USDGC - Actual Tournament...

[DanJon]

It wouldn't have been an 11th hour issue if the media plans were announced earlier.

Great point Anon, and does anyone know just why they waited to the 11th hour to post their media plans?

Something tells me the people in the know, knew about the media plans before they were announced.

If they didn't, they should have seen it coming (after La Mirada) and been more proactive.

You can't just assume that things are a given year to year.

 

[KissDaRing]

I love watching this tournament live, whether I'm able to be there in person or watching a live stream. The product put together by discgolf world tour was excellent, but I think it would be best used as supplemental coverage to a live stream. When you lose the live stream you lose the drama. I would pay $20 to watch the tournament.
Pin positions. My preference is one set of pins that is the best challenge and leaving the course set up that way all weekend. I like #1 on the left side and long #18. All others I'm neutral on but it feels right to set them and keep them in one location.
I'm not a metrics guy but I can appreciate the desire for the smaller circles on the green. As a spectator, however, they are kind of busy and confusing.
This tournament is awesome every year. I wish I could make the trip to spectate every year because I would. My overall opinion is that there may have been too many changes in one year regarding the way the course was set up. Usually the changes are a bit more subtle. Can't wait to see what 2017 brings! Thank you Harold for all you and your crew do.

 

[lyleoross]

After reading back through this thread I have to agree... why did they end this tournament early?

I think it's a grand conspiracy. They knew Paul wasn't going to win so they just ended it early. Also, they knew that Jolle Stoor rocks it in the wind, and they were afraid if they let it go on, when the wind kicked up to 60 mph and higher, he would rock it. If that happened, OMG, a European might win the USDGC, and they have a secret agreement with the PDGA not to let that happen. Furthermore, I heard that Prodigy wanted the championship back in their hands, and they slipped ludes into the rain water, and that made JP just want to let Jerm win. Last, the whole category five thing was a mistake. HD sent an email to his nephew Noah, who works at the weather channel, telling him that he was a five out of five, a great guy, but his English isn't great and he typed in [email protected] and the guys at noaa got it and thought it was from Harold Dupree, the head of the NOAA office in Miami and Shazam, it was a category 5.

Anyway, you can see, part conspiracy, part accident.

Congrats to J. Koling. His acceptance was touching and well said. He was focused and thus put himself in a position to win. That was exciting and well done.

 

[august dupree]

But when is it going to peak?

 

[gsw_03]

I would pay for live USDGC coverage.

Despite the fact that we've been spoiled by free, high-quality live coverage for the past 1-2 years, we shouldn't just expect it. The only tournaments I really look forward to following every year are Worlds and USDGC. Not having anything but numbers on a spreadsheet to follow in real time ruined USDGC for me this year, and I'd gladly take advantage of some form of live coverage moving forward.

How many views have this year's post-production videos acquired, and how does that number compare to live views from years past?

 

[ToddL]

Great comment. The overlapping circles were distracting around the targets for 1, 16, and 17. That was my bogey. I will correct that next year on 1 and 16 for sure. 17's B pin may be difficult to move much to the right and still retain the visibility that helps to lure ace runs like Ricky's wonderful shot.

Did you find value in the bullseye (gold) 3-meter circles? Our goal in introducing these was to mark excellence in driving and to allow for the removal of the very short range putts from the putting statistics.

Hey Harold, thanks for stopping by.

I found value in the bullseye metric and enjoy viewing all the metrics/stats for the field. However, if you have any say in the matter, Avery/Jamie still talk about them too much. It's great to reference them in terms of how a hole plays or how well a player plays over a round, but "that's another green hit for Player X" is meaningless to say during commentary. (On the other hand, I haven't watched all the edited videos from this year yet.)

As for the course changes, I have split opinions.
3: Didn't like the hazard in the woods
4: Liked getting rid of the left side hazard. If you feel like throwing it way over there, be my guest.
5: I wasn't a big fan of the mando in the first place, but I understand making it a trickier approach shot than just a big spike hyzer. The right-hand pin fixes that for rounds 2-3 without needing the mando. Maybe moving the left-hand pin straight left closer to the water could provide a different challenge? It'd open the spike hyzer back up, but would put more emphasis on properly placing your approach shot.
9: Like the change. Old 9 didn't really have much decision-making. There was no way to go for the eagle, so every player played it exactly the same. I was expecting a good handful of 2s on the new layout, but maybe it was the wind that messed that up this year.
13: Like the change in general. Maybe some minor tweaking, as you said.
15: Like the change in general, but I'm not sold on the trellis for defining the mando. Were the two previous trees not challenging enough? Or were they too offset from each other to make it an actual challenge? The upper mando seems like overkill to me - the canopy from the trees prevents any high shot anyway.


Live vs recorded video:
This is mostly personal preference no matter what way you slice it. A year or two ago I would go nuts and watch every McFly/Jomez/CCDG as soon as they came out, but over the course of this year I've grown pretty bored of them. At this point, I've seen most of the courses that these guys film, and if I already know the outcome of the tournament, I'm really not interested in watching them any more.
I've been watching a lot more of the live Smashboxx broadcasts this year. I know the quality isn't great, I know it can be boring watching people line up their shots, but live sports always provides more drama than recorded sports. (It also helps that I've been stuck at home after ACL surgery this year and haven't been out playing on the weekends.) (Also, all you people complaining that live footage is boring because all it is is people walking down the fairway -- the main time sink is waiting for everyone to line up their shots or waiting for the group in front of them to putt out. Walking 300 feet really doesn't take that much time.)

I would, of course, prefer to have both. But I'm not the guy spending the money to make it happen. Would I pay for live coverage? Maybe $5 or so, but if you charge you'd lose 50% of the already-small live audience and make live coverage even less attractive to advertisers.
Post round edited coverage must continue, and live coverage is just a bonus. I just like live coverage, personally.

Thanks,
Todd Lion

 

[august dupree]

Despite the fact that we've been spoiled by free, high-quality live coverage for the past 1-2 years, we shouldn't just expect it.

Umm, yeah we should. What they have been doing with Smashboxx has been working (as it will continue to do for almost EVERY other big event that is not associated with the DGWT) and there is no reason we should not expect it to keep working and keep growing and keep being free for viewers at home. It's not like it's broken.

 

[BrotherDave]

Regarding the yellow and white whiskers that marked the the 3-meter and 10-meter circles: The whiskers are akin to the bristles on a push broom. There is a possibility that they could affect a shot, but our tests indicated that this was not likely. I did not see or here of this happening. We also have some experience using these whisker markers in the past. We have used them the last two years to mark the opening to several of the greens like 9 and 10 where we did not want the tope and posts to interfere with shots. While far less prevalent, our experience with the whiskers seemed to indicate that they would not likely affect throws. Aesthetics are a different issue. I am still uncertain whether the whiskers are part of the decoration or just a distraction.

I like the gathering of these stats but as a viewer I felt that seeing them was somewhere between unnecessary and distracting. I kept going "what the heck are those things, I've never seen that on a course before." Fortunately the commentators kept talking about bullseyes and reminding me those were marking 3m circles. But to reiterate, as a viewer it doesn't really make one whit for me to know instantly whether player x landed within 3m. Compare the percentages of the card/leaders every 9 holes or so, that's great. Point it out every hole, kind of annoying.

So if you could keep tracking these stats without it being quite so visible on film and without the commentators beating us over the head about it, that would be great. :thmbup:

I can't comment too much on the hole design. I liked that it looked like players could be more aggressive with long throws on some holes and just wish the weather was better to gauge the effect. I thought the OB line on hole 3 was maybe a little too tight on the left.

 

[discgolfer25]

Does anyone know the blue disc that Jerm was throwing for practically every drive?

 

[DanJon]

Does anyone know the blue disc that Jerm was throwing for practically every drive?

Probably a D1.

 

[Royalhghnss]

Does anyone know the blue disc that Jerm was throwing for practically every drive?

Someone on reddit said it was a D2

 

[Flick Maniac]

Another thing (unrelated): How does one card a 2 on #12 as Stephen Schroeder did on R3 according to the DGWT live scoring?? Isnt that the hole that has the massive open drive with the 600 sign calling for big shots?? Must have been a hell of a field ace.

This again. It is a 900ft hole. Has to be a scoring error, otherwise how has there not been any mention of a spectacular 400ft throw in?

Just watched the back nine and it was painful to see Eagles play on 888. Should have thrown one more approach, especially knowing that Jerm did not make it across the Hazard. Even after the first OB attempt, safe play to a 6 would not have been too bad. However, looking at the 5 holes after that, it is reassuring to know that it was not ONLY This hole that decided the championship.

 

[filobedo]

This again. It is a 900ft hole. Has to be a scoring error, otherwise how has there not been any mention of a spectacular 400ft throw in?

Just watched the back nine and it was painful to see Eagles play on 888. Should have thrown one more approach, especially knowing that Jerm did not make it across the Hazard. Even after the first OB attempt, safe play to a 6 would not have been too bad. However, looking at the 5 holes after that, it is reassuring to know that it was not ONLY This hole that decided the championship.

Eagle taking a big number on #1 and then not birdieing #2 (on what was most likely the best drive ever on that hole) was brutal to see. If anyone has played #2 or seen it played by the top pros, only a handful of people could get that far up the fairway on the drive.

 

[1978]

About the cancellation... I think everyone ought to watch the recap vid on SpinTV and if they are not satisfied, check a) their skull for a brain (for the reasoning and background for cancellation and b) their chest for a heart (for the championship being decided after R3) Some pretty powerful stuff on that video. Koling is a standup guy and I applaud him.

Another thing (unrelated): How does one card a 2 on #12 as Stephen Schroeder did on R3 according to the DGWT live scoring?? Isnt that the hole that has the massive open drive with the 600 sign calling for big shots?? Must have been a hell of a field ace.

Great great shot, but they took away a ton of ob on the drive. Stephen has an arm. I don't have an arm and I reached the green outlaw, Rival in practice. For him, I believe he threw a sidearm on his second shot. Likely would have gone OB with that small green and he would have been to the drop zone. With a half way decent drive, you are only about 325-350 out. He definitely field aced it.

 

[sjberry2017]

This again. It is a 900ft hole. Has to be a scoring error, otherwise how has there not been any mention of a spectacular 400ft throw in?

I believe it was a pair of massive drives with Prodigy D series drivers from the picture he posted on Facebook. The second drive was a 330' field ace according to his post

 

[notroman]

This again. It is a 900ft hole. Has to be a scoring error, otherwise how has there not been any mention of a spectacular 400ft throw in?

The hole has been deuced before and there have been many more metal hits on the second shot that could've been deuces if the disc was off by a few inches.

The initial teeshot is quite downhill. Not impossible to throw a 500ft tee shot even if you can't throw 500 feet. In the past most people threw the tee shot for placement rather than distance because of all the OB. Since they opened the fairway up this year, it allowed for more people to go big off the tee - I would be surprised if there weren't a number of drives in the 500-600ft range resulting in 300-400ft second shots.

Definitely a very impressive deuce on that hole, but not so crazy that you have to think it was a scoring error. I think Patrick Brown was the last person to get the 2 on that pin - but it was a par 5 at the time.

 

[sprintermatt]

Hole 12: Throw a good drive and you don't need a driver to get on the green. I made a bet with Jussi and DaveD that I could get an eagle (back when it was a par5) with an Aviar upshot. Threw a Boss (I think), into the groove past the end of the ridge, then a JK over all that OB and put it 10 feet away. They didn't even make me tap out. I've been throwing Mako upshots this year instead of dealing with the skip of a driver.

Stephen throws farther than me too, I am pretty sure.

 

[Flick Maniac]

Great, thanks guys! I was sure there was someone in the know. Whenever anyone drains one from 300+ I applaud them no matter what the hole or what the par is.

 

[1978]

This again. It is a 900ft hole. Has to be a scoring error, otherwise how has there not been any mention of a spectacular 400ft throw in?

Just watched the back nine and it was painful to see Eagles play on 888. Should have thrown one more approach, especially knowing that Jerm did not make it across the Hazard. Even after the first OB attempt, safe play to a 6 would not have been too bad. However, looking at the 5 holes after that, it is reassuring to know that it was not ONLY This hole that decided the championship.

Its not a 900' hole. Its a relatively easy tee shot after they took away the left side OB line, just a fairway driver to get to the drop zone. 434' but WAY down hill. From the drop zone its 354' I can throw a Rival to that drop zone and I am NOT a far thrower. Much like most of the course the distances are highy misleading. They follow the curve of the ropes not how far away things actually are.

1. So, basically Stephen could have thrown 2 354' shots about. Drive is so far down hill it goes about 450' , then he side arms in a fairway ace. Stephen can easily throw 450-500 so thats not that unbelievable.

2. Its easy to see stephen throwing 500-550 off the extremely elevated tee and just having 275-330 left to the basket. cutting off the corner of OB.

2. It wasn't covered because know one no who Stephen Shroeder is outside of Charlotte. He's one of the 20 1980-1010 rated skill guys that doesnt leave Charlotte to play...since no one knows him why would anyone comment on it...

 

[1978]

The hole has been deuced before and there have been many more metal hits on the second shot that could've been deuces if the disc was off by a few inches.

The initial teeshot is quite downhill. Not impossible to throw a 500ft tee shot even if you can't throw 500 feet. In the past most people threw the tee shot for placement rather than distance because of all the OB. Since they opened the fairway up this year, it allowed for more people to go big off the tee - I would be surprised if there weren't a number of drives in the 500-600ft range resulting in 300-400ft second shots.

Definitely a very impressive deuce on that hole, but not so crazy that you have to think it was a scoring error. I think Patrick Brown was the last person to get the 2 on that pin - but it was a par 5 at the time.

The drop zone is 340 so with a big drive you are easily under 300' to fly the OB and land on the hook part where the basket is.