Cross Farms Open

Tournament season has come, officially.  Got my first PDGA tourney of the year under my belt this past weekend, the Cross Farms Open presented by Westside Discs in Tolland, CT.  I’d never been to Cross Farms, but if Westside saw fit to sponsor it, how can I say no?

Preceded the tournament with a stop at Maple Hill the day before to play some doubles with friends.  We played the Blue course, one that I don’t think I’ve played in a long time if ever.  Certainly a good layout to get the flavor of the place.  I’ve got at least one tournament coming up with a round there, possibly two and perhaps three depending on how things go over the next couple months, so getting the flavor was definitely worth the stop (winning money from friends helps too).

The flip side of playing at Maple Hill was that I sacrificed my original plan of going to Cross Farms to scout things out in advance of the tournament.  Turns out I wouldn’t have been able to play the course anyway since the lower am side (Int & below) of the tournament was taking place, but I might have been able to walk around to see the place and try to stay out of everyone’s way.

No matter, since all I had to do was give myself an extra 30 minutes on Sunday morning in order to have plenty of time to do that walking around then.  I was able to walk the whole course and get some first impressions on how to attack the holes.  Turns out some of those first impressions were dead on the money.

I felt really good about the way I was getting off the tee, especially considering it was the first time I was playing any of these holes and a bunch of them were tightly wooded with hard to find fairways (they were there, just not easily discernible from the tee).  In fact, the only times I wasn’t enamored with my tee shots in round 1 were when I went against those aforementioned first impressions and “tried something”.  Even that only happened twice.

The story of the round, unfortunately, wasn’t the good tee shots.  It was the abysmal putting. I try not to exaggerate these kinds of things, but there were easily six putts that were in make-able range (15-20 feet) that I missed in a eight-hole stretch.  I turned a deuce chance into a four, a couple three chances into fours, and one three chance into a six.  It was not pretty.

On the plus side for the first round, I was grouped with Team64’s Matt Berube. It was nice to get to meet and play with a new teammate, especially on one of his home courses. He made some great shots, including a big throw-in for deuce on hole 17, and put himself in good position to place in the money.

Team64 teammates: Matt Berube, me, Sam Henderson at Cross Farms Open, 4/26/15 photo courtesy of Sam Henderson
Team64 teammates: Matt Berube, me, Sam Henderson at Cross Farms Open, 4/26/15
photo courtesy of Sam Henderson

After a lengthy lunch break (the curse of being the first group finished) and some extra putting practice to figure out the glitch (I didn’t but it went away), round two got off to an unfortunate start with a dead-center pole spit-out on the first putt.  The way I looked at it though, is at least the putt was on line as opposed to all the blatant misses from round one.

On the next hole I grooved a 25 footer to save par and I was on my way.  No more bad/missed putts, but a few more missed fairways and scrambles for three than in round one.  I finished very strongly, deucing holes 18, 1, and 2 (with a CTP winning drive) in succession and nearly acing hole 3 but overthrowing the basket by 30 feet and settling for a three to end the day. The net result was a five throw improvement on round one and moving up four places in the standings.  Not good enough to cash, but enough to not feel like the whole day was a waste.

Cross Farms was a fun course. It has a reputation for being a locals course due to the tight wooded nature of the fairways and the seeming need for “local” knowledge to find the best routes.

Tee 14 at Cross Farms. Apparently the most controversial hole there for its seeming lack of a proper fairway. I witnessed a deuce, so it can be reached.
Tee 14 at Cross Farms. Apparently the most controversial hole there for its seeming lack of a proper fairway. I witnessed a deuce, so it can be reached.

For me, that’s my kind of course even if I’m not a local. I felt really good about the way I read the fairways and found my lines just by walking the holes instead of throwing them.  I might have gotten lucky in finding a less than obvious gap on a couple holes, but I countered those with a couple poor and generally over-aggressive choices off some tees.

Definitely one of those courses that I probably wouldn’t have gone out of my way to play were it not for a tournament, but now that I have, I want to go back and play it again some day, tournament or not.

The tournament staff was top-notch and kept things running smoothly all day.  Particularly smooth to do the ace-pot throw-off and pay out the CTP prizes before all the scores were officially tallied and playoffs finished. That enabled those with a long drive home, like me, to get on the road and get home at a decent hour…doubly important for a Sunday tourney.  So kudos to The Disc Hut staff and TD Mike Zorovich.  I will be back.

Next weekend, another Sunday tournament, but this time an event I have some history with on a course I already know (and occasionally play well): the Eastern MA Championships at Pye Brook Park in Topsfield, MA.

150426-crossfarmsopen

Tournament Prep – the game before the game

Edit on 4/24: Was writing a second part then decided to combine it with the first for one big post. The timing of this is due to doing all this prep in anticipation of the first “real” tournament of the year this weekend.

Heading out for a tournament, I like to leave home believing I have everything I might need for the day. So in the interest of helping out those that are just starting to play tournaments, here’s the basic list of things I like to make sure I have at a tournament so I’m not left wanting at the course.

Discs and golf bag.  Big ol’ duh on this one, right? Who goes to a tournament without their discs? It happens.  The further I’m traveling from home, the more painful such a mistake would be.  I’ve been witness to more than one player showing up with maybe not their whole bag gone, but at least a key disc or two (putters seem to be the biggest culprit). So I’m extra careful to make sure I’ve got all of my discs with me.

Back-ups discs.  Ideally, I like to have at least one back-up for every disc in my regular bag, whether it’s an exact duplicate or something that can do the same job similarly.  However, depending on where I’m playing and any space considerations I have to account for, sometimes I have to go with the bare essentials for back-ups.  In that case, I try to at least have back-ups for anything I think I might throw near water or any other hazard from which retrieval of a disc could be difficult.  And extra putters.  Always extra putters.

Minimum two changes of clothes. That’s head-to-toe changes of clothes, not just an extra shirt or pair of shorts. I like to have a change of clothes for the afternoon and one to change into at the end of the day.  This is key for a wet rainy day but also helpful on a hot summer day when sweat can make you just as damp as a rain shower will.

Extra pair(s) of shoes and socks. At least one change of shoes, if only to wear for the ride home.  If conditions warrant, it’s handy to have a second pair of shoes to play in as well.  For the socks, it’s the same thing…at least a dry clean pair to go home in and a fresh pair for round 2.  But since socks don’t take up much space, I’ll usually carry double what I think I might need just to be sure.  Dry comfortable feet are the key to the rest of the body feeling good.

Food and water. Since you never know what the food situation might be at the course, it’s good to have something with you so you know you’re covered.  Many tournaments will provide lunch options, but some don’t. Sometimes there’s something close enough to run out during the lunch break, sometimes there’s not.  Same concern goes for water (or gatorade or whatever your hydrating beverage of choice happens to be).  You want to be sure you have enough to keep yourself fed and well hydrated all day.

To keep all these things organized and easy to access, I like to use one or two Sterlite containers like this one for a lot of the above items. Their dimensions allow for discs to be stored securely and the containers can also hold shoes, clothes, towels and any number of other things as well.  Add in a small cooler for the food and water, and I’m good to go.

Typical look of my trunk before heading out for a tournament. One Sterilite with shoes and other gear, another with back-up discs and towels, a third with discs for sale, a cooler, and of course, the golf bag.
Typical look of my trunk before heading out for a tournament. One Sterlite with shoes and other gear, another with back-up discs and towels, a third with discs for sale, a cooler, and of course, the golf bag.

Once I have everything gathered and organized, it all goes in the car.  The above photo is what my trunk usually looks like the night before a tournament.  Everything but the food, if it’s perishable, goes in the night before. The way I look at it, anything I can do the night before is that much more time I can sleep in the morning.

Once the car’s packed up, the next item on the agenda is to get a good night’s sleep.  By no means do I go to bed super early or anything like that, but I do try to avoid watching the all night kung-fu marathon on channel 39. If I am drinking before bed, it’s water. That strategy is two-fold.  One, of course, is hydration.  If I want to be well hydrated on the course, it always starts the day before.  Two, let’s just call it a natural alarm clock.  Drink enough water before bed and your bladder will let you know it’s time to get up in the morning.

My preference on tournament morning is to get to the course somewhere between 60 and 90 minutes before first tee time. Doing so gives me plenty of time to check-in with tournament staff, assess the conditions (weather and course), and warm up. So my whole morning schedule, from waking up to showering to eating breakfast to driving to the course, is based on getting there within that time frame.

If the tournament is on a course that I’ve either never played or haven’t played in a while, my 60-90 minutes early window changes to at least two hours before go time (and everything else is adjusted accordingly). I want to have time to walk as much of the course as I can (if I haven’t been there) or walk/play any holes that have changed or I can’t remember well since my last visit.

Upon arrival, the first thing I want to do is check in to the tournament.  Let them know I’m there and pay my entry if it isn’t a pre-paid event.  Once that’s out of the way, my focus goes to the course and warming up.

Assuming there aren’t any holes that I feel like I must see or play before the tournament round starts, my warm up routine is fairly simple.  I find a secluded basket and I putt for at least 15-20 minutes.

The choice to seek a secluded basket is not so much an anti-social thing as it is a means to be more efficient with my warm up.  Utilizing a popular basket, be it a practice basket or whatever is closest to the parking lot/tournament central, can get tedious when there’s more than a couple people putting at a time. I’d rather not spend too much time dodging other putts or waiting for everyone to throw all their putts in order to retrieve my discs.

If I don’t have a basket in mind for my warm up, I will usually play my way out into the course, pick a hole, and do my putting. When I’m done, I simply play my way back to the parking lot.  This way, I get some full throws in during my warm up.

Once that’s done, I go back to the car, make sure my golf bag is in order (plenty of water, plenty of towels, etc), and then I sit down and relax. That is perhaps the best part of my morning. Just sitting and not worrying about having to be somewhere or do something for a few minutes. I look at it as the calm before the storm that is the tournament, because it’s a calm I want to try to carry into and right through that storm too.

 

Back to the Fort

I was hoping that I’d have played a tournament or three between visits to the Fort this year, but between weather and postponements and weather (did I mention weather?), I haven’t officially played a tournament since First Folf back in January.

Flagpole viewed from "tee" 14. Player is shown throwing second shot after laying up around the flagpole mandatory.
Flagpole viewed from “tee” 14. Player is shown throwing second shot after laying up around the flagpole mandatory.

And after the winter we’ve experienced here in Maine, we couldn’t have asked for a better day for the event. Sun and warmth and the chance to throw in short-sleeves.  Only downside to the great weather is we weren’t the only ones at the Fort enjoying it. The park was crawling with other folks trying to get over their cabin fever.

Looking out on Pepperell Cove.  Inside the bunker on right is the target for hole 10 and tee for hole 11. Signpost on far left end of wall is target 11.
Looking out on Pepperell Cove. Inside the bunker on right is the target for hole 10 and tee for hole 11. Signpost on far left end of wall is target 11. Lots of pedestrians enjoying the nice day.

That made for some interesting additions to the “course” and some longer waits than we typically encounter playing the Fort in the cold winter.  One such addition was that the gates were open and the parking lot was full, giving us some extra obstacles to avoid on a couple holes.

My partner and I entered the day as the defending doubles champions at Ft McClary.  We got off to a good start in our defense, carding the low score of 44 in the first round.  That put us in a tie for first heading into the second round.

Through the first 9 holes of round 2, we matched birdie for birdie and par for par and remained tied.  Then it started to slip away a bit.  Our opponents managed an impressive birdie on hole 10, the bunker hole.

Bunker and overlook view of Pepperell Cove. Hole 10 plays from this spot into the bunker to the back wall.
Bunker and overlook view of Pepperell Cove. Hole 10 plays from this spot into the bunker to the back wall.

We parred and just like that we trailed.  We gave another throw away on hole 13 when we failed to birdie.  When we finally managed to gain one back, it was a birdie on 18 to their par.  Too little too late.

Second place isn’t so bad. We got outplayed…barely.  No shame in that. One of our goals was no fours on the card and we accomplished that. The other goal was to win, of course, but it wasn’t to be. I feel pretty good about our three year record at this event: second, first, second.

Big thanks to Steve Foley and his son Alex for not only kicking our butts but putting on another great day at the Fort. Also a thank you to my doubles partner, Charlie Sawyer, for indulging me in trying this event two years ago and enjoying it enough to keep coming back.  Next year, we take it down.

My team's scorecard for McClary Doubles, April 12, 2015.
My team’s scorecard for McClary Doubles, April 12, 2015.