The "Beginners' League" at Watson Trail

[legendarydave]

AAAAaaaaargh!!! If I could somehow get there tomorrow and still be at work by 8 I would but I am quite sure that is an impossibility... I've told a few people how much fun it was (I honestly don't care how crappy my score was... I made a putt across a fn CANYON!) and I WILL be there on the 28th, retail schedules don't work very well with dg leagues...

[Stubborn Puppet]

Dave, if there are enough players there by 5:15 to start a card out, you can be done by 6:55 or 7:10 at the latest.

If you think that's enough time to get you through, show up and we'll see how it goes. At the worst, you don't finish for payout... but you're still eligible for CTP's and Ace Pool on the holes you do play.

By the way, that was a wicked 100'+ putt last week. You had a few really good long putt-ins.

[Stubborn Puppet]

GAME 12

Great weather and mild temperatures made for another fine evening of the Beginners' League. We had two brand new players in the league tonight, Matt Grogan and, hailing all the way from Milwaukee Wisconsin, in town for a visit and looking for a league, Bill Boppre. Thanks for coming!

We also got a visit from a local advanced level player, Alex Schimmelpfenning (Schimmy on these boards). He played a round with each card and was a big help as far as I'm concerned with some great advice on the right things at the right time. We really appreciate it Schimmy.

We played singles tonight
We put the CTP on hole 5.

Here's the breakdown:

6 players

The league balance was $90.22
Fees paid of $30
$18 towards payouts
$6 towards prizes and expenses
$6 towards the party
New league balance: Prizes and Expenses = $22.22 / Party = $80 Total = $102.22

After the scores were totaled, the field broke down into 3 divisions: Intermediate Beginners, Moderate Beginners and New Beginners. (Nobody beat par, so no advanced division)

Intermediate
Name, Score, Place, Payout
Daniel Doss, 56, 1st (won tiebreaker round), $12
Matt Grogan, 56, 1st (lost tiebreaker), -
Karl Schutte, 60, 2nd, -
Bill Boppre, 60, 2nd, -

Moderate
Name, Score, Place, Payout
Don Rush, 65, 1st, $3

New
Name, Score, Place, Payout
Dawn Hoog, 93, 1st, $3

No Aces were hit.

Matt hit the CTP on hole 5 with a super parking job - but, since you need to play 3 nights before CTP and Ace Pool eligibility, the actual prize will default to Karl, who also had a very nice shot.

I want to take a moment to apologize for my brain; I managed to forget to bring the league box to the park tonight, which contains all our normal paperwork, the league purse and our prizes. I don't know where my mind was. I'll be sure to have it next week.

Thanks all!

[Stubborn Puppet]

With the cloudy skies today comes the relief (even if slight) from the heat. Should be another fine day for the league.

I'm going to go ahead and throw the twist in to tonights league game: It's a "Putters Only" night.
Doesn't matter how many of them you want to carry, but we'll only throw putters. I think Schimmy displayed quite clearly last week that one can quite effectively play almost any hole with nothing more. I also expect that our scores will go down overall, especially by the second round... we'll see.

Still looking for some more local pros to come roll with us and help us improve our games.

See you there!

[legendarydave]

Poo! I'm gonna miss putter's only! sadface. gotta go get ready for work...

[Stubborn Puppet]

GAME 13

As predicted, we had nice mild temperatures for the league night. We didn't break a sweat once

The special rule for the night was "Putters Only" and, also as predicted, the scores were lower than usual. We even had many very close calls for aces.

We put the CTP on hole 3.

Here's the breakdown:

3 players

The league balance was $102.22
Fees paid of $15
$9 towards payouts
$3 towards prizes and expenses
$3 towards the party
New league balance: Prizes and Expenses = $25.22 / Party = $83 Total = $108.22

After the scores were totaled, the scores were low enough to put(t) us all into the Advanced division.

Advance
Name, Score, Place, Payout
Matt Grogan, 51, 1st, $9
Daniel Doss, 55, 2nd, -
Karl Schutte, 57, 3rd, -

No Aces were hit... but it was close. (what a shame it would be for the ace pool to be won while only 3 league players were running for it )

Karl had the CTP on hole 3 nailed with a very close parking space... until Daniel came along and stole it from him on the second round for his first CTP win of the league. He took home a nice new Soft Magic putter he's had his eye on for months.

All of that out of the way, I need to make a plea for some CTP donations. This normally shouldn't have been necessary, but the player turnout has been so low so far that the injection of cash hasn't been there to keep the river flowing. I still have some of those nice SuperColor discs from the St. Louis Open in the prize box, but I'd like to save those for special prizes and for games where we have a big turnout. A CTP prize donation can be anything that a disc golfer might like - doesn't even necessarily have to be a disc golf item. Of course, your unused extra discs are nice, but you might also consider things like windshield sun screens, retired disc bags (which aren't torn up), nice sealable beverage bottles, gift cards you never get around to using (which still have all the money on them), etc. Hey, use your imagination: think of things you might be considering putting in a garage sale, gifts you got for Christmas last year that you've never opened. One mans junk is another mans treasure and all those cliche's.

Thanks again folks, spread the word and see you next week... don't make me hunt you down

Thanks all!

[Stubborn Puppet]

I'm gonna throw this up here since I know some people check this more than they do email.

We've had questions from some Beginners' League players asking if we'll ever travel to other courses. I've always had to put that on the back burner because I work until 5pm and Watson Trail is the only park close enough to make it on time. However, two recent developments have prompted me to reconsider: The daylight runs until 8:30pm right now and the new course in Bridgeton just opened.

I'm looking to get some feedback from those league players who are planning on making it out this Thursday (June 28) on whether you would be interested in having the league at the new course in Carrollton Park in Bridgeton this week.

Let me know what you think. Whether the change of location would make you more or less likely to attend. Please just send me an email or a PM so we don't clutter up the forum with chatter.

At this point, attendance numbers are more important to me than anything else; we need to get more attendees and get the leagues purse money built back up a bit so we can get some more nice prizes and afford to swing that glow tournament and cookout.

Thanks all,

[legendarydave]

I can make it to bridgeton this thursday no prob... I played it today and it was AWESOME fun. (don't expect me to remember where any hole locations are though... you really would want to have a full page paper printout of the map) It would be cool to get some more 1st year players out there this thursday!

[Stubborn Puppet]

OK, looks like this is the plan then.

Please try to arrive by 5:20-5:30 this Thursday to find where the parking is and we'll need a little time to organize ourselves so we start on a hole that does not interfere with another league that has informed me they will be playing there Thursday as well. We aren't very many players and it shouldn't be an issue, but we'll still try to be as considerate and mindful of keeping the flow going for everyone.

Remember, this is just a one night thing. We'll return to Watson Trail the next week.

I do want to think about taking the league out a few other nearby courses over the next 6 weeks, while the extended daylight hours continue. Schroeder for sure, but I'm open to other suggestions.

[Stubborn Puppet]

GAME 14

This was the leagues first trip outside of Watson Trail. We played the new course in Bridgeton, Carrollton Park DGC (aka Suburbia ).

Overall, it was a good idea and a good experience. I think the course may have been a bit brutal on some of the players and an oversight on my part actually led to a couple of players getting left hanging and a few DNF's. David Meyr (and the new player you brought with you), I am sorry that I forgot to post that we would be meeting by holes 18 and 15 and you guys waited patiently over by 1 for a long time. I did try calling the phone number I have for you (which was apparently wrong) and I sent the info on parking by email, but forgot to put it in the forums. I made the assumption that more people read their email than come to the forums. My fault - we'll catch you next time I hope.

Regardless, it was encouraging that we had 8 players brave the heatwave to try something new. We ran all the way up to 8:45pm and still had light left to spare.

We were going to originally put the CTP on hole 17, but changed it to hole 12 after we started playing.

Here's the breakdown:

6 players (because of the two that got overlooked)

The league balance was $108.22
Fees paid of $30
$18 towards payouts
$6 towards prizes and expenses
$6 towards the party
New league balance: Prizes and Expenses = $31.22 / Party = $89 Total = $120.22

After the scores were totaled, we ended in 4 actual divisions: Advanced, Moderate, New and DNF(did not finish). I'm dividing the payout money from the DNF's into the other 3 divisions.

Advance
Name, Score, Place, Payout
Matt Grogan, 69, 1st, $6

Moderate
Name, Score, Place, Payout
Daniel Doss, 80, 1st, $6

New
Name, Score, Place, Payout
Stephen Schulte, 69, 1st, $6

DNF
Scott Schulte
Don Rush
Tom Coleman

No Aces were hit... but it was close on hole 6, really close.

Stephen snagged the CTP on hole 12 with a nice clean Buzzz shot that could have been an ace run - if it weren't for that last little tree in front of the basket. He walked off with a custom supercolor Buzzz from the 2012 St. Louis Open.

Thanks again everyone, we'll be back at Watson Trail to recover next week for Game 15. If we get at least 8 players, we'll make it a random-draw doubles night.