2015 United States Disc Golf Championship

[tom12003]

As far as speed of play at the USDGC, I (spotter on hole 9) saw very little time difference between the performance and the open divisions; if anything the open took longer per throw but the performance had more throws. Saturday's rain definitely slowed everything down; play took 25+% longer than the previous rounds.

Concerning course officials. the USDGC had 6 marshalls, each one responsible for 3 holes. As JC stated they were not actively trying to make time/stance types of calls. In addition, the volunteer spotters were almost all certified officials, we were encouraged not to make any calls with regard to rules.

 

[bhadella]

Interesting little quirk of the ratings system and being rated 13 points higher than the #2 player in the world. If Ricky finishes 2nd and shoots his rating over 4 rounds, Paul should finish 52 total ratings points ahead of him. On a course like Winthrop, that's 7 or 8 strokes. In order for Paul to beat his rating if the other guys play their average, he is supposed to win by 5+ strokes.

Most tournaments are won by someone playing better than their average especially at the highest levels (Worlds, USDGC, NTs). Paul McBeth is the only guy in the world who could play just under his rating at win in such a stacked field. Other than a few European players (Teemu and Henrik) we didn't have anyone play exceptional well compared to their rating.

 

[filobedo]

Pretty proud to say I mighta gotten Paul throwing the Nova. I was an early adopter and gave him a purty pink and white one to try at USDGC in 2013. He was throwing it during the tournament... of course, I have horrible memory.

You were definitely the first person I ever saw throw a Nova at the tournament in Central a couple of years back when you won the tournament.

 

[Peter S]

another dnf for Gregg Barsby. I hope he is o.k.

Other notable finishes Simon Lizotte t36 place. I expected more from Simon after his win at Ledgestone.

JohnE 47 place. Big fall off from last year. That's a shame.

M.J. 7th place. Great job all this season M.J.

K.C. t10 Still getting it done in Open division :thmbup:

 

[Peter S]

Whelp. If anyone is curious to what a semi decent am player can shoot on gold I was 17 over today and felt pretty good about it. I even have the arm to throw mostly the same shots as the pros too. That course is so stinking hard.

I was an inch away from clearing the road on the McBeth spike hyzer route on 888. So stinking close

Another proud mortal. I played the course about a week prior to the event and ropes were up. There were no hey bails on 17 and no elevated basket yet on 14. other than that no differences I noticed.

I am a lefty and like all courses, I felt like Gold was a little lefty friendly. Although there were no hey bails I through a spike hyzer with a Firebird on 17 and it tombstoned close to the pin. I am sure it would have been safe. I did miss that very close putt, shame on me.

on 13 my lefty line was a perfect skip off the sidewalk on the Richard Wysocki 13 flick line with my Champ Destroyer. second shot got up by the trees and stuck. from there it was a rutine upshot to the grass and a look at a 4, I took a 5.

I liked hole 5 as well as a lefty. Did a big hyzer off the tee over the first tall trees by the shore line. was close enough after 3 shots to go right over the water with my PD safe for a look at a 4 and missed another long putt.

 

[SpringDgLover]

Any idea on when Jomez will post the final round?

 

[ian.]

random question.. is the gold layout on this website? all i can find is the lakefront.. wanted to enter in my score from sunday

 

[Peter S]

http://www.dgcoursereview.com/course.php?id=27

 

[lyleoross]

I think I read somewhere that it's six seconds. (Maybe not) Coincidentally the same average amount of time that men think about sex.

I know I shouldn't, but I think you've mixed up think about and perform?

 

[lyleoross]

Coming from someone who is forced to play S&D for 5 months of the year... YES, it is incredibly rough on your lower back to play that way all day.

I have to wonder just how far you're trying to throw using S & D? Most players I've seen use it as a utility stand with shorter throws. I've never hurt my back with S & D. I use it with an understable disk for midrange ot fairway shots, not longer than 250 feet. It forces me to focus on proper technique and the hit so I actually have fewer back problems.

 

[lyleoross]

The elimination of fairway footfaults would just be gravy, and isn't included in the pro-side argument. The game would be better, and more legitimate, with S&D. I mean whatevs, it's just opinion, but I took that away from watching USDGC more than ever.

I've argued both sides of the issue, and I understand how significantly it impacts play below pro. I wonder if there could be dispensation for below Advanced. By Advanced you should know how to do it, and have the guts to call it?

Again, I'm not saying there isn't a problem, clearly there is, and it is impacting the legitimacy of outcomes, but I wonder if there isn't an alternate way to approach the issue than a rules change that changes to S & D? It didn't take me long to really learn the fairway run up. It is a different run up, one that requires better technique, and once I learned it, I viewed it to be to my advantage. Now I view those run ups as an enhancement to the game. When I see someone like McBeth lay it out, and how well he delivers, I see that as a plus for the game. JMO.

 

[AzteC]

So is SpinTv not posting an actual edited version of the final round? Its been 3 days and nothing. I hope they are not only giving us the unedited footage which lets be honest, has horrible quality issues. Was not impressed with the way spintv broadcasted the event, If I were a network like ESPN what they portrayed was very lackluster and not exciting.

The footfault thing, they may as well get rid of it, because the Champ foot faulted several times in his spintv broadcast. Its kind of ironic, him calling Stokley on that one foot fault at worlds TWICE in a row, which appeared to be legal, then he goes on his merry way having worse foot faults.

 

[thedisceye]

^^ You're referring to Paul's round 4, but just wanted to add that I'm uploading my second edited round (Will's card Round 4) as we speak, so it should be up tonight or tomorrow. I would assume the same for the stuff Jomez is working on. I'll try to get my Round 1 and 3 up ASAP. Day job getting in the way!

 

[ian.]

http://www.dgcoursereview.com/course.php?id=27

thanks! i typed Winthrop Gold in the search and got nothing

 

[Anon]

So is SpinTv not posting an actual edited version of the final round? Its been 3 days and nothing.

I'm sure its on its way. There was some sort of post event 'embargo' in the media guide that was passed around. Not sure exactly long said embargo is/was.

The signal issues with the live broadcast are par for the course when you are trying to leverage cellular networks to push video, especially with large crowds of people on social media eating up more and more of the upload bandwidth (posting videos, instagrams, etc. after every shot).

ESPN broadcasts with satellite trucks and has entire teams of people working on graphics, video packages, and other content to spice up an individual live broadcast. A satellite truck run anywhere from ~$2500 per day if you are an established customer that utilizes the service frequently or they can run upwards of ~$1000 PER HOUR for a one-off event. A team of dedicated and professional content creators pushes that day rate exponentially higher.

Disc golf doesn't have that kind of money for a live audience of ~4000 concurrent viewers.

 

[Jenga54]

So is SpinTv not posting an actual edited version of the final round? Its been 3 days and nothing. I hope they are not only giving us the unedited footage which lets be honest, has horrible quality issues. Was not impressed with the way spintv broadcasted the event, If I were a network like ESPN what they portrayed was very lackluster and not exciting.

The footfault thing, they may as well get rid of it, because the Champ foot faulted several times in his spintv broadcast. Its kind of ironic, him calling Stokley on that one foot fault at worlds TWICE in a row, which appeared to be legal, then he goes on his merry way having worse foot faults.

I think we have to keep this in perspective - there's two things we're talking about here.
1 - The ultimate goal would be national level coverage on a premium cable channel
2 - The interim goal is to take steps towards expanded coverage

If we're going to compare to ESPN - they probably spent a single digit fraction of cost that ESPN would spend on a 5 hour event. I think we got a great (free!) product to watch, and what a show it was!!
A loong live event is difficult to pull off, and hats off to the Smashboxx guys for pulling it off. There were 4000+ people watching the live coverage the whole time I was on, I wonder what it peaked at?

We want national coverage like Jussi pulled off last year in the European Open last year (the best coverage I've ever seen) however it'll be baby steps as more money, more eyeballs and more help as these TV crews grow to be able to swap to CAM2 and CAM3, Mic1, Mic2, and then to throw in those Disc Golf Metrix in between holes, drop in CAM4 and CAM5 shots of other top players dropping putts "just a moment ago on the 12th hole THIS just happened" Excited to see the pace this coverage is progressing.

 

[tampora]

I have to wonder just how far you're trying to throw using S & D? Most players I've seen use it as a utility stand with shorter throws. I've never hurt my back with S & D. I use it with an understable disk for midrange ot fairway shots, not longer than 250 feet. It forces me to focus on proper technique and the hit so I actually have fewer back problems.

How far? About as far away as the basket is, unless it's out of my range. Then, its max distance.

I hate S&D, but I have to do it in the winter months when the entire course is shin-high to waist-deep snow. Trying to get a runup in that junk is impossible. Awesomely, if I do find a clear spot, I expect it to be glare ice.

 

[cjman]

During the final round broadcast, one camera was dark and froze frequently (for me), while the other was crisp, clear, bright, and smooth. And whoever was running the bad camera was not very good at lining up shots. I am guessing the good camera had the better line and whoever was toggling between cameras was simply doing a poor job selecting the better view.

 

[Phil Esra]

[sorry if I missed this upstream--you can't search for "hole 17," just "hole"]

How (objectively/physically) hard is hole 17? It looks easy enough on paper to this noob. What's tricky about it besides the high-stakes choke factor?

 

[cjdiscgolf]

[sorry if I missed this upstream--you can't search for "hole 17," just "hole"]

How (objectively/physically) hard is hole 17? It looks easy enough on paper to this noob. What's tricky about it besides the high-stakes choke factor?

Four things.

1. Always a headwind
2. You have to get it there in the air due to the hay bales.
3. Lower ceiling that it appears
4. Uncomfortable distance (240-270 downhill). Perfectly between a putter and a midrange for most players.