The "Beginners' League" at Watson Trail

[Stubborn Puppet]

I am cancelling the league game for tonight - due to the heat, of course.

Sorry for the shortish notice, but I was hoping that there might be some sign of clouds or wind that might lower the temps below 100°, but it's supposed to be 102° until after 6pm. That's just too hot and nobody could be expected to show.

Hope this isn't too much of a disappointment. Maybe it's actually a relief.

We'll hope for better next week.

[Stubborn Puppet]

This Thursday's game is definitely on. If the rest of you are like me, I can't wait - it's been two full weeks since my last game of DG.

See you all at 5:15

[Stubborn Puppet]

Nice turnout tonight for Game 15

Really is neat to see five new players in one night. Welcome to Nick Rongey, Steven Couch, Matt Jaeggi, Chris Lee and Mark Goldkehl. (please email me if I spelled anyone's name wrong or if you didn't get the email) You guys made a fine addition to the field and really challenged the divisional splits.

We stuck with the singles format due to having and odd number of players. Just one more person and we can start rotating the random draw doubles format in here.

We put the CTP on hole 9. Prize was "players choice" from the prize box.

Here's the breakdown:

9 players

The league balance was $120.22
Fees paid of $45
$27 towards payouts
$9 towards prizes and expenses
$9 towards the party
New league balance: Prizes and Expenses = $40.22 / Party = $98 Total = $138.22

After the scores were totaled, we ended with only 2 divisions: Intermediate and Moderate.

Intermediate
Name, Score, Place, Payout
Mark Goldkehl, 55, 1st, $14
Wendell Ferger, 56, 2nd, $7
Daniel Doss, 58, 3rd, -
Nick Rongey, 59, 4th, -
Karl Schutte, 61, 5th, -
Steve Couch, 61, 5th, -
Matt Jaeggi, 63, 6th, -

Moderate
Name, Score, Place, Payout
Cassidy (Kid) Thomas, 68, 1st, $6
Chris Lee, 69, 2nd, -

No Aces were hit.

Daniel hit the CTP on hole 9 in a huge upset for Wendell, who was only about 2ft. from the basket, by landing an ace run just 1inch from the post.

As a reminder, I still have some pending payouts for several players. If you're not coming back to league, that's cool - call, pm or email me and we can arrange a time to get it to you.

Again, very nice to meet and play with everyone, especially after the two weeks of unbearable heat that canceled last weeks game. See you next week!

EDITED: I accidentaly added an extra 1 to the previous league balance - we certainly never had $1120.

[Stubborn Puppet]

GAME 16

A big thanks to all of you who, like me, have just had enough of avoiding disc golf because of the heat and came out to play anyhow. All in all, the temperature wasn't bad in the shade and, by the second round, we got a nice breeze to help out.

We welcomed two more new players to the league tonight, Tim Witzig and Adam Witzig.

We stuck with the singles format again, due to having an odd number of players.

We put the CTP on hole 2. Prize was "players choice" from the prize box.

Here's the breakdown:

7 players

The league balance was $138.22
Fees paid of $35
$21 towards payouts
$7 towards prizes and expenses
$7 towards the party
New league balance: Prizes and Expenses = $47.22 / Party = $105 Total = $152.22

After the scores were totaled, there were three divisions: Advance, Moderate and New

Advanced
Name, Score, Place, Payout
Mark Goldkehl, 52, 1st, $3

Moderate
Name, Score, Place, Payout
Daniel Doss, 56, 1st, $15
Drew Thompson, 59, 2nd, -
Adam Witzig, 61, 3rd, -
Cassidy Thomas, 63, 4th, -
John Renteria, 66, 5th, -

New
Name, Score, Place, Payout
Tim Witzig, 70, 1st, $3

No Aces were hit.

Mark got the CTP on hole 2, which is a pretty tough shot, and took home a Supercolor Buzzz from this years St. Louis Open.

It looks like it's going to be another really hot week next week... but I'll be sure to be there anyhow. Hopefully the upward attendance trend will continue!

See you next week...

[Stubborn Puppet]

GAME 17

Nice, cooler temperatures, welcome cloud cover and a mild breeze made for the perfect summertime DG game this Thursday. Those of you who sat this one out really missed an absolutely ideal game.

Singles was the format and we put the CTP on hole 5. Prize was "players choice" from the prize box.

Here's the breakdown:

4 players

The league balance was $152.22
Fees paid of $20
$12 towards payouts
$4 towards prizes and expenses
$4 towards the party
New league balance: Prizes and Expenses = $51.22 / Party = $109 Total = $160.22

After the scores were totaled, there were three divisions: Advance, Moderate and New

Advanced
Name, Score, Place, Payout
Matt Grogan, 48, 1st, $3 (what the heck Matt - that is a great score for Watson Trail - 5 birdies per round)

Moderate
Name, Score, Place, Payout
Daniel Doss, 60, 1st, $6
Don Rush, 63, 2nd, -

New
Name, Score, Place, Payout
Steve Couch, 68, 1st, $3

No Aces were hit.

Don got the CTP on hole 5 with a very slick shot and clean landing right next to the pin. Took a sexy feeling, orange supersoft Wizard home with him.

Keep spreading the word about the league. I can give you flyers to hand out or hang at your favorite courses to help. Remember, the more people play, the more money we have for your payouts, CTP prizes and a banging good end of league party and glow round on Nov. 1

See you next week...

[Stubborn Puppet]

Looking forward to tonights game... I am going to see if I can find the time to set up a basket between 7 and 8 so we can use it to replace hole 9 while the landscaping improvements at that part of the course continue. If I can get it done, we'll shoot that temp hole as 8 and throw from 8's tee to 9's basket. I think that'd make everyone pretty happy.

No promises, but I'll sure try.

See you out there!

[Stubborn Puppet]

GAME 18

Again with Thursdays smiling on the Beginners' League by giving us yet another break in the heat. Great breeze, cooler temps and an unusually empty park. Good times.

We welcome another new player to the league tonight, Katie Grogan. It was nice to play with you.

I brought out my portable basket and put it on the lawn between basket 7 and tee 8 to make a very nice hole that was about 270', slightly uphill and narrowed in to a somewhat skinny putting green surrounded by OB pathways. This allowed us to skip hole 9 while the landscaping improvements across holes 8 and 9 continue to progress. So, we played the temp hole as hole 8 and played from 8's tee to the normal 9 basket. This worked out well.

Here's the breakdown:

5 players

The league balance was $160.22
Fees paid of $25
$15 towards payouts
$5 towards prizes and expenses
$5 towards the party
New league balance: Prizes and Expenses = $56.22 / Party = $114 Total = $170.22

After the scores were totaled, we were all spread pretty far apart and there were four divisions: Advance, Intermediate, Moderate and New

Advanced
Name, Score, Place, Payout
Matt Grogan, 51, 1st, $3

Intermediate
Name, Score, Place, Payout
Mark Munter, 55, 1st, $6
Daniel Doss, 57, 2nd, -

Moderate
Name, Score, Place, Payout
Cassidy Thomas, 64, 1st, $3

New
Name, Score, Place, Payout
Katie Grogan, 83, 1st, $3

No Aces were hit.

Mark got the CTP on the temp hole 8 with a trick bank-shot off the maintenance fence and back in bounds to lie up for an easy birdie. He grabbed a St. Louis Disc Golf Club bag patch.

Fun round everybody, keep coming back!

[Stubborn Puppet]

GAME 19

So, do I really need to point out that Thursdays' weather is the best? I've said it like a dozens times now

We welcome another new player to the league tonight, Mark Factor. I'll tell you what, this guy whips one deadly fast forehand - trees beware, he's coming to bring you down.

I brought out my portable basket again this week and put it on the lawn between basket 7 and tee 8 to make a very nice hole that was about 270', slightly uphill and narrowed in to a somewhat skinny putting green surrounded by OB pathways. We're still trying to stay off the fairway for hole 9 while the landscaping improvements across holes 8 and 9 continue. We play the temp hole as hole 8 and played from 8's tee to the normal 9 basket. Lot's of good comments about how much better that whole section of the course feels and flows. No fancy bank shots off the fence this time though

Here's the breakdown:

6 players

The league balance was $170.22
Fees paid of $30
$18 towards payouts
$6 towards prizes and expenses
$6 towards the party
New league balance: Prizes and Expenses = $62.22 / Party = $120 Total = $182.22

With everyone playing for tags (since we all remembered to bring them this time ), things got pretty competitive and we landed in a couple of very tight score ranges, leaving us with only two divisional splits, Intermediate and Moderate

Intermediate
Name, Score, Place, Payout
Matt Grogan, 55, 1st, $12
Mark Munter, 57, 2nd, -
Daniel Doss, 57, 2nd, -
John Renteria, 59, 3rd, -

Moderate
Name, Score, Place, Payout
Scott Schulte, 72, tie for 1st, ($6)
Mark Factor, 72, tie for 1st, ($6)

Scott S. and Mark F. will have to play a tiebreaker on the hole 1 tournament tee next week... unless only one of them shows up, in which case it defaults to that person. If neither, then it goes to whoever shows up for the next game.

No Aces were hit, but Matt was on a mission over at hole 6 with two very close ace runs on that very well protected basket.

Scott picked up his first CTP on the hole 4 with a pretty nice parking job that he humbly claimed wasn't a very good shot. Whatever Scott. He took home a Hybrid from Gateway (kindly donated to the league by Matt Grogan).

Great game guys, can't wait for next week.

[Stubborn Puppet]

Just a bump to remind everyone about tonights league game.
We're still interested in getting some local pro's and veteran players out to play along side, for free, to help us all improve our game. It'd be much appreciated.

Anyhow, 5:15 at tee 1.

[Stubborn Puppet]

GAME 20

To all of you who skipped because you were afraid of a little rain (yup, that's a raspberry). The rain decided to part for us. Seriously, it rained before we got there, stopped when we arrived and waited to start again until after we were leaving the park. That meant a cool and pleasant round with the course almost all to ourselves.

Don Rush brought us another new player to the league tonight, Travis Williams. This guy has a bright future ahead of him in disc golf. This was only his second ever game of DG and he was mostly hitting par on every hole. Sure, he found a few rough spots that dragged his score down a bit, but I've never seen a player throw that consistently this early.

Here's the breakdown:

3 players

The league balance was $182.22
Fees paid of $15
$9 towards payouts
$3 towards prizes and expenses
$3 towards the party
New league balance: Prizes and Expenses = $65.22 / Party = $123 Total = $188.22

The game ended leaving two divisions: Intermediate and New Players

Intermediate
Name, Score, Place, Payout
Daniel Doss, 61, 1st, $3

New
Name, Score, Place, Payout
Don Rush, 70, 1st, ($6)
Travis Williams, 71, 2nd, -

No Aces were hit

CTP was on hole 8, Daniel landed it.

Let's please try to get some respectable attendance next week folks. Tell me what reasonable thing I can do for you that'll make it more appealing. Spread the word.

I'm planning a trip to Johnny Mac's this weekend to pick up something for some CTP prizes and I'd like your requests. What can I buy that you'd really like to see? Think in the $20 and below range...