Maple Hills Open, when golf is hard.

Maple Hills is a world class disc golf course, what this means for me is that even the easiest layout is hard for me. It is a hard day of golf where making mistakes more than not can not be recovered from without losing a stroke. I am not so sure I like this kind of golf, at least not often. I think I forgot how hard the course was in the two years since I last played it. I did the same thing for Calais VT last year and got there and realized "Gee I am really not enjoying this golf." So the question is should I not play those courses or should I suck it up and try to get better? Maybe go into those courses with lower expectation, or go practice at those courses prior to tournaments. What should be the commitment level if you are probably not going to enjoy the play?

At the time this weekend I was definitely in the headset that I would not play the course again until I couldn't remember how hard it is. Now a couple days later I think that those courses play a role in improving my play. Here I have a bad attitude that I have to overcome, the course is what the course is. It doesn't change so the change has to come from me. I have to play better or/and get my heads to a place where I can play effectively.

This weekend I did not play particularly bad, we played the red course first and I shot 58, five off the lead but I have to say John Fissel tore it up shooting 53, for -4. In the second round I shot a 67 on the white, my second best round on that layout but still +9 I think. I took second in a nine man field. Not bad, except for my attitude, although I did not complain during play I just was not having a good time. really shows how much work I have to do.

Us older guys keep having conversations about what is the correct division for us. Bill Dunne has been playing in the Am1 division and lately not placing very well. He was talking about moving back to the Advanced Masters division. I think this is totally acceptable. Last year he won six or so tourneys and the Finals Tourney but this was out of like 30. I don't think that was dominant, just very good. So what are the reasons for moving divisions? How much pressure should you let yourself feel?

- Rating - I really look at the PDGA ratings as a guide. I have found them to be very accurate in judging how well a player plays. In Bill's case he has somewhere around a 920 rating, still comfortably below the 935, lowest pro rating for Masters. There is no listed MAX rating under the Am Adv.Masters either so if you are content with the division then stay there. Am1 takes any rating but most of the 935+ players play in this division if they are not pro so it is a tough place for a 920 player to be. It can be a great test to move up to this division and then back to my own, see how I can do in a tougher division. Am2 is more my style, I think many times my scores would put me in 5-10th place in Am2.

- Winning too much - I don't know what to say about this other than I don't mind being beaten by better players. So whoever is in my division is who I am going to try to out perform on the day of the tournament. I absolutely would not allow the fact that I am playing well and winning force me to move into a division I can not compete in. I may do it for the challenge but I don't think there is such thing as "turns" when it comes to winning events. Some of us will rarely or never win a tournament, that is a fact so we have to deal with it.

How ever you approach moving back and forth in divisions one thing should be mandatory. Have a good attitude and treat you competitors with respect. I am always welcoming to anyone who wants to play Advance Masters, we have a really great group of guys playing in NEFA in this division and I look forward to seeing them each tournament. We all share a love for a great game that really is about individual challenge. We may compare scores but really any golf game is about the individual trying to execute the best they can. When it all works maybe you win, your game was on, you handled the pressure of competition and had the lowest scores. Some days it was just a tough day of golf, but you still got to hang out, shoot the shit and think about next time.