2010 Bloomington-Normal Open

[Dwiggy444]

4th Annual Bloomington-Normal Open
presented by the Bloomington-Normal Disc Golf Club

Sunday, October 3, 2010
2 Rounds of 22 holes
PJ Irvin & Forest Park, Bloomington, IL
Maxwell Park, Normal, IL

Entry Fees and Divisions:

Pro: $40
Advanced: $30
Intermediate: $30
Recreational: $20
Ladies: $20
Junior (18 and under): $20
Masters (40 and over): $20 

Prizes:
   
Pro and Advanced: Trophy for 1st place and cash payout for top 40% of field
All other divisions: Trophy for 1st place and merchandise credit for top 50% of field

Each entrant in the Intermediate, Recreational, Ladies, Junior and Masters divisions will also receive a player's pack containing free disc golf merchandise!

(1st place trophies will only be offered for divisions that have at least three players registered before the pre-registration deadline (October 1))

Registration

US Postal Service:
Dwight Powell
310 Harper Court
Normal, IL 61761

(Mail-in registration must be postmarked by September 25.)

PayPal:
Email djpowell444@comcast.net to receive an invoice. 

(PayPal payments must be received by October 1.)

Please include your full name and desired division with your registration.

All entries received after registration deadline (including day-of-event entries) must pay a $5.00 late fee per player.

Schedule

Player check-in and registration: 7:00 – 8:15 AM at PJ Irvin Park
Player's meeting: 8:30 AM
Round 1 Tee off: 9:00 AM

*** Please visit the official tournament thread (http://www.bndisc.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1101)
on the Bloomington-Normal Disc Golf Club website for the latest tournament news ***

[CEValkyrie]

Is this event being PDGA sanctioned?

[KenGmoney1]

Cash payout for advanced?

[pdga#7648]

The Kewanee tourny last week was Advanced cash payout, but the Advanced meant Pros. Grant Lonie, Nate Yemm, and Dustin Fee were all there.

I can't say whether it is sanctioned or not ( hope so, Springfield is day before ) but I'll say probably not cash for Advanced

[pdga#7648]

this was posted at the PFC forums...






The B/N Open will not be sanctioned this year and cash payout will be for open & advanced.

Information about this from B/N forum:

This tournament will NOT be PDGA sanctioned this year.

The primary reason for making this a non-sanctioned event is to make it more accessible for the many casual players in the Bloomington-Normal and Peoria areas. Our area has a VERY large number of casual players who flood the courses whenever the weather is good (mostly college students from the two large universities in town). But the vast majority of those players do not attend any of our organized events (leagues or tournaments). In order to grow our club and increase the visibility of disc golf in our area, which we hope will improve our ability to add courses and make improvements to our existing courses, I believe that we need to start getting more of these casual player plugged into our club and participating in organized activities.

So, I'm hoping to draw more of these casual players to the BN Open this year by:

- Keeping the registration fees as low: PDGA sanctioned events must add $10 to the registration fee for any non-PDGA member.

- Making the prizes and player packs for the amateur divisions as large as possible: PDGA sanctioned events must pay a sanctioning fee, an insurance fee and a small fee for each player entered in the event. Since we're non-sanctioned this year, we can put all of this money into the prize pool and focus our resources on making this the best event possible. I'm also going to be working hard over the next few weeks to secure sponsorship from a number of businesses so we can increase our prize pool and offer a wide variety of benefits to both Pros and Amateurs.

Another side benefit of being non-sanctioned is that we can pay out in cash to both Pros AND Amateurs. The top two divisions (Pro and Advanced) will offer cash prizes, so any Amateur who wants to play straight up for cash can play in the Advanced division and "put their money where there mouth is". I'm hoping this will draw even more Amateurs into the fray.

If you have any other questions about the sanctioning decision for this event and want to talk "face-to-face", please give me a call or send me an email:

Dwight Powell

 

[pdga#7648]

thats a bummer.

[CEValkyrie]

thats a bummer.

I agree. Total bummer! Won't be attending this year.

[pdga#7648]

me neither. would have been nice to play Springield/Bloomington on back 2 back days

[CEValkyrie]

me neither. would have been nice to play Springield/Bloomington on back 2 back days

Agree. It made it worth traveling to play 2 events.

[KenGmoney1]

That is really lame!

I feel bad for springfield cause now people are not going to make the trip out there.

It  would have been nice to play two sanctioned events.

[Tom McManus]

I am going to skip it this year. If they wanted to include casual players have two one day events. Make Saturday non-sanctioned and Sunday sanctioned. It will be interesting to see what the attendance is this year

[pdga#7648]

I'm guessing it will be a low turnout, as well as the Pumpkin Fest since that as well is non sanctioned. I don't know what the PFC is doing,

[KenGmoney1]

Would it be possible to have the pro/adv play together on one course and make it sanctioned for them while the rec and int play the other course nonsanctioned. 

That way the players who are not pdga members can play rec or int and not pay the extra $10 fee.

[Jon Brakel]

Would it be possible to have the pro/adv play together on one course and make it sanctioned for them while the rec and int play the other course nonsanctioned. 

That way the players who are not pdga members can play rec or int and not pay the extra $10 fee.

You could even do it on the same course. You could even just have one division unsanctioned.

[Dwiggy444]

It's been interesting to read the replies here re: my decision to not sanction the BN Open this year.  I have to admit - I'm very disappointed that some of the best players in the state are not planning to come down this year simply because it's a non-sanctioned event.  One of the main reasons that we have the tournament on this date is to catch some of the Chicago area players who may already be downstate to play in Springfield.  And I know that I have done a LOT of thinking about ways to improve our courses to better appeal to the "top level players" that I frequently see at the bigger tournaments in the Midwest.  But what's done is done - the sanctioning decision had to be made rather quickly (for reasons that I won't discuss here) and when it came down to crunch time, I just went with my gut.   

I certainly hope that at least some of the Chicago folks will come down to play with us - the player's packs will be good, the payouts will be excellent (100%+ for all divisions) and I'm making several changes to at least one of the courses to increase the difficulty and improve the scoring spread.  And I'm guaranteeing good weather - absolutely no snow or freezing rain this year!   

But seriously folks -

I'm going to be very busy prepping for the tournament over the next few weeks, so I'm going to try to focus my communications about the tournament on the official thread on the Bloomington-Normal Disc Golf Club discussion forum (http://www.bndisc.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1101), so please check there if you want to get the latest news or have any other pressing concerns.  Or, if you feel like you want the "personal touch", feel free to contact me directly:

Dwight Powell
(3 ZERO 9) eighty-two 62 five 40
djpowell444 (at-sign) comcast.net

Hope to see you in a few weeks!

[Dwiggy444]

It's been more than a week since the 4th Annual BN Open and I'm still recovering.  But the good memories are still fresh in my mind -

- 59 people came out to play in the tournament on a cold October morning.  Of those 59 players, 33 were not PDGA members and most of these were playing in their first tournament ever.  Sure, it would have been nice to have had 100 players and a huge Pro field, but my goal was to get new players involved in "the tournament scene", and I think I succeeded.

- Dana Vicich and Rich Klein III won their divisions in a tournament dedicated to their relatives who had recently passed away.  Perfect.

- Dave Owens, Nancy Wilken and Dan Nagle proved that we have some of the BEST volunteers in the state right here in our little town.  Dave and Nancy were incredible in tournament central, running the show with efficiency and great skill, and giving me the ability to relax and spend most of tournament day playing disc golf.  And Dan was Mr. Do It All, spending countless hours with me on Saturday to prep the courses, and then running all over the courses on Sunday, acting as guide, gopher and Disc Golf Ambassador.  I can't say thank you enough to these three, but I'll try it again - THANK YOU!!!

- The prizes and little extras for all of the Am divisions were very nice, all thanks to our great sponsors and donors:

ABC Discs - http://www.abcdiscs.net/
Paragon Disc Golf - http://paragondiscgolf.com/
The Alamo II - http://www.thealamoii.com
Rob and Kathy Strasser
Team Wilken
Dana Vicich
Noah Brooks
Paul Kenny

- The courses were tough - a real tournament-caliber experience for even the top players.  I still can't believe that the hot round in the morning was only 62 (-4).  And the estimated SSA for the afternoon round at Maxwell Park was nearly 62 - not exactly the deuce fest that we're all used to out there, eh? 

- My 343-foot ace on hole 7B at Forrest will probably be the shot of my life.  Maybe I should just quit while I'm ahead? 

Thank you to everyone who came out to support the tournament and the Bloomington-Normal Disc Golf Club.   I sincerely hope that everyone had a great time and made some new disc golf friendships.  Can't wait 'til next year!

One last thing:

We had 14 Flying Squirrels left over from the stock we purchased for player's packs, so we'll be selling them to raise money for next year's tournament.  Please see this thread for additional info - http://www.bndisc.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1143