2008 Carolina Clash USDGC Qualifier
First off, I have to say thanks again to the CDGC (Charlotte Disc Golf Club), they ran from what I could tell a very smooth event. The courses looked in amazing shape and you could tell that alot of blood, burro sweat and Mule Tears went into making these course A-Tier ready. What was really cool to see was how the club came together on Friday to remove some fallen trees at Hornet’s Nest that had fallen over nite during a Real bad storm that blew thru the area. They had the tree and the majority of the debris cleared out within one hour.
The first 2 rounds for all Pro Divisions was played at Hornets Nest Original. The first round was sort of a ho hum round for me. It was not great but it did not put me out of contention even though the person with the hot round of 48 was Barry Schultz. This made the lead card for the 2nd round Barry, Ken”The Tank”Franks with 49, MJ with a 51, and myself with a 52. This looked to be a very interesting round with a alot of great shot making.
Barry starts off by paring hole 1 and I missed a 25 foot putt for deuce. That would be the only putt that I would miss for the rest of the round from a realistic distance. The groups star birdies the 430 ft hole 2. I then proceed to birdie thru hole 5, making up a couple strokes on Barry. MJ is the only birdie on hole 6 as Bary misses a 20 footer for birdie. Hole 7 saw a variety of scores as all the tee shots were sprayed everywhere. Barry and I throw lay ups out of some nasty shule, MJ throws a phenominal sidearm from just a little bit closer than where we were and parks it. Tank shanks his approach and takes a 4, Barry shanks his 3rd shot and takes a 5, I park my 3rd and take a par 4. Hole 8 saw Tank take a Bogey 4 and the rest of us take birdie 2’s. Hole 9 Barry yanks his drive right and the rest of put the drives within 20 feet, but that does not guarantee deuces on this 15 ft high elevated basket. Except in this group, we all make our tough deuce putts and Barry gets his par. Tank ended up 3 under on this hole since he aced it the in the first round.(pretty sick Ace)
Hole 10 Barry misses his 25 footer for deuce and the rest of us make our deuce putts. Hole 11 I miss again and take a par, and the rest get deuces. Hole 12 Par 5, Tank takes a scrambling Par and the rest of take amazing Eagles. MJ and I eagled it both rounds. Hole 13 Tank makes a great par 3 save and the rest of us deuce it. Hole 14 “The Gauntlet” I park it with my best drive ever on the hole and Barry bogeys it. Hole 15 I pure the drive about 33 ft long. I make the birdie and everybody else scrambles for par. Hole 16 I take the lone par 4 with everybody else making great upshots to card birdie 3’s. Hole 17 MJ deuces and the rest of us take pars. Hole 18 I get the finishing birdie to shoot a one off the course record 45 and tie Barry for the Lead going into Sunday’s final round at Renny Gold.
The weather for this final round started off a little cooler and overcast with a chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. Much different than the beautiful conditions that we experienced the previous day at The Nest. The lead card did not change from the previous round just the order on the card. Hole 1 I grip locked my drive down the right side of the fairway and from the looks of it I thought I was OB in the paring lot. Barry seemed to overcomensate on his drive and he ended up hyzering early on the left side rough. MJ and Tank thru right up the middle. Barry thru his second shot and it clipped a high branch and it caught an edge and roled OB by the short basket placement, he took a bogey 5 to start. I ended up not being OB and was a few feet from the parking lot with a basic thumber approach to the basket with just one tree to miss, I did and parked the up shot for the drop in birdie 3. MJ made a nice approach and got the birdie as well. Tank hit a tree on his approach and had to settle for par 4. Hole 2 we all had good tee shots, Tanks approach sailed alittle long and he missed his birdie putt. The rest of us parked the up shot and got our birdie 3’s. Hole 3 I pured the fairway with my drive and almost got to the short placement, made my approach and 15 footer for the birdie. MJ hit an early tree and scrambled for a great par. Tank and Barry threw descent drives with mediocre upshots which gave them tough birdie putts which they missed, and took pars. Hole 4 The toughest Par 4 on the course(in my opinion). Nobody in the group had very good tee shots at all, none of our drives got past the fence. I scrambled my way to a 40 foot up hill putt for par and hit it. Tank had to layup short of the fence on his 2nd shot and threw a brilliant 3rd shot to within 25 ft of the basket and he saved his par. MJ got his par and Barry ended up taking a 5. Hole 5 Barry hits an early tree and gets a very good par 4. The rest of us manufacture some good birdies. Hole 6 I throw a thumber that looked like it got away from me to the right side, but it ends up being just at the end of the tree that is strategically placed to stop discs from sliding up to the basket about 28 ft from the pin. I make the death putt. The rest of the group makes routine pars after not being in range to go for birdie putts on this fast green. Hole 7 I throw my best drive ever on this hole it foolws the fairway perfectly and turns right late and gets up into the early gap fairway for a simple upshot for another tap in birdie 3. Tank also throws a nice drive down to the backside fairway and he parks his sidearm upshot for the 3 as well. MJ and Barry take bogeys on this tough par 4. Hole 8 I throw my Star Cro and park it to less than 10 ft. MJ parks it as well. Barry hits a great uphill 30 footer for a nice deuce. Tank misses his putt for deuce and takes a par. Hole 9 I park this one as well with a Star Firebird thumber. The rest of the group had birdie putts but missed.
Going into the back nine I knew I was playing well and I knew that the tee shot on hole 10 was going to make or break my round. The reason for this is on Thursday when I was practicing this hole, I threw 10 to 12 drives off this tee and none of them went down the fairway, so I was not feeleing that confident when I stepped up on this tee.
Hole 10 It started to rain a little and that did not boost my confidence getting ready to throw this very tough tee shot. I pulled out my Star Eagle and threw a perfect drive down the middle of the fairway and far enough where I could see the pin for my 2nd shot. I raised my hands in jubilation and thought to myself, It’s on NOW. The rest of the group scrambled for pars and bogeys. Hole 11 I threw a cotrolled drive to within ft of where I had practiced earlier in the week, this allowed me with alot of confidence to throw a long thumber to the 315 ft pole. This put me in perfect position for another thumber that I did not get to see finish due to the start of downpour of rain that half soaked me b4 I got to my umbrella. When I walked up to the basket I ended up being 5 ft from the pin, for the easy birdie 4. Tank struggled down this fairway and ended up carding a 7. Barry and MJ took pars. Hole 12 First Star Birdie 3 of the round for the Lead card. Hole 13 CopperHead Alley MJ and Barry throw 3 great shots down this winding fairway to get birdie putts, MJ makes his 15 ft putt and Barry misses his 23 footer. I missed my 40 footer for birdie and take par. Tank gets his par after a couple errant shots. Hole 14 After a long 30 minute wait, we get to throw this long tee shot. MJ and Barry take pars Tank Bogeys and I take the only birdie on this tough peninsula green. Hole 15 Group all takes par 3’s. Hole 16 Me and Barry throw the hyzer and MJ and Tank take the anny. MJ makes the 25 foot uphill putt for birdie, Tank takes a bogey after his drive ended up on 17 fairway. Me and Barry take pars. Hole 17 MJ throws his sidearm short of the corner and has to scramble to save bogey 5. I throw my thumber tee shot a little longer than I normally do, but ens up in a good spot forthe insde hyzer line which I put 15 ft from the pin and a very happy birdie. Barry and Tank both take bogey 5’s as well. Hole 18 I rip my 1st run Star T-Rex with a little adrenaline and end up dead center of the fairway. I throw my brand new WiDye Star Firebird to what I thought was the perfect lay-up spot and it caught an edge and rolled down into the ravine OB. After collecting myself from the disappointment of the OB stroke I layed up to within 5 ft of the basket for the tap in par. NEW COURSE RECORD 57…..bogey free… USDGC Qualified !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks again to Bill Jacobson for running this event…His 1st event ever as TD. Great job.
This is hands down your best blog entry! It was great reading things like “I had trouble on this shot in practice and didn’t have much confidence but when I threw it perfect I knew the round was gonna be hot.” Oh….and….pretty good round….I guess.
awesome round schweby and nice blog about the round.see u in roc hiillllllllllllllllllll.casey in clearwater.watch out for the boyyyyy(dwj).looks like he is playing good.
Thanks MtL,
Practice makes almost perfect
Thanks Casey, cant wait to get to Rock Hill either.