2010 Fox Valley Metro Presents IOS #3 @ Oswego, IL June 5 & 6 - The Oswego Open

[pickax]

Results are posted.

[stpitner]

Pic from today - some practice, some tournament action.  Photo courtesy of my friend, Bob Lockwood.

Hopefully he stayed out of everyone's way for the photos - it was the first time he had ever been out to see people playing disc golf   He now has his very starter set 

[CEValkyrie]

Great event! Not sure how we managed to avoid the heavy rain. My buddy in Wheaton said it poured for an hour. Thanks to Fox Valley, Mike, Scott, and the rest of the IOS crew!. There are going to be a lot of Chicagoland area pros kicking themselves for not showing up yesterday.

[pdga#7648]

very smooth tourny Mike. Well Done! A big thanks to you and all of your helpers.


congrats Matt Travis for ripping it up both rounds, and especially during the 20 minute downpour, no one took an umbrella for, halfway through round #2

[pickax]

Thanks, I'm beat. Scores are posted. Helpers are not yet sufficiently thanked. I will be submitting the official reports Tuesday morning so that this makes it into the next ratings update.

[stpitner]

Many kudos and thanks to Adrian, Mike, Keith, and Micah for helping me load up the van in ultra-fast time Sunday afternoon before the small raindrops turned into big raindrops.  Thanks also to Mike for helping me get the tarp set up to keep the merchapalooza from getting completely drenched from the downpour.  Thankfully it wasn't a FULL day of rain, just some patches!

[pickax]

I think I'm mostly recovered from this weekend. Awnings are out in the yard drying, TD reports are ready to turn in tomorrow so that they are included in the next ratings update, and I'm already thinking about things to change for next year.

First I want to thank Fox Valley Metro Disc Golf Club for sponsoring IOS #3. Fox Valley Metro is a rapidly growing club that is seeing some great young talent rising up. In addition to playing some impressive golf, these kids were out there spreading wood chips around on the course to help get it in excellent shape for this past weekend. Randy Moore, Sr busted his butt staining signs and benches and generally getting the course looking sharp. Thanks man. Blaine Schepp dressed it up with the 10m circles. It definitely adds a nice touch.

Discontinuum provided the fly pads. I know one of them got slick during second round Sunday, but the mud underneath would have been a lot worse without it.

Paper or Plastic Sports continues to provide a great assortment of plastic and other gear. Thanks Scott.

To those that helped setup and takedown: Aaron Scott, Blaine Schepp, Tyler Williams, Dave Barish, Dave Owens, and Tom McManus (and whoever else I missed or didn't realize were helping out while I wasn't looking).  Those extra hands are definitely appreciated.

Thanks also to Jon & Becky for helping man the scoring tent and get everyone out before another wave of rain hit.

Not that she'll read this, but my wife deserves a good shout out for allowing me to take the time to run this and support me in this adventure (in addition to helping out some behind the scenes).

I'll be running hole analysis based off the weekend scores to see if anything needs to be tweaked. And in case anyone cares, I also took penalties for a mando and artificial OB, too.

[KenGmoney1]

Congrats to Matt "Final Nine" Travis for shooting lights out!  That is some really good shooting.

[tacimala]

Mike this event was one of the smoothest ones I have attended in a while. The OB's and hole by hole notes couldn't been explained any more thoroughly. I know Saturday attendance was a little light, but it was great being able to breeze through every hole both rounds without a backup. I've never played the course in the summer and you could really see how much time was spent clearing and mowing and spreading mulch, etc. It's a very thick course and the fairways and all were very well tended to.

For areas of critique based on hole by hole, I'd give two big thumbs up vote to not using holes 5 and 14 long tees. That kind of came out as a mouthful, so I'll make it more clear. I think the long tees on holes 5 and 14 should not be played in a professional event.

Thanks again to all and Fox Valley for making Oswego into such a great course!

[Steven Jacobs]

Mike this event was one of the smoothest ones I have attended in a while. The OB's and hole by hole notes couldn't been explained any more thoroughly. I know Saturday attendance was a little light, but it was great being able to breeze through every hole both rounds without a backup. I've never played the course in the summer and you could really see how much time was spent clearing and mowing and spreading mulch, etc. It's a very thick course and the fairways and all were very well tended to.

For areas of critique based on hole by hole, I'd give two big thumbs up vote to not using holes 5 and 14 long tees. That kind of came out as a mouthful, so I'll make it more clear. I think the long tees on holes 5 and 14 should not be played in a professional event.

Thanks again to all and Fox Valley for making Oswego into such a great course!

Yea, long 5 and 14 are dumb holes

[pdga#7648]

maybe 14 was dumb, but 5 was acceptable. an easy 3 if you get thru the 1st gap. me and another guy in our 3 some, had 40' putts for 2.  turn a Roc over and you are fine.

I took a 3 and a 4 on those holes.


my only complaint or suggestion really. on hole #15, have the tall grass OB is fine, but don't extend the orange line all the way to the road, after the tall grass stopped.  CIRCLE 4 BOTH ROUNDS.  but neither was in the tall grass, just over the paint line by 16's tee pad.

[countchunkula]

Mike this event was one of the smoothest ones I have attended in a while. The OB's and hole by hole notes couldn't been explained any more thoroughly. I know Saturday attendance was a little light, but it was great being able to breeze through every hole both rounds without a backup. I've never played the course in the summer and you could really see how much time was spent clearing and mowing and spreading mulch, etc. It's a very thick course and the fairways and all were very well tended to.

For areas of critique based on hole by hole, I'd give two big thumbs up vote to not using holes 5 and 14 long tees. That kind of came out as a mouthful, so I'll make it more clear. I think the long tees on holes 5 and 14 should not be played in a professional event.

Thanks again to all and Fox Valley for making Oswego into such a great course!

Yea, long 5 and 14 are dumb holes

I didn't have a problem with long 5, but I couldn't find a realistic route from 14 long's tee.  I had never played the longs at Oswego before Saturday.  They were quite challenging and added a ton of difficulty.  It will be great when the longs have concrete.  Will they be the same size as the shorts?  I love roomy teepads.

[pickax]

I'm resisting the urge to grab the score cards behind me to see how 14L played (I have a lot of work to do). But the intention is that it should be tough 3 with a good chance for 4 or more if you look for the birdie.

The intention is for the long tee pads to be the same as the shorts. Lemon Lake really irked me with the short tee pads.

[Fox Metro Discer]

So here are mu $.02 on holes 5 and 14 from the longs. Both of these holes require a nearly perfect shot to get a birdie. Along with that, don't hit the gap and you can be in some serious trouble. Both holes could use a slightly larger opening in the fairway, in my opinion. This could be done quite easily by removing one tree on the right side of the fairway on hole 5 and by trimming the small tree on the right a bit more to make a larger hole as well.
That being said, a lot of the longs out there are designed to reward a well placed shot. Who says that every hole under 350' has to be able to be deuced? I enjoy the shots that actually make me think of the entire flight plath of the disc rather than just the end result.

[Jon Brakel]

A dumb hole is a hole that a variety of skill levels all get the same score on. A hole that you have to hit a precise window in order to get the best score on is one that people refer to as "technical". Many players need to take some off their power in order to have the accuracy to reliably hit the window. Few do. I don't know the layout of this course so I don't know which one this is, but I thought I'd offer up some definitions because it doesn't sound like the hole is dumb, just technical in nature instead of a power hole.

[Chainmeister]

I thought 4 long was difficult but reasonable.  Our whole group thorught 14 longwas silly.  We all threw short discs off the tee because there was no route to the basket that we could imagine which would make any sense.  We were told that the intent was to clear out some brush to create a route on the right side. That did not exist.  We played it as a par 4 and unfortunately, none I communicated with Mike about my frustration with 15 long.  Everything in front of the tee box is out of bounds.  I did not like that hole. I thought it was a reasonable hole from the shorts as the fairway is right in front of you.  The fairway is narrowed but is not difficult to hit.  ...( I saw Jon's post )and 14 long is silly.  The long is only about 50 feet longer but is at a 90 degree angle from the short tee.   I threw it over the short tee and though the guardian trees letting a Roc (could have been a putter) fade onto the fairway about 75 feet in front of the short tee.  The righties in my group were exasperated.

[pickax]

my only complaint or suggestion really. on hole #15, have the tall grass OB is fine, but don't extend the orange line all the way to the road, after the tall grass stopped.  CIRCLE 4 BOTH ROUNDS.  but neither was in the tall grass, just over the paint line by 16's tee pad.

Hole 15 without the artificial OB needs help from a scoring perspective. There were two reasons for extending the OB on the right side of 15 rather than stopping at the edge of the high grass. The first is safety with groups waiting to tee off on hole 16. The second was the OB rules for 16. By making the fairway of 15 OB for hole 16, I needed to make sure that the line for 16 was clear without confusing the matter on 15. If I had only made the tall grass OB, then it would be difficult to mark where the start of the OB was for 16. It was simpler to extend the line and not overly penalize those on 16 Long who hit the first group of trees on the right.

[pdga#7648]

no big deal really Mike, just my opinion. I understand the safety part.
The1st round I was by the tall grass to the right of the circle for about a50-60' putt for 2, had that orange line not been there. (was about 3' from the paint) I thought for sure my beast would come out on a hyzer enough there, just a mental mistake I guess. I knew the tall grass was OB, I as a player, should have looked at the OB's before the 1st round.

[Steven Jacobs]

So here are mu $.02 on holes 5 and 14 from the longs. Both of these holes require a nearly perfect shot to get a birdie. Along with that, don't hit the gap and you can be in some serious trouble. Both holes could use a slightly larger opening in the fairway, in my opinion. This could be done quite easily by removing one tree on the right side of the fairway on hole 5 and by trimming the small tree on the right a bit more to make a larger hole as well.
That being said, a lot of the longs out there are designed to reward a well placed shot. Who says that every hole under 350' has to be able to be deuced? I enjoy the shots that actually make me think of the entire flight plath of the disc rather than just the end result.

Yes, 14 is worse than 5.  They both could be opened up just a little bit imo. especially 14. The rough is certainly rough out there!

[pdga#7648]

true. a guy carded a 7 on 14 in round 2. went left off the tee, and didn't get back out until his 4th throw. That was just after the rained stopped.