USDGC - I told you so

[NOHalffastpull1]

I was the the TD for NOTeam's Pot of Gold. This was the qualifying event for Mr. John Key.
Not many pDGA events down here in Southern Nationals land.
With SN events every weekend, there is little desire to travel hours to play under the pDGA banner.
The ONLY reason I have sanctioned my events in the past was to get the cheap pDGA insurance that our local park requires.
When the folks at Innova brought up the qualifying opportunity for our event, I was skeptical.
With 185 players on 3 courses, the added pressure of figuring out the "performance scoring" was daunting.
Since we were the second qualifier of the year, the Innova and DGU folks were just figuring out the process.
The results were sent to DGU where the scoring could be calculated and the spots were announced the following week.

There were many surprised Pot of Gold DGers that were offered spots.
One of our friends finished last in the masters division and was on the list.
Mr. Key even sent me a private message marveling at his invitation.
He admitted he had not played many events and was tickled to get the chance to play between the ropes.

My biggest thrill was awarding my TD spot to my assistand TD and friend Don Perkins.
He got to play the first round with the two Kennys - Glassman and Climo.
Don claims he even had the box for a couple of holes.

Lighten up folks, this is just a hobby pretending to be a sport.

steve timm

Kernan even made the trip just to grab a players' pack.

 

[MOB47]

hahahahaha this is good. :lol:

It kinda sounds like Dr. Wiggy is complaining about a bagger. :wtf:
ironic

 

[keltik1]

I just read the USDGC site and now I'm butthurt because this year I could have watched this fiasco for free. I enjoyed the spectator pack from the years previous events but now that I live closer I would have ridden up there on a lark to watch some sandbagging for free.

 

[DiscGolfTeeSigns.com]

baaaahhhhhh fuggit

 

[Smyith1]

if i remember correctly, innova heavily urged its sponsored players to play in it. or at least be around for the tourn. i think enough big name pros boycotted it to send the message to them. but it all depends on what innovas and the guys who run the USDGCs real goal was with changing the format. i could see it actually being a resounding success in certain situations.

 

[juju1]

if i remember correctly, innova heavily urged its sponsored players to play in it. or at least be around for the tourn. i think enough big name pros boycotted it to send the message to them. but it all depends on what innovas and the guys who run the USDGCs real goal was with changing the format. i could see it actually being a resounding success in certain situations.

Your memory sucks, you are an idiot and need to shut up.

 

[Working Stiff]

This thread is funny.

A guy who has no history of ever playing in PDGA events only played in one PDGA event this spring and accidentally qualified for USDGC. He decides to play in USDGC and wins because of a scoring system that favored him. Now I'm supposed to buy that this was some sort of conspiracy, that he didn't play in PDGA events to keep his rating low and handicap high? Wow. I guess a simpler answer that he was saving his money for a USDGC trip didn't make the theory cut?

I get that people are pissed off about this deal, but crazy is crazy.

 

[Star Shark]

If I heard the story correctly, the winner's rated rounds that got him in came while he had an injury. He was playing lefty to get that rating. He's normally a 950-970 rated player

 

[Dogma1]

this is just a hobby pretending to be a sport.

steve timm

With that attitude, you'll help it stay that way.

crazy is crazy.

Crazy is random. It's different from poor decision making and a badly thought out scoring system.

 

[peteg]

Whether or not the guy intentionally gamed the system is irrelevant. Can't say I blame him if he did, but I knew that this performance based system was retarded and the fact that an 880-rated nobody won "USDGC" just proves that. There was never any doubt in my mind that the person who won would be someone who had very few sanctioned rounds on their rating and was improving much faster than their rating could keep up with them. But just in general, it's so stupid to watch some guy get rewarded for shooting slightly better than his projected score of TWENTY-ONE OVER PAR on winthrop gold. He would be DFL in the real USDGC and he gets to win this one because he sucked super hard in his previous two tournaments. I mean no hate to the guy--again it's not his fault, but I hated the idea of this tournament beforehand, and now that it has gone exactly the way I thought it would, I hate it even more. Makes our sport look like a joke.

 

[warobert]

I agree that the handicap scoring makes our sport look bad. After working at USDGC all week and trying to explain to spectators that there were only a handful of professionals in the field this year (after they asked why the players were playing so badly) and scoring was based on a system similar to golf handicaps (when the asked who was in the lead) , most folks were surprised. It really seemed to diminish the prestige of the title. As an aside, I believe Feldberg won the raw score by 25 strokes on the nearest competitor, the full color roc is a picture of Barry Schultz's 2001 championship ring from multiple angles (I thought it looked good enough to buy one), and the champ rocs did feel really nice (especially the neon green Kenny I bought).

 

[Working Stiff]

crazy is crazy.

Crazy is random. It's different from poor decision making and a badly thought out scoring system.

A badly thought out scoring system isn't what I was talking about. Changing the most prestigious tournament in the sport into some goofy promotional piece for the DGU handicapping system without changing the name was stupid, not crazy. It wasn't my stupid money, though.

One thing I'll throw in as an old players is that when I started playing, if you played disc golf you were "us." When David Greenwell or Dr. Rick talked about "us" back in the day, I felt like they were talking about them and me and all of us. Now we seem to have a Pro/Am split. When Feldberg or Jenkins or any of the top Open players talk, I don't think they are talking about me at all. I'm a lowly bagger AM. I'm a "them. Maybe it's just an inevitable side effect of the sport getting bigger. Maybe it's the result of some crappy leadership. Either way, it's there. This deal is just going to push the Thems farther away from the rest of Us, and that in the long run could stand to do a lot more harm than a guy shooting 70's and 90's "winning" the USDGC.

 

[Vegan Ray]

I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so.

/thread

 

[jubuttib]

I hate to say I told you so

Like hell you do.

 

[DigIt]

I hate to say I told you so

Like hell you do.

/thread

 

[Jesse B 707]

Its just hippies throwing frisbees at barbecues......who gives a shit?

 

[Crosseyed0811]

I wish everyone could have heard what Dave Feldberg had to say about the tournament after the final round Saturday. He said he was very skeptical but playing in the tournament completely changed his mind and he was very disappointed in the other pro's bashing the event in the social media world rather than giving it a shot and seeing what it was like.

 

[Vegan Ray]

Fake USDGC = Innova's baby.
Innova = Feldberg's livelihood.
Feldberg praises fake USDGC.
Coincidence? I think not.

 

[jubuttib]

I wish everyone could have heard what Dave Feldberg had to say about the tournament after the final round Saturday. He said he was very skeptical but playing in the tournament completely changed his mind and he was very disappointed in the other pro's bashing the event in the social media world rather than giving it a shot and seeing what it was like.

The idea isn't totally flawed. Pro/Am stuff can work very well. But when you get a US champion that lost to the fourth place by 92 throws... That's almost a round and a half by Feldy's projection.

Not a bad concept, but it needs two things: 1) Adjustments 2) Stay the fuck out of serious championships.

 

[abcd]

So what was the payout ? Mix of cash and plastic?