closed into the spread sheet and then putting in scores. This left Bruce the only non-playing volunteer to watch the casuals looking/buying discs and to police them from playing. After Brett and I finished Brett policed tee one until the end of the round.

I apologize to anyone who was upset with the casual play out there. If anyone really enjoys being cursed at we are looking for volunteers to enforce course closure for future events!

[Bruce Brakel]

After dealing with that one belligerant chucker in the morning, I didn't feel like playing bouncer anymore.  It was too stressful.  If you think it would be fun to be the bouncer, feel free to volunteer on your non-playing day.

The obvious solution when the field is that small and you don't have extra volunteers is to run foursomes and spread out the gaps.  The solution was offered in a timely manner.  Jon and I have always disagreed on whether foursomes with gaps is better than threesomes. 

Sometimes people have a better learning experience if it is a personal discovery rather than information being force fed to them by a stranger:

Hmmm, next time when the parking lot is 95% full, I'll just keep on going and play somewhere else. 

[countchunkula]

My group was stuck between two groups of casual players.  The one in front of us was keeping a decent pace (probably running after the disc immediately after throwing), and was polite for the most part.  The group behind was a different story (6 or 7 people with 2 dogs neither on a leash).  Imagine trying to drive with a little rat dog nipping at your heels.  I'm exaggerating a bit, but at least one guy in my group was getting frustrated with the noise and lack of respect for those playing a tournament.

[airspuds]

bruce  -  got any illini discs

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so you were not accused of running a gambling ring  this year

[Arok]

Where was Jordan in all of this? I'm surprised he didn't throw his hat or cast level 12 spells on them....

[Bruce Brakel]

Air Spuds:

No, but that incident was in the back of my mind.  That and Lombard.  If someone asshole complains and makes false accusations, maybe tournaments wind up being banned entirely.  If you know the parks people are backing you up, you can bounce casuals pretty aggressively.  Our experience at Round Lake has been that the parks people seem to forget we are there and do not communicate inter-departmentally about disc golf tournaments, so the park police have no idea what is going on.

There was parking available for about seven or eight more cars than those driven by the tournament players, so I figured not that many casuals could get on the course -- certainly not more groups than we would have had open holes if we had run foursomes.  

The risk-reward scenario dictated to me that I should lay up on the bouncing of casuals, and leave that to Brett and Jon, who may want to run tournaments there in the future.  
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Will be dying some Illini discs soon.  Want to experiment with some new dyes and try to find something more colorfast than the RIT. 

[Jon Brakel]

I always forget that Bruce has the answer for everything and that he's always right...but he's never in "charge" of anything! 

[roman]

I know I was upset about the casuals on the course during tournament play, and I may have reacted to it poorly. It's just hard to keep a tournament mentality going when the people in front of you are running around, throwing discs in every direction (including at each other), putting back and forth at the basket until something finally sticks, and just acting obnoxious. When we asked to play through, they simply started trying to play faster. The last 9 holes were a waste for everyone on my card, since we simply couldn't concentrate with that going on in front of us. It felt like a casual round rather than a tournament. A bad casual round, at that.

[Jon Brakel]

I know I was upset about the casuals on the course during tournament play, and I may have reacted to it poorly. It's just hard to keep a tournament mentality going when the people in front of you are running around, throwing discs in every direction (including at each other), putting back and forth at the basket until something finally sticks, and just acting obnoxious. When we asked to play through, they simply started trying to play faster. The last 9 holes were a waste for everyone on my card, since we simply couldn't concentrate with that going on in front of us. It felt like a casual round rather than a tournament. A bad casual round, at that.

You guys need to work on your mental game. Try playing on a course where a marching band is practicing in the same park. Or a course where they are driving new bridge pilings into the bed rock just a few hundred feet away. I've seen both of those at majors.

When it comes down to it we can't stop the belligerent casual who insists on playing.

Bruce: foursomes with gaps would not have worked. The group that you let on in the 4 hole gap caught up to the tournament group in front of them before they got out of eyesight. We had threesomes with gaps. Gaps are good. I've always agreed with that. Threesomes was working better on the board on Sunday and the play was fast. 2 hours and 15 minutes fast.