KC Wide Open Road Report

[Parkntwoputt]

After a grueling 12 hour drive and a stop in Nashville to play Cedar Hill DGC (a highly recommended play) Randy Fortenberry and I arrived at the hotel in KC at 10pm.

The tournament starts Friday morning with two rounds at Water Works Park.
Saturday morning we will play two rounds at Rosedale Park.
Sunday morning, tee time start at Blue Valley long course, this course is the longest disc golf course in the world at a hair over 11,000ft. The shortest hole is around 380ft. And of course, we are only doing one round at this course. The amateurs are playing completely different courses the we are for the weekend, and they do not start until Saturday morning.

Tomorrow we are heading out to practice at Blue Valley and hopefully Water Works, as Rosedale is considered the "pitch-n-putt" course at 6300ft, and is the easiest. So if we do not practice Rosedale, it would hurt us the least. All three courses are a long arms dream as described to me, requiring long accurate drives off the tee box with a putter approach shot following, there are no real midrange holes to be had.

With this being an NT event, our scores will be posted regularly at www.pdga.com but I will try to keep an updated log going with how things are shaping up aside from round ratings.

Former Birmingham Disc Golfer Ben Long (time) is signed up for the event as well.

Kris

[Justin L]

Cool man, that long course sounds fun. I'll have to get up there and give it a try sometime. Is that a permanent course or a temp/gold config?

[Parkntwoputt]

Practice rounds today with check in.

Looks like the open division is shaping up to be a very competitive field. (Maybe I can place in the top 50%)

We started out the morning at Water Works Park, definitely a must play if you are in Kansas City. Hot rounds in the longs can be as low as -8, but anything under par is competitive. #1 tees off at 508ft, but it is a 30ft drop in elevation so a Buzz/Roc can get you there. I hit an early tree and left myself 100ft short with an XL. Throwing a midrange is work but it is do-able.

I will explain Blue Valley after Rosedale.


We checked in at Rosedale (I hope the payout is great because for $143 we got no players pack). Chad Smith from Huntsville, so the Alabama crew is representing, except for Deano who decided to skip the NT for a C-Tier in Kentucky.

Rosedale is basically on top of a hill, anything off of the fairway goes down a cliff. But it is an easily playable course. It is worth coming out to, but don't play Rosedale down under, unless you want to throw 150ft turnovers through thick woods.

Now on to Blue Valley. Officially 10,790ft. Basically, you start out on #1, which in the book states 816ft, but they added a new longer placement at 1200ft.:eek: But basically you throw 500ft uphill, then turn right and throw 300-400ft. Par has to be near 72, anything under 70 is going to be hot. We played holes 1-13 and I was only +5 on par (54), so I was doing really good. The rest of the holes were basically hyzers up or down hill.

The best hole in our opinion was #7. 760ft, downhill about 50ft and OB on the right, it had about a 100ft wide open fairway. We had a $50 bounty on the deuce. I had the longest drive with the easiest 3 with a 550ft drive.

I will update tomorrow night, hopefully I will get in the top 1/2.

[Parkntwoputt]

We started out at the easiest course of the three we are playing this weekend. Water Works is a very hilly course where elevation changes drastically on every hole. To start the round the wind picked up to about 15mph, with the elevation added, some holes we were throwing completely down hill into an uphill headwind. Here are the individual stories, as I know them.

Dan Bradley – (A Daniels employee and my co-worker in DC) In past years, coming off of the first round typically in the past he has been in the lead card. This year he has shot his “worst rounds ever” at Water Works and cannot recall his second round score, but says it is really bad.

Randy Fortenberry – Who wishes not to be mentioned in the road report, had an uncharacteristically bad putting round missing almost every putt he had for deuce. This hurt because there were some holes which a 4 was very very possible.

Ben Long – Well, he showed up.

Chad Smith – Came back with a –3 in the second round to put him up near the top of the division today.

Matt Orum – Matto was doing really well the first round, but due to being sick prior to the morning tee off suffered from dehydration and heat exhaustion and was removed from the course via ambulance. We all are hoping the best for Matto and hopes he can come back for the Saturday rounds.

Kris Allen – First round was the round of no putting. Luckily I got my wish and was able to play with a top pro the first round off the random draw and played with Tulsa’s Kevin McCoy. It was an enjoyable round I did not play terribly, but in true fashion I was missing putts low and left. Finally on the 2nd to last hole McCoy told me I was leaning my weight back on my stance and throwing off my balance. I switched it up and was actually able to make putts. As for the second round I was driving better and putting better, but most of my drives were leaving me with 30-35ft. Even while I was feeling confident with my putt, having a 30ft putt with a steep slope, cliff or OB within 10ft of the pin, it was hard to go for long putts. On my last hole of the round, it was 485ft with a slight down hill, OB road 10ft behind the pin, I placed my drive just inside the circle, but with a headwind, downhill OB putt, I slid my putter under the basket for the easy three. It seems that smart golf is the key, but the deuce holes must be had in order to succeed.


Everyone here is disheartened with their play, but this is a five round tournament so anything can happen. We are all looking forward to the next rounds, and with Blue Valley being an 11,000ft Par 70 course, anything can happen.

[Parkntwoputt]

Today we played the very unforgiving Rosedale Park on the south side of Kansas City in Kansas. Basically the course is straightforward and simple. The hard part is that the greens are all located next to cliffs, dropping down into an area known as the “down-under”, the down-under is a pitch and putt woods course that is located about 50 vertical and 10 lateral feet from the top course. Rosedale is difficult there are 4 par 4’s making the course a par 58 layout in the long pins, anything under par is considered good because deuces are very well earned.

Dan Bradley – Dan came back and shot fairly well today, he finally got back onto his game and shot a 989 rated second round at par.

Randy Fortenberry – After struggling the first round at 63, he fought through a mental break down to come back shooting par 58. The pro in him finally surfaced after two rounds.

Ben Long – Shot better then yesterday, he was at least happy at the end of this day.

Chad Smith – Felt disappointed only shooting dual 59’s. This is the type of course where on each hole it is very possible to get a 3, but also realistic that a 4 can happen, on those types of holes, the 4 means you flubbed up one shot by a small margin, so it is very heart breaking.

Matt Orum – Showed up at the course today, but did not play as he is still recovering. It was good to see him doing well.

Kris Allen – I was told today that I should never play in another Amateur tournament. :D I shot a 62 and a 60. The 62 I was actually happier with because I worked and struggled for it. However the 4th round, I was killing drives off the tee box, placing them perfectly right where I wanted them. But as most holes were just out of range, I had to rely on my approaching to get me to the pin. Well, the approach failed me leaving me with 9 35ft putts. Basically with the way I played today, if I had made my approaches at an acceptable level, I would have been shooting dual 54’s at least. It was a disappointing day for me. – Special just for Jeremy Drake!!!! On a 360ft straight hole, we had a massive crosswind. I take up the Avenger that you give me, and throw a slow hyzer at the pin. The disc skips about 70ft shy of the basket and lands dead on top of the rim of the basket, it wobbles back and forth before finally falling outside the basket. :p

Tomorrow’s round is at the monster Blue Valley; the Professional divisions are starting off with tee times with the Grandmasters teeing off first, the top card of Open Men and Open Women teeing off last in a showcase round. I have heard that par is anywhere between 70 and 73, but shooting under 70 is considered hot. The unofficial course record is 68, due to this being the first tournament played on the course.

I may not get a chance to write the report for tomorrow, I will try to get at it Monday evening.

["Tiger"]

lol, welcome to my world :D

[drdisc]

Hang in there Kris, it's just another round on Sunday.
________
latin girl Cam (http://www.girlcamfriend.com/webcam/latin-girls/)

[Parkntwoputt]

Sunday Morning started off with tee times. Ben Long, who had depended on other people and a bicycle for rides to the courses failed to show up for his tee time this morning. Dan Bradley teed off at 8:57am and Randy and I teed off at 9:23.

Major thunderstorms flooded the KC area last night and early in the morning today dumping as much as one inch of rain in some areas, one of those was Blue Valley. With brand new tee pads there was thick mud around all of the smooth concrete tees. We watched two people slip and shank their drives into another fairway off of hole #1. So for the first 6 holes of the round, it was dangerous and sketchy to drive. There was only one hole under 400ft, and that was 380ft uphill! I only teed off using two discs the entire round with exception to Hole #9. On hole #9 I used a champion Beast so I can get the massive 420ft anhyzer turnover that was needed to position your self on the 950ft par 5, dogleg right (which I was the only one in the group to take a 4, of course I was the only on in the group on #10 to take a 4 on the 450ft uphill par 3). The other two discs I used were the CFR Wraith and the Star Tee Rex. Some of you may think that having to throw 500ft crushing drives on every hole would get boring, but when those are up or down hill and around trees and OB it makes placement all that more important. UAH pales in difficulty but is equal in fun. Basically, throwing 400ft (hole #5 short at George Ward) meant nothing in KC, getting the designed birdies meant 500ft accurate crushes. Man it was fun.

In a tournament round, playing at a slower tournament pace, Blue Valley was not that difficult to finish. Of course, it was 75 degrees when we teed off, and had a high of 85 for the day, the weather this weekend was great for golfing. Steady 15 mph winds made you think about what you needed to throw but did not drastically affect play or make anything harder or easier.

But the beast of Blue Valley claimed the best of us today. Randy and Dan both came in with 71’s and I shot a 72. On a course where there are 4 par 5’s it is hard to keep track of where you were at in the round. Going into the 17th hole, I was thinking I was on pace to shoot an 80, but instead I was sitting at 63, and #17 even at 856ft was an easily three-able par 4. In front a 20-person gallery I missed a 40ft putt about a half an inch low. Then laid up for an easy par 5 on the finishing monster #18.

It was a good tournament overall, I would definitely like to see a three round, three day tee time tournament at just Blue Valley. This course tests all aspects of your golf game, forget the fact that the holes are insanely long, distance means nothing if you cannot make a fairway or sink a putt looking down a steep hill.

Randy is “happy” to break his streak of being one out of cash by finishing way out of the cash. I say I shot alright, but by having 3 out of my 5 rounds 40 points above my player rating and the other two 15-20 points over, Randy says I shot extremely well, and wants me to drop out of Am Worlds and go to Pro Worlds, maybe next year at Highbridge you will see me at Pro Worlds. We are guessing that our 71’s and 72 are rated 955 and 948 respectfully. When we left, half the field was still out, and at 6:15pm when this was written on the road, the scores had not been updated. Plus, it is hard to get a wireless signal when you are traveling at 75mph.

Well, I hope you have enjoyed reading this, has I have enjoyed writing it. It makes me still feel like part of the club in some way. I might play in one of the Charlotte Point Bonanza tournaments this coming weekend, and yes since they are small one day C-tiers I will be playing open. I will keep in contact through the message board and call you guys when I am back in town.

-Later

[drdisc]

Great reports Kris. Hope you have a safe trip up tomorrow. You will be missed by all of us and we hope that everything works out on the new job. Maybe you can bump that player rating up to 1,000 by Worlds.
________
Peak Towers Condominium Pattaya (http://pattayaluxurycondos.com)