Weekend of Playing Pro

Its been awhile but since I ran into Gags and Arty at Tully this weekend and they mentioned they have read this blog I thought I would make an effort to add to it. In preparation for AmWorlds just two weeks from now I have been busy on the practice field. Most non raining days I have spent an hour or two putting and approaching in the field by my house. On the weekends I have tried to play rounds and this weekend played two tournaments as a Pro player. In both cases the events were neither PDGA or NEFA sanctioned but both were a lot of fun.
On Saturday was the North East Masters & Legends tournament at Tully Lake in Royalston MA. Playing in the Pro Masters division I was not horrible. Yes I came in 8th of eight players in the division but even so I feel I played well. I had not played the Tully course since 2008 and it has improved considerably since then so head up and play it if you are reading this. A mix of fields and woods withelevation changes & strong breezes coming off the lake at time it is both challenging and fun. I shot a 63 in the first round and definately made some mistakes but even so it was the third best tourney score I have posted on the course. the second round 58 was my personal best. So like I said even though I was not competition for my fellow Pro Masters I did play well.

Results for the 1st Annual Masters and Legends of Disc Golf Event
44 Total Players

Adv Masters 13
1.Mark Goldstein 117
2.John Britton 118
3.John Rodenhizer 121
4.Isaac Boomberg 122
5.Guy Lyman 124
5..GAGS 124
6..Keith Clark 125
7..Arty 125
8.Mark Brenn 127
9.Mike Clark 138
10.Chris "O" 139
11.Bob Brown 143
12.Mark Chapalonis DNF Emergency


Pro Masters 8
1.Tim Jiardini 50,52 102
2.Marcus 54,55 109
3.Greg Wintrob 56,54 110
4. Mikey D 53,58 111
5.Johnny MAC 112
6.James Pinnacle 116
7.George Economos 120
8.ED HOV 121

Adv Grand Masters 9
1.Karl Molitoris 111
2.Jullien Birch 125
3.Ken Dawson 126
4.Mike Siamond 128
4.Johnny Holston 128
5.Terry Chapalonis 134
6.Kevin McCormick 135
7.Bob Penney 141
8.Alan Thresher 144

Pro Grand Masters 6
1.Kurtz 113
2.Ken Gary 122
3.Kevin Rounds 123
4.Rick Williams 68,61 129
5.Steve Hartwell 66,65 131
6.Stephen Vardin 171

Senior Grand Masters 4
1.Phil Kennedy 139
2. Jimmy K 144
3.Denny Barrows 154
4.Steve Walker 156

Adv Lady Masters 2
1.Jeannie Helseth 138
2.Sunni Lyman

Pro Lady Masters 1
1.Rachael Economos 179

Pro Lady Grand Masters 1
1. Joy Hartwell 148


Part of playing the tournament was that it was a course that I had not seen in a while. Since the Am Worlds is going to be a similar experience I thought the lead in tourneies show be on courses that I play rarely. I am hoping this will prepare me for making shots instead of playing familiar course. Last weekend with Sister Lee and her fiancee Ken I played at Maple Hill aand had a similar eaxperience of knowing something of the course but not playing there since last year. I shot a 64 on the now stretched out white and a 55 on the shortened red tees. Good experience on a challenging course.
Back to this weekend on Sunday I played pro open on the hill at Devens. This is my home course and they were running a fun event called the Two Disc Dilemma, you can only have two discs in each of the two rounds. So much fun just deciding which two discs to bring. Initially I though a Roc,or buzz with a putter but then changed that too a Sidewinder and Roc, but right before we started I changed again and played with a sidewinder and my everyday putter. Good event and I played well, I average about 61 on this course so my first round 56 was my second best round ever on the course. I kept the same discs and shot a second round 58, really blowing hole 12, a hole I consistently par, grrrrrrrrr...... At the end of play I was lucky enough to win the Ace pot throw off with my putter four feet from the pin so a smooth $57 was added to my wallet. I finish 4th of 5 Pro Open players, but damn there were a lot of really good scores in the other divisions. I don't understand why more players didn't play Open? With Daniel Marcus and Billy Dunne playing in the division it was intimidating if you were looking to take the division and there scores of 101 and 104 respectively outpaced everyone else, but the first and second place guys in AM1 would have finished 3rd and 4th if they had played in open and six of the Am1 players would have finished ahead of my score. Well to each their own, it is such a tough call which division to play in certainly the guys in Am1 had a lot of tightly bunched competition so got a great golf tournament out of it. In all it was a beautiful weather day for golf and I enjoyed the day.
Coming up, trying to keep the practice up this short week, on Thursday I head up to VT to Sugarbush, On Friday My sister Lee and Ken Marshall get married on the top of the mountain, then we play down to the base. On Sunday the Sugarbush Open my last tune up tourney before the AmWorlds. Then another short week and then on the 23rd I head out to Rochester NY. I will make more of an effort to keep up the blog through the Worlds using my ipod to add little updates.