2014 United States Disc Golf Championship

[JC17393]

"I have to birdie this hole, because Paul will also birdie it, and he'll probably birdie 18. If I get into trouble on 18, I'll need that extra one shot cushion."

I'm sure that's what was going through JohnE's mind when he walked up to the tee on 17. You can't blame the guy for wanting to seal his victory on that hole. Watching him get that 9 was painful.

Thing is, he had a 4-throw lead on Will and five on Paul going into 17. He didn't really *need* any more birdies at all. Card two pars and it forces Will to eagle both holes just to force a tie (which would have required back to back throw-ins from 200+ feet). Even a bogey on 17 would have still left him with at least a 2-throw cushion on 18 (barring an ace from Will).

The one thing John couldn't afford to do was to go tin cup on 17. He could have laid up his first shot and played the shorter cleaner line to the green to get a par and at worst, a bogey. Even after he went OB on the first shot, laying up the next throw and pitching across to play for 5 would have allowed him to maintain some kind of lead on 18.

He played aggressively for 16 holes and it was paying off. It finally caught up to and burned him on 17. It's too bad because he had that tournament in his back pocket.

 

[Halcón]

Oh, I thought everyone was saying he had a 3 stroke lead teeing off on that hole. If it was 4, then yea...lay up for sure.

 

[joecoin]

man johne let jesus take the wheel and that drunk bastard crashed the car. bummer fo sho doe

The devil is in the details.

 

[DiscoBriscoe]

a description of John E McCray from Gateway owner [?] on the Gateway site: [seems prophetic]

"He won't root against your shots during the round ( he doesn't have to) but he won't let up when he's up by ten either.
He's the type of guy that brings it (his skills and determination) from the first hole to the last, every time he laces em up and does so with a huge smile on his face. Don't take it personal, he's playing he course and never letting up. He doesn't know how to put in the second team when he's up by ten with three to go,, it's not in his DNA. He's looking for course records every time he plays.."

Not the best tourney strategy, but impressive in it's own way.

same article has interesting anecdote about Climo, and his influence on McCray:
"I was at Kens house back in 1999 playing cards the him and the Winnie crew, Ken sat out every ten or so hands and went outside in his yard, in the dark with just a porch light and threw 30 or so putts at a time every 30 minutes all night long."

 

[bikinjack]

Don't like the rocks on one -- just seemed like a great starter basket without them. I'm sure they add difficulty and score seperation, but they just look silly.

Basket 15 seems so silly on the videos -- is it as awkward to play as it is to watch?

The clown's mouth is just silly. I'm a big gadget/OB fan, but that's not good. I didn't like the bamboo either . . . try something else.

I liked the look of 5's tee -- seemed like a good add -- yes?

I'm sure this stuff as been blathered about, I'm just going back to read it.

The new tee on 5 made for a beautiful look, but the golf was better from last year's tee. Last year's tee offered a very difficult but very real possibility of playing for the three. This year's tee took that away. There was very little variation on how the open guys attacked the hole this year, less even than the old tee up the hill. Last year's tee presented a very risky option for a very high reward, or you could have played it the same way everybody played it this year. For reference, I was spotting the tee shot on 5 on Thursday, and have done the same in 2010 and 2013.

As for your other two points, I've never been a huge fan of hole 15 and generally can't stand baskets tucked into groves of trees like that, and I'm kind of neutral on the new version of hole 7. I think I like it.

 

[Cgkdisc]

It doesn't look like a roller is realistically doable from the new 5 tee? But I'm thinking it pretty much takes the road out of play at least on the drive?

 

[bikinjack]

Nobody tried it on Thursday, and I don't see how they could make it work. McBeth was the only open player I saw throw a roller from last year's tee, but I was surprised that nobody else did. I do remember Lizotte getting across the corner of the lake with two air shots last year. Nobody got within 100 feet of where his drive landed last year.

 

[zgmc]

man johne let jesus take the wheel and that drunk bastard crashed the car. bummer fo sho doe

Lol.

 

[DiscJunkie]

Don't like the rocks on one -- just seemed like a great starter basket without them. I'm sure they add difficulty and score seperation, but they just look silly.

Basket 15 seems so silly on the videos -- is it as awkward to play as it is to watch?
Yes, it is very awkward to play. You might as close as 15' and not have a putt. Personally, I think it's out of character for the course and flukey and a low quality hole.

The clown's mouth is just silly. I'm a big gadget/OB fan, but that's not good. I didn't like the bamboo either . . . try something else.
Agreed. Just silly. If you want to make it harder, move the tee back 100'. There is probably room.

I liked the look of 5's tee -- seemed like a good add -- yes?
If you're trying to eliminate 3's, it was a good move. The tee didn't really add much difficulty, just added a LOT of distance, because of the first shot over the water.

I'm sure this stuff as been blathered about, I'm just going back to read it.

Played the course this morning.

 

[Lucero 1]

I made it down for the final round and I can say the course is infinitely tougher in person than on video. And with all that OB and the wind (gusts up to 25 mph) the play was as expected. Why Johnee didnt lay up is beyond me. Or at least lay up after putting the first shot in the drink.

From JohnE:

I'll answer this. Honestly, I never even thought of laying up. I truly never lay up. I am aggressive. Sorry to all my friends, family, and fans. I am proud of myself and i will hold my head high because God loves me.

 

[lazy cake]

Is there video of chairgate? McFly was on the chase card for the round and the Disc Golf Guy didn't start following until after the chair incident during round three.

 

[noobynoober]

Yes, it was on the disc golf planet link. Same video that showed John E lay up to the drop area after his whole card went OB. Smart move but he said he never lays up.

 

[Travis1010]

He layed up a couple times in the final round too.

 

[greg_b_4]

He layed up a couple times in the final round too.

This. I followed the lead card the entire final round. He laid up or played safe several times. I'm a huge JohnE fan, he is by far my favorite pro. Wish he could've pulled it out.

 

[TalbotTrojan]

From JohnE:

I'll answer this. Honestly, I never even thought of laying up. I truly never lay up. I am aggressive. Sorry to all my friends, family, and fans. I am proud of myself and i will hold my head high because God loves me.

I know as a fan and friend I am proud of him. I hope he finds a way to make himself super healthy and comes back next year to show those youngsters how it is done.

As for the fact that laying up may have won him the tournament, that is not what he thought was best at the moment and I know he didn't get to be as good as he is by taking the easy way.

 

[Menacewarf]

It's not about the easy way. It's about the odds and the situation. If you are a balls to the wall poker player, playing reckless and all in all the time, and you get way ahead and keep playing that way it will come back on you. Quickly you will lose, and be forgotten. If you batten down the hatches you can just squeeze everyone out to the finish line. The championship spirit is in weighing it all, and making all your decisions based solely on winning. If someone is not intreasted in basing all their stratagey on winning that's fine, but I think you will see over and over those people don't become the greatest winners and champions. I'm not trying to indict JohnE, I really like him and thought he made a great run, just talking as a sports fan about what I think makes winners. And poker and golf are different from many sports because the individual is completely in charge of the stratagey. You can still relate it to the coach though for many other sports. And I'm not saying poker is a sport. Just works for the language and analogy.

 

[@iDiscGolf]

I'm still perplexed by Wysocki. He got 2nd place like 2 years ago. So people saying not his style of play doesn't completely make sense entirely. Anyway.

So why was there such a drastic point spread from the last few years as far as score is concerned? I kow they changes some teepads, did they change or make the OB more difficult too?

 

[Khao Pra]

I had picked Ricky to win it, not sure why anyone would think it doesn't suit his style of play. I don't think rock hill is longer or has more OB than nasu shiobara, he did pretty ok there in what I consider to be very similar circumstances although definitely more rain in Japan. Just wasn't his week I guess.

 

[Menacewarf]

I'm still perplexed by Wysocki. He got 2nd place like 2 years ago. So people saying not his style of play doesn't completely make sense entirely. Anyway.

So why was there such a drastic point spread from the last few years as far as score is concerned? I kow they changes some teepads, did they change or make the OB more difficult too?

Could be anything. Could be he choked away the biggest tourney of his life a month earlier and is rattled, could be a minor injury, could be personal ****, or it could be just waking up on the wrong side of the bed a few days in a row. I think we are getting a better idea by watching both will and paul over time, that these guys can switch into superhuman mode, but just as easily can come back down to earth for a moment or a few.

 

[@iDiscGolf]

Could be anything. Could be he choked away the biggest tourney of his life a month earlier and is rattled, could be a minor injury, could be personal ****, or it could be just waking up on the wrong side of the bed a few days in a row. I think we are getting a better idea by watching both will and paul over time, that these guys can switch into superhuman mode, but just as easily can come back down to earth for a moment or a few.

True. I agree, I also think it has to do with your card mates sometimes. The overall moral, and also the level of play. It's like when you see someone hit a tree and then you hit it.

If you get a bad card with people shanking shots it takes allot of mental strength to combat that. That can be a big separator.