Michigan 2011

[Bruce Brakel]

I thought I would start a thread about Michigan tournaments and post about the tournaments, courses and TDs that I have anything to say about.  For a complete list of Michigan tournaments, check out www.mdgo.org.  Mostly this will be about sanctioned tournaments, and I will try to preview the upcoming tournaments, unless I lose interest in doing this.

[Bruce Brakel]

29-Jan
Frosty's Revenge II
Vienna Park/Parmalee Park Temperance
C-tier
Mark Kruse
(419) 509-4028
stu.kruse@frontier.com
www.discgolfscene.com

Vienna Park offers a flat, challenging course with about half of the holes playing through thick woods and half of the holes more open but longer.  It has long and short tees.  Usually Pros and Advanced will play longs and lower divisions will play shorts.  It is best played when frozen or dry.  There are two holes where you might lose a disc to the river, especially in winter and spring.

Parmalee is very short, flat and mostly in the woods.  Parmalee is so short, it falls very close to not generating ratings, like White at Lemon Lake.  Both courses are in small town rural Michigan in city or county parks.  

Mark Kruse runs tournaments with a German efficiency, like my brother.  He will usually have a jumbo toss on the lunch hour for donated items and might have some CTPs one round or the other.  His payouts don't seem all that great, but his Innova prices are on the low side.  So it is always hard to do the math in my head.  You will get a voucher for your player pack, if there is one, and a voucher for your payout.  He will have an adequate spread of merch and it will be well organized.  The main thing I like about his tournaments is knowing that he'll run things right and move things along.  

This is a long drive from Illinois, much closer to me than to you, and closer to Toledo than to Detroit.  I would have played the tournament if I were in better health, but I would not necessarily make the drive to play something like this in Chicago.  

[Bruce Brakel]

7 12-Feb Cracked Plastic Classic - MPM, MA2, MA3, M1M, Juniors
13-Feb Cracked Plastic Classic - MPO, FPO, M1G, MA1, Am Women
Cold Brook
Climax
PDGA B-tier
Larry LaBond
(269) 217-7356
kaces6903@gmail.com
www.kacesdiscgolf.com

This used to be the kick-off event for sanctioned disc golf in Michigan and the only tournament this weekend for 100s of miles around. 

Coldbrook Park was one of the courses that was used for 2008 Pro-Am Worlds.  If you have not played it since it was redesigned for Worlds, it will have a lot of familiar holes but several new holes.  The redesign eliminated one of the two absolutely horrible course routing conflicts.  Coldbrook is heavily wooded and somewhat hilly.  I think it is a pretty good course.  It is a 24-hole course with a few wide open holes.  Time and Worlds have worked together to open up routes on some of the pinball holes.  Overall, the course is much better than its lingering reputation. 

Generally, Larry will run two rounds of 24 for the Cracked Plastic and limit attendance to foursomes.  He will start very early so you will get done before night.  Make sure you read the website info and are on time.  Usually, the park district will open up the park road only as far as the first parking lot.  Larry will put up tarps or visqueen and turn the big pavillion there into a big tent.  The night before and the morning of the tournament Larry's volunteers will shovel and salt the tees. 

Larry has a decent reputation for running generous B-tiers for the amateurs.  The player pack is likely to be your choice of one of the custom stamped discs, or two custom stamped discs, or a Discraft custom stamped disc and something Innova gave him a great deal on.  Unlike me, he gets deals from Innova.  The payout will be a voucher.  He has a fine, well-organized spread of merch. He usually does home-made trophy plaques of some kind, because he has modest trophy making skills.  The Cracked Plastic is run to MDGO Featured Event standards, but it is not a featured event because Larry wants to offer Innova and other non-Discraft stuff.  All of this is a summary of past practice.  No guarantee of future results, but it is what I would expect.

Coldbrook is almost exactly half way between the average Chicago area player and me, closer for the southsiders and farther for the northsiders.  The PDGA directions are useful.  It is easy to find if you drive with your eyes open.  It is well marked by road signs when you get close, including an exit sign on I-94.  One Discontinuum player is already pre-reged, I think. 

This is a tournament I can recommend to an Ilinois player without any reservations.  I have not yet decided whether I will play either or both days.  These days my desire to play tournament golf exceeds my physical limitations.

[Steven Jacobs]

Wow, I have a stupid ACT test that day Feb. 12th

[Chainmeister]

Hmm.  I am supposed to be in Kalamazoo that Saturday.  We are driving up to see on of my daughter's friends singing in a show at Western Michiigan.  I don't know if I could get away for the day.  How far is Coldbrook from Zoo?  Realistically, what time would things wrap up on Saturday?

[tacimala]

You're about 15-20 away from Coldbrook then depending on where you are in Kzoo Dave. Realistically, it's a full day of golf, which is why he starts really early. You won't finish playing until about 30-45 minutes before dusk. After awards and stuff it's normally dark from what I remember of the many times I've played the tourney. I agree with everything else Bruce had to say except about the trophies. As far as custom trophies are concerned, they are pretty slick. Oh and he also has a keg of beer each day donated from Bell's, which is a benefit to some people that like beer.

[Chainmeister]

Tayler, I like beer and I like Bells.  The show is at 8pm.  Its doable but will mean convicning my better half to leave Illinois at 5 am sharp and for me to blow off the social aspect of a visit to some good friends in Zoo.  That may not be realistic.  We'll see.  In any case, the vocal show at WMU looks great.

[tacimala]

My opinion is that you would be OK to make the 8pm show, but you'd have to hustle and miss the awards. I accept no responsibility though!

edit: oh and you'd probably have to leave earlier than 5am considering you lose an hour on the way there. Evanston to Coldbrook with a stop to drop your wife off I'd plan for 3 hours travel time, 4 with the hour lost.

[Bruce Brakel]

I have to pace myself, Taylor.  If I say that Larry Labond's homemade trophies are pretty slick, I won't have enough room left on the scale of coolness to properly describe Tod More's DGLO trophies.     And besides, I have one of Larry's Cracked Plastic trophies on display in my office right next to one of my own Full Color Flashback trophies. My trophy gets all the compliments without the visitor knowing that I made it before I won it.  I would never describe my own trophy making skills as more than modest. 

[tacimala]

Congrats to Tom McManus for his 2nd place finish in AM2 and Jonathan Dobberstein for 3rd in AM1 at Cracked Plastic. Both took home some unique non-Bruce approved trophies.

[Bruce Brakel]

I did not play the Cracked Plastic because of my feet.

I did not post about the Lumberjack because the course has issues, and I did not know what Larry's plan was for all of the missing baskets and extra holes.  Larry had minions bring in 9 full weight temp baskets and the tournament was just fine.  The feet, not so fine.

March Mush at Sleepy Hollow is this weekend.  Kelsey and I plan on playing Intermediate on Sunday.  It is an MDGO featured event so the payouts should be about like an IOS.     Also, there'll be chances to win a berth to the State Championships.  It is a CCR event, so maybe there will be trophies or maybe not.     It is a Jaybird Players Series event, so there will be Jaybird dyed stuff, which i suppose is not the attraction it used to be. 

The course is delightful and it has at least one hole you've never played before, a basket on a narrow isthmus between two ponds.  A tricky downhill tunnel shot sets up a dangerous approach to the basket for a 3.  A 3 is a very good score on the hole.  I play for "4 and no lost discs" but some long throwers play for "4 and sacrifice a driver to the lake" by going over the top.  The rest of the course is a mix of wooded and more open holes with gentle up and down elevation changes.  It is a better course than any IOS course.  For a new course the design lacks length, but it is still a good course.

Sleepy Hollow is a state park, so there is some small gate fee if the ranger is there. 

[Bruce Brakel]

Sleepy Hollow was only a little muddy, and the rain in the second round was light and intermittant.  The TDs did a pretty good job of running the tournament except for a complete misstatement of the casual relief rule.  I argued in my group that we should play it by PDGA rules, unless someone wanted to take a provisional and find out afterwards whether the TDs really had PDGA permission for lateral relief. 

Kelsey played well for a girl who never gets to play, and beat the local pros in FPO.  She worked something out with the other women and turned down the cash.  I played poorly in in MA2 and finished out of the prizes.  Kira played great and finished 1 throw behind me, in MA2. 

[Bruce Brakel]

The No Foolin' is this weekend.

The Hudson Mills is a great disc golf facility.  Brett can attest to this as can many other Discontinuum members.  The park has two 24-hole courses with long and short concrete tees on every hole.  The courses offer every challenge except extreme elevation, but there is enough elevation that you would not call these flat courses.  There are no other park uses that seriously interfere with the disc golf courses.  The rollerbabe track comes close on one or two holes as does a nature trail. 

For the No Foolin' they might set up a whacky basket up in the trees or various man-made obstacles, but it's still disc golf.  Skills will win, and with two rounds of 24, the luck and tree love will even out most of the time.

Unfortunately, you just don't know what you're going to get on the tournament side in Ann Arbor.  The A3Disc guys used to run the No Foolin' as an unmitigated am-scam, like that guy that Jon does not like me to mention by name.  One year 8 intermediate women paid $30 each to play.  They got a Discraft D-disc for their $10 player pack and the winner was paid 8 Funny.  In more recent years the tournament has been run by people who either refuse to or are incaple of learning anything about how to run a tournament.  Sometimes I've waited two hours or more from the conclusion of the tournament until the start of awards.  Doing payouts in the dark with no plan for illumination seems to be a tradition.  The last two times I played this tournament, from start to finish the tournament process was totally FUBAR. 

This year I have a conflict.  If they've finally figured out how to run a fair value tournament in a competent manner, I won't know it. 

I'll say one nice thing: back when they were running the No Foolin' as an am-scam, they always put on a really nice show for the Great Lakes Open. 

Hudson Mills is in a MetroPark.  There is both a park entry fee and a disc golf fee.  Bohica.

[Tom McManus]

The No Foolin' is this weekend.

The Hudson Mills is a great disc golf facility.  Brett can attest to this as can many other Discontinuum members.  The park has two 24-hole courses with long and short concrete tees on every hole.  The courses offer every challenge except extreme elevation, but there is enough elevation that you would not call these flat courses.  There are no other park uses that seriously interfere with the disc golf courses.  The rollerbabe track comes close on one or two holes as does a nature trail. 

For the No Foolin' they might set up a whacky basket up in the trees or various man-made obstacles, but it's still disc golf.  Skills will win, and with two rounds of 24, the luck and tree love will even out most of the time.

Unfortunately, you just don't know what you're going to get on the tournament side in Ann Arbor.  The A3Disc guys used to run the No Foolin' as an unmitigated am-scam, like that guy that Jon does not like me to mention by name.  One year 8 intermediate women paid $30 each to play.  They got a Discraft D-disc for their $10 player pack and the winner was paid 8 Funny.  In more recent years the tournament has been run by people who either refuse to or are incaple of learning anything about how to run a tournament.  Sometimes I've waited two hours or more from the conclusion of the tournament until the start of awards.  Doing payouts in the dark with no plan for illumination seems to be a tradition.  The last two times I played this tournament, from start to finish the tournament process was totally FUBAR. 

This year I have a conflict.  If they've finally figured out how to run a fair value tournament in a competent manner, I won't know it. 

I'll say one nice thing: back when they were running the No Foolin' as an am-scam, they always put on a really nice show for the Great Lakes Open. 

Hudson Mills is in a MetroPark.  There is both a park entry fee and a disc golf fee.  Bohica.

I am pretty sure BOHICA is all caps.

[tacimala]

I agree with Bruce, Hudson Mills is sweet, but most tournaments run there are not (outside of DGLO). For those looking to do a road trip disc golf weekend in MI, I'm sure Bruce and I both can help you pick far better tournament experiences. If you are looking for tournament competition at a sweet course and aren't worried about the $$ side, this is a great event.

[Bruce Brakel]

Last I checked, Dayton was not in Michigan, but I would like to give two thumbs up to Holly Williams and the Dayton Disc Golf Club.  Some time ago I was talking to Holly at some tournament and he mentioned that his amateurs got pretty much the same deal as the IOS amateurs. 

Kelsey and I played his tournament this past weekend.  It was reasonably well run, but not quite an IOS.  On the operations side, the thing started 15 minutes late for no discernable reason.  In the afternoon, there were no names on the scorecard.  Since he had no non-playing tournament staff, they had to make their stacks o' plastic after the tournament was over, which added some delay.  These are all less than IOS standards.  He did a "card CTP hole" both rounds where hole 6 was the CTP hole and you were only competing against the group on your card.  It was the same value as an IOS CTP since both rounds it was a DX disc. 

The PDGA value was the same as an IOS but the player pack was "anyone of these four tournament stamped discs" and the payout was "stacks o' plastic."  Also, he was not selling discs for cash.  He basically buys what he'll need for a full field and then gives it out as prizes.  If he does not have a full field, leftovers become prizes for the unsanctioned series. 

Still, he did a pretty good job.  He was sufficiently fair to the amateurs and competent as a TD that I would recommend his tournaments to anyone who might be thinking of driving down to Dayton to play one. 

What?  Oh, this time of the year, it can be 15 degrees warmer in Dayton.  It was on Saturday. 

[Bruce Brakel]

The Flip City Open is this coming weekend. 

Many players regard Flip City as the best 24 hole course in Michigan.  It may be.  Par 72 is rated around 970, so it is the kind of course where par really means what par should mean.  The course has a fair number of birdies but many hard par 3s.  The course is very hilly and there are several uphill walks between holes making for many fun downhill drives.  I think the course has three holes, maybe four, where elevation is not a factor.  My only knock on the course is that there are only two or three lefty holes, but forehand thrower Mark Ellis loves the course, so it must be that there are only two or three righty holes too.  I once met a player who came up from Texas for the Flip City summer tournament and he said it was totally worth the drive. 

The Flip City Open is Northern Waters Series #1.  The NWS is like the IOS in that the tournaments have good stand-alone value.  There is not some huge cut going from the tournament to series overalls.  In the past the NWS have treated amateurs generously with pick-your-own-prizes and a decent merchastravaganza (TM). 

In the past the NWS has been a little funky on the tournament operations side of things.  Sometimes they start late for no discernable reason.  Frequently they have lacked a tournament volunteer to do the TD stuff and there has been a long wait at the end of the day.  Back in the day they played by a different set of rules from the rest of us, but TD Jeff Kuehle seems to have a good grasp of PDGA rules and procedures.  I think they have worked out a lot of the operational kinks.  But i'll find out this weekend.  Kira and I are pre-reged. 

Flip City is closer to Krupika and other southsiders than it is to us, actually.  It is only 90 miles or so from Manitowok, if you are a strong swimmer. 

Flip City is on private property.  There are no park police and disc golf heritage activities are common-place.  The PDGA alcohol and substance rules are enforced on a group-by-group basis, and Michigan has a medical marijuana law, so you cannot assume anyone's consumption is illegal.  I guess we need a medical beer rule too!   

You can pre-register and get more information at www.discgolfscene.com.

[Bruce Brakel]

Just a little Flip City update.  Saturday is 2/3rds full with about 30 players in MA3.  Sunday is 1/2 full with about 20 players in MA1.  There are enough MG1 and MM1s signed up that for sure there'll be a division for each. 

I'm signed up for MA2 but I might switch to MG1 or MPG. I guess we'll sign up for Sunday on Saturday if Kira wants to play both days. 

[smyith]

i thought the tournament at Flip was on May 29th? or am i think of a different tournament at the same course?

course is definitely! worth the drive for anyone thinking about it.

[Bruce Brakel]

May 29th is the next one after this one.  They do three or four sanctioned tournaments at flip City every year now.