Tournament @Tully Lake

Yesterday I played my first NEFA tournament of the year. New England Flying Disc Association is a group that sponsors a point series in disc golf for all us Yanks. There have already been several in the series but this was the first one I played in. I need five decent finishes to make it to the Finals tournament in NEFA so I take these somewhat seriously.
It was a cool and rainy day, the temperature about 47 degrees and the rain light but persistent. My elbow has been bothering me so I got a brace for it making the throwing a bit easier. Still it was painful whenever I used force which is most throws. A side effect of the brace was that it constricted circulation so I had to keep taking it off between holes. It was also my first time at the Tully Lake dam. I walked the course, tossing a few before the contest started. At least I would know where I was going. The course is mostly wooded but with some open holes few and far between. Control was more important than distance as the underdeveloped fairways meant you were in big tangled trouble if you got off them.
In round one Tex Long and I started on hole 17, a short looper with lots of trees. Two guys on the card failed to show due to the fact they were assigned to two holes. We played 17, I had a three, my two bid deflected by a pine branch. On 18I had a nice drive through the pine filled fairway and pocketed an easy three. When we reached the first fairway there was a backup, so at this point the Tournament Director added a guy to our team, Justin as you are not allowed to have groups of two in tourney play. When finally we got to go on the wide open hole one I was nervous. It is a downhill shot with a tree in the middle and a lake on the left. You can anhyzer to the left or take the safer but round about route to the right. I took the safer route and nailed a beauty. unfortunately my second shot was week as I worried about the water behind the hole from where I putted and then had to take a four. Missed a put on hole 2 and took a four there also. Then I strung together 6 tyhrees in a row before Taking a four on the long hole 9. Hole ten is a down hill nightmare with just a dirt road to negotiate and steep drops to both sides. I laid out a first shot with a medius midrange, keeping it low and fading into the center of the road. Now I was looking downhill at a long ride to the hole. I used a sidewinder and laid down a great second shot. left it about 30 feet to the right of the basket. Still my putting range is not so great so I two putted for the four. Thing came apart from here on out, a 3 on 11 but then a horrible bounce off a tree on the unfair hole 12 and I played bonk the tree on the way to a 6. On another tree filled hole 13 I got a good drive and then made a long putt for a two. On 14 though I again had an awful drive and bounced around for another six., a five on the next hole and I was feeling pretty abused. Finished the last hole missing a two by a fraction and had a not so great round of 65. This put me at the bottom of the second card.
I rested listening to music beforte starting on hole 12 in the second round. Since I had a six here the first round I was determined to improve. I did on those four hole where in the first round I was 6-2-6-5 this round I started with 4-2-4-3 an improvement of 6 strokes. Overall in the second round I felt focused and sure I could do better than the first. although I had a few mistakes I felt I put together a good round at 62. Now getting off the second card and moving all the way up to tie for second was just what I needed to feel good about the day. I took $50 in funny money and went home with a smile. The winning score was this guy Paul Heaton who blistered the course and beat me by 13 throws. WOW!

RESULTS:

Pro Open
1 Jack Nickel 49 54 103 $250 -11
2 Greg Wintrob 51 53 104 $170 -10
3 Mike Dussault 50 55 105 $117 -9
4 James Lane 50 60 110 $85 -4
5 Jason Southwick 59 54 113 $65 -1
6T Larry “Bear” Dunn 58 56 114 0
6T Josh Rogers 56 58 114 0
8 Timothy E. Walsh 60 57 117 +3
9T Brian Harrington 58 61 119 +5
9T Gary Cyr 59 60 119 +5
9T Joe Yaskis 60 59 119 +5
12 Jerel Davis 61 61 122 +8
13 Phil Vilmorin 65 62 127 +13
14 Jay Ballard 65 68 133 +19

Pro Masters
1 Daniel Marcus 54 51 105 $185 -9
2 Jim O’Hara 55 60 115 $120 +1
3 Rick Belhumer 61 56 117 $85 +3
4 Davis Johnson 59 59 118 $60 +4
5 Brent Sanderson 58 62 120 +6
6T John Hart 61 62 123 +9
6T Sean Breslin 62 61 123 +9
8 Steve Ditter 63 61 124 +10
9 Dave Boliver 60 67 127 +13

Pro Grandmasters
1 Mike Connell 62 61 123 $80 +9
2 Bradley Arnall 60 64 124 $46 +10
3 Rick Williams 67 69 136 +22

Advanced
1 Matt Medeiros* 57 60 117 $180 +3
*Won sudden death playoff.
2 Mathew Heenan 57 60 117 $116 +3
3T Jasin Bayer 60 58 118 $63 +4
3T Chris Piaseczry 56 62 118 $63 +4
3T Eric Kaplan 59 59 118 $63 +4
3T Nic Willard 57 61 118 $63 +4
7T Kelly Conroy 60 64 124 $36 +10
7T Sandy Redd 64 60 124 $36 +10
9 Justin White 65 60 125 $30 +11
10 Andrew Streeter 63 63 126 $29 +12
11T Jeff Chauvin 67 60 127 $22.66 +13
11T Shaun LaForce 61 66 127 $22.66 +13
11T Clayton Davidson 71 56 127 $22.66 +13
14 Steve Solbo 65 63 128 +14
15 Mark Valis 65 64 129 +15
16T Drew Austin 59 71 130 +16
16T Robert Direnzo 66 64 130 +16
18T Mike Murphy 66 65 131 +17
18T Tushar Patel 70 61 131 +17
20 Chris Irvine 66 66 132 +18
21 Ian Thurston 71 65 136 +22
22 Nick Jennings 70 68 138 +24
23 Jon Duefield 70 73 143 +29

Advanced Masters
1 Paul Heaton 55 59 114 $105 0
2T John Holston 64 63 127 $61.50 +13
2T Ed Hovestadt 65 62 127 $61.50 +13
4 Craig Pizzotti 66 62 128 $38 +14
5T Seamus Scanlon 65 65 130 $30 +16
5T Chris Long 63 67 130 $30 +16
7 James Beaulieu 66 65 131 +17
8 John Vermynck 66 66 132 +18
9T Steve Guiliotis 65 68 133 +19
9T Gary Stansfield 66 67 133 +19
11 Paul Sullivan 63 71 134 +20

Advanced Women
1 Heather Eng 69 70 139 $29 +25
.
Intermediate
1 Mike Mason* 66 64 130 $85 +16
2 Derek Brazauskas 62 68 130 $50 +16
3 Greg Aucoin 70 61 131 $38 +17
4 Glenn Hulleck 77 71 145 +31
5 Eric Sandberg 80 78 158 +44
6 Josh Bergman 82 82 164 +50
*Won sudden death playoff.

Recreational
1 Bob Picard 70 71 141 $26 +27
2 Chris Carr 79 72 151 $16 +37
3 Ryan DiPrizio 78 76 154 +40