Is it Cheating?.....

[kirvin2]

I preregistered to play in a two day tourneyment in a city that's over an hour's dirve away. It will be held at two different courses that I had never been too before today. the tourney is next week but I had today to get there and learn the courses. I get to the first park this morning and start playing. Everything is going good until the 6th hole. That's where the signs started making no sense if they were at a teepad. The numbers on the signs were sometimes missing, or the signs were just missing. The layout was really wierd and had players walking around the corner into the line of fire from the next fairway. I got turned around somehow and skipped a bunch of holes and the signs on the tops of the baskets either didn't have numbers on them or even have a sign or even have the sign facing the teepad. It was way confusing. At one point a sign on the basket pointed the way to the next tee, right into a little hobbit size tunnel through the thick underbrush. It didn't look like it could possibly be the right way, but damned if it wasn't right down the muddy trail that's about 100' long into the darkness of the woods. I was going thourgh this wondering if I was going the right way and also wondering why there aren't a whole lot more women playing this sport :wall:

I went to the other course and walked up to the first teepad. All the sign said was hole 1 par 4. I walked the hole and the thing was only about 145' long. I walked back to the pad and asked someone if the rest of the signs were this good and he said they were pretty bad. I left and came home. I could have played the course but my mood was ruined. I feel like asking for my money back and forgetting this tournament, but I agreed to share driving and gas with a friend.

Anyways, I was unable to follow the first course on a number of places. I feel it is cheating to hold a tournament on a course that is this hard for out of towners to follow. If we can't follow it how can we practice for the tournament??? I don't think it's really done on purpose, but it's unfair to someone like myself, who doesn't get a chance to really learn the layout until tournament day. I spent $25 in gas getting there, just to get ticked off at the situation.

 

[REDARMY]

cheating? no.

poor planning and an issue that should've been addressed long ago by the td(s)? yep.

i say get your money back.

 

[360DiscGolfer]

From what I have read on this site playing a tournament without knowing the course can be a common occurrence. Courses that are hard to follow your first time only affect 1 type of people - first timers. So they are hosting it on a local's course. Local's courses are sometimes the best ones, they don't flow because if they did you would probably have some boring holes. Bottom line is I don't think you can blame anyone else for not bringing a map or spending more time researching the layout. Sorry, not trying to sound harsh but that is far from cheating.

 

[Apothecary]

fo real. quit your bitching. is it cheating......


its bad course design, for sure...but you got nobody to blame but yourself for not knowing the course better.

 

[mendofrolfer]

just have fun and dont worry about practicing when the tourney is happening people will show you where to throw

 

[mike shoys]

i don't think its cheating, its just BS. do not feel the need to discontinue bitching...

 

[pokamitch]

Yeah, I think it is BS and an advantage against you. It isn't cheating though.

If you don't wanna play because of it and feel you will have a bad time, then get your $$ back and tell the TD your gripe so they can't adjust for their next event at that course....

 

[hogleggbob]

cheating NO, whining YES....suck it up and throw your damn disc..lol

 

[scarpfish]

I feel it is cheating to hold a tournament on a course that is this hard for out of towners to follow. If we can't follow it how can we practice for the tournament??? I don't think it's really done on purpose, but it's unfair to someone like myself, who doesn't get a chance to really learn the layout until tournament day.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this isn't all that uncommon. A lot of tourney courses don't follow the prescribed layout you'll see showing up at the park.

Here's a decent, albeit nothing spectacular 9 hole course near me in its regular configuration...



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Now, here's how we tweak it into an 18 hole tournament course...



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

And since nine of the baskets are temp buckets, brought by players who volunteered to bring one, and since several parts of the tournament course go into areas of the park not normally used for disc golf, there's really no way the course can be played early, not just by out of towners, but anybody.

And the permanent course has nice signage and flow, but sans three holes, its not really going to help to know it.

 

[Roc1Time]

fo real. quit your bitching. is it cheating......


its bad course design, for sure...but you got nobody to blame but yourself for not knowing the course better.

Thats exactly what I was thinking but you beat me to it

 

[Roc1Time]

So you have been playing 20+ years and this is the first time you have come across something like this?

 

[billnchristy]

Its over an hour a way and you spent $25 on gas? What the hell are you driving?

 

[sappman]

Nope, ask anyone if your not in the same area code its not cheating.

 

[adh56]

Yeah I I'll bet the locals have been playing all year long, those darn cheaters!

 

[kirvin2]

So you have been playing 20+ years and this is the first time you have come across something like this?

I was away from the sport for about 15 years and came back last July. I just started competing in October 09. This will be my fourth tournament.


To all the comments about should have known the course better and should've taken a map etc. There arent' complete sets of pics for either course on DGCR either. I can't obtain a map of the course layout and this was my first oportunity to visit these courses. My big mistake was agreeing to play a tournament at courses that I had never been to before, while knowing that it would be hard for me to find more than one day to try to learn the courses. Yeah plenty of people have played tourneys at places they have never played. I can do that too and it isn't a big deal except that I wasted my effing day and $25 trying to get some practice in vain. I think it's a crock that it's so hard to figure out the course ahead of time. I'm trying to do my homework and make the most of it and they've made it extremely difficult to do so. While all the local guys know the thing blindfolded. It may not be intentional cheating, but it sure is a lack of upkeep and poor design (from some tees there are three or four baskets to look at and only the local guys know which ones to practice on) It's cheating by negligence.

I'm going to win my division next weekend. I've seen enough of the first park to know that I play on much tougher courses on a regular basis. My first shot off the #1 teepad hit the basket this morning and I was 5 down for the part of the course that I could figure out. After this BS today, I'm determined to blow my division out of the water.

 

[Apothecary]

I'm going to win my division next weekend. I've seen enough of the first park to know that I play on much tougher courses on a regular basis. My first shot off the #1 teepad hit the basket this morning and I was 5 down for the part of the course that I could figure out. After this BS today, I'm determined to blow my division out of the water.

my money is that you wont place first and will proceed to bitch and moan and whine about how they cheated here...

 

[_.-Dut-._]

Bottom line: If your going to get this whiney just because the course doesnt live up to your standards than you shouldnt play any tournaments blind.

Myself and I imagine most people on here that play tourneys have played alot of courses for the first time at a tournament. Your right about being at a disadvantage playing blind, but big whoop, go sling some discs and have some fun, your getting way too worked up over this.

 

[kirvin2]

Its over an hour a way and you spent $25 on gas? What the hell are you driving?

09 GMC Sierra 5.3L
It' about an hour and 20 minutes without all of the road construction. It's about an hour and 40 minutes one way right now.

There's another thing that wasn't quite made clear at first either. The players meeting is the night before the tournament. That's the only time you can get your players pack and check in. So this tournament requires three round trips to thier city. Not only that, You play both parks each day, first round at one second at the other. This means there is going to be a lot of unneccesary driving just because of this. If they played both rounds in one park on day one and both rounds in the other park on day two it would be a lot less hectic. There is not much about this city or it's local club that makes much sense. I can just see this whole thing becoming a Cluster-Fornication.

 

[Roc1Time]

Find a camp ground an save some cash on gas

 

[leppard]

Not cheating but you definitely need to ask for your money back if you are that upset. Politely ask for a refund and tell them why.