Registration & the Players Package

Well, I am once more impressed by the PDGA staff. As Sheila and I waited in line, I was able to watch staffer Addie Isbell talk using sign language with one of the large contingent of PDGA members who are deaf disc golfers.

Players Package

First of all, Sheila is always impressed when the women actually get women's shirts! Yay!


The following image is of the contents of my players package. It includes (below image):

A $50 FunJet discount coupon;

• A drawing coupon for a DGA MachLite basket;
• Two coupons for discounts at a local bricks and mortar chain which carries disc golf supplies, Laacke & Joys;
• A free Combo Meal coupon from Cousins subs;
• A cell phone deal brochure;
• A courses map and driving directions;
• A Discs Unlimited fridge magnet;
• A DGA brochure;
• An Innova bumper sticker;
• A DGA bumper sticker;
• A Worlds "Player Course Caddy" ring-bound, hole by hole guide;
• A copy of Disc Golf Magazine;
• A DGA Rogue;
• A Discraft "Midnight" Avenger;
• An Innova fist run Star CRO;
• A Lifetime Disc Sports microfiber towel;
• An Am Worlds pin;
• A Revolution disc golf bag; and
• An ID badge on a fiber neck band.

Don't you wish you were here?

And, here's your Worlds TD, Terry Miller. I wonder if he'll have this much energy left a week from now?

Sunday Morning, Early

My favorite thing to do at a good hotel is wake up early and soak in the hot tub with a good book. That's how this morning got started (see below; note the disc golfer's "tan").


The book, begun last night but not finished until this morning, is a fiction titled In Secret Service by Mitch Silver. Pretty good, actually. Set in modern times, the premise is that Ian Fleming's friends' grand-daughter receives a deadly political manuscript that Fleming set aside for her 40 years previously in a safety deposit box of an Irish bank that is going under. A nice mix of actual biographic history and fiction.

Shortly, we will check in and then go play a round at Dineen. Then we'll compete in the EDGE Skill Shot competition. Did I mention that I won the Am world title at that in 2004, in Des Moines? :)

Later, I will photograph and share the contents of that player's package that Terry Miller is so excited about!

Below, Sheila was "pool jogging" while I read.

Dretska New

Okay, so Sheila, Ben, and I went to Dretzka and played the "new" course. At the tee, we met up with Arthur Pengally and a buddy of his from his home town in New Zealand, "Des" (short for Desmond and pronounced "Diz"). After we played one hole, we were joined by fellow Michigander and 15-year-old phenom, Ziggy.

If you haven't seen this course yet, it's pretty short, with only three holes that even my weinie arm could not possibly birdie. OB comes into play a couple of times and most holes have some trees on them, but only 3 or 4 have real woods. On several of the ~300' holes the ceiling is low enough to make rollers a pretty decent first choice shot.

Ben claims to have shot -11, but I don't know how well he could have possibly kept score. On the last couple of holes - it was dusk - we got pretty punchy and were trying various left-handed throws. It was pretty funny to see Ben and Ziggy attempt left-handed forehand shots; Ziggy's kept going behind him.

This is going to be a fun week.

Not the PGA!

We're here at the tournament central hotel and we met up with Ben. As I was returning the luggage cart from our room - 322 - to the front desk, a fellow chatted me up in the elevator. He said: "You're with the tournament, eh?" (I am wearing a PDGA shirt.)

I said, "Yes," and added, "I just arrived."

He looked at me funny and said, "I thought the tournament was almost over."

I said, "Nope. Singles competition starts on Tuesday."

He just looked at me funny and avoided eye contact the rest of the way down.

Turns out that there is a PGA tournament in town - the US Bank Championship. And the parking lot is full of a lot of official Buicks.

At the desk, this really fit looking guy in what I thought was an Innova shirt waved in my direction. I waved back and he looked right past me at a blonde who asked him, "How'd you play today." He said, "Shitty." Sorry for him, whoever he was, but I bet he did not have as much fun as we're going to.

Chicago!

Hell on wheels. Nasty traffic, construction, and constant toll booths with signage created as an afterthought. Geez. Nothing like this kind of driving to remind you of how it is we're killing people in Iraq. Dubya isn't that much more of an ignorant, thoughtless, and greedy president than some of these people are drivers.

We're pretty much past it now, about to leave the conjoined 90/94 and strike off to the North on Edens Expressway, I-94.

Dineen

Well, I took another look at the map (PDF) and I guess Dineen is pretty open.

In this YouTube interview of Barry Schultz from last year, he notes the openness of Dineen, but also says there are enough trees to make you think, and that the "slopes" will come into play regularly as well. I'm glad to hear that Dineen has some elevation.

As for distance, the PDGA Course Directory says that there are 7 holes under 300', 7 between 300'-400', and 4 over 400'. Doesn't sound too long, to me, but perhaps it is set in a longer version for Worlds: "Tyranny of the Big-Arms?"

On Our Way

We left Ann Arbor two hours ago, about 11:30 am. Not the quickest of trips so far, as we've only traveled about 90 miles. Just had a long slowdown due to a multiple car accident that was being cleared off of I-94 between Battle Creek and Kalamazoo.

Ben called a while ago. He's on his way to Pro Worlds and has reached Milwaukee and will stay with us tonight. He's played several courses since he left Ann Arbor on Friday morning and wanted to check into our hotel early, but the earliest check in is at 3, so he went out to play another round.

Confusingly, Ben reports Dineen to be a "long and open course," even though the course maps don't indicate that. If it is, I can only hope (Sheila, too) that the grass is cut short enough to let our rollers make a difference!

Okay, what's a blog without pictures, eh? I just snapped this one of Sheila with my Treo 650. At the time, we were pretty much driving past Kalamazoo, the site of the combined Pro/Am 2008 PDGA Worlds.

I did roll over and compromise with Sheila. Instead of the '63 Corvair convertible, we're driving the 2000 Suburban. Her concerns were that the Corvair might have problems. Reasonable, I guess, but (almost) hilarious in that the Suburban has developed a nice, loud vibration at anything over 50 mph in the last 30 minutes. We stopped and checked the tires - they weren't particularly hot (the one by the exhaust was the hottest) and nothing was touching them.

But we have our fingers crossed and aren't going over 70. So I am letting Sheila drive until we get close to Chicago. Then I will switch over so that I can be at the wheel for the aggressive driving part of the trip.

More later.