DGPT: Portland Open June 4-6

[AHagglund]

If the difference is so small as to be indistinguishable from random chance, who cares?

At sample sizes this small, the effect would have to be enormous to be distinguishable from random chance. Impossible to draw conclusions one way or the other. Have you looked at OTB and Portland together (or even OTB+portland+LVC)? that might be interesting.

 

[_MTL_]

I don't get the Philo obsession. I think he talks way too much.

 

[BuiltTooLong]

DGN was great as always too, but it may be time to set some ground rules for cameraman placements.

I don't get the Philo obsession. I think he talks way too much.

I think Philo is MUCH smoother than Doss and I enjoy his jargon. I didn't care for the way he attacked the camera crew toward the end there however. I mean there are people and cameras in your line of sight on almost every hole and if it were that big of deal to the player, he certainly could've asked for them to move. I noticed Simon asked a camera guy to move at one point during the round and it was no big deal.

 

[TheOtherBill]

My suggestion that no one asked for:

No camerapeople inside C2. You can get a great shot/slow mo/whatever as well from 60 as inside 30. We have the technology. For the instance Philo was talking about Johnny DG and another guy were not just on a hill above the basket (so probably directly aligned with chains) but also well inside circle 1. If you can't get a head-on camera angle for a putt or two because of an obstruction like that we can live without it.

 

[Ryan P.]

Philo is probably the 2nd best commentator I can recall (good ol' Sexy Nate is hard to beat), but I still see a lot of room for growth from all DG commentators. I agree that some of the time Philo talks too much, because I think every commentator talks too much. When the players on the course are talking, commentators should let the players be heard. It's much easier to fill air time when you're letting the players speak for themselves, you can glean things to talk about from them, and sometimes I want to hear the birds chirping or the wind blowing because that's part of the reason I play disc golf (to be in nature).

 

[dehaas]

I agree with not mentioning Elaine's name enough during the broadcast, I caught the broadcast maybe 45 minutes in and had no clue who it was. Biggest opportunity I felt was talking about the various discs the ladies were throwing. I don't know if the manufacturers are pushing for flight numbers to be pitched during the broadcast, or if she just thought they'd be helpful or what, but it just came across as a giant cluster. I totally get them wanting a list of disc descriptions and colors for the various players so they can say player x is throwing disc z here to tee off, because a lot of people watching at home are curious. Having a list of 30 discs though is just overwhelming, maybe 4-5 main drivers and a couple of other situational discs.

At one point she was fumbling with the disc name and ratings and Terry specifically said something along the lines of "yeah but those numbers are just marketing anyway".

Not a big deal though. Probably a decent chance they gave her that info as a first timer if she felt like she needed something in front of her to talk about?

 

[chevis]

Wonder if a lay up was ever on his mind? ..he was in the lead and only a few holes left, two of them very hard to get
Kind of mean to have the basket on a mound AND have OB so close that a roll often goes OB

kj was trying to play safe: his drive was very safe & also his approach. maybe he should have laid up from there (which we now know would have saved him 3 strokes), but the ob wasn't directly behind his missed putts, so running those seemed safe. unfortunate rolls happen, especially in the wind.
it's always easy to look back & see what you could/should have done; i took a 6 over the weekend & lost by 1 stroke; 4 of those throws i now know i should have done something different. will i learn from mistakes: it's possible.

 

[reezyF]

I agree with not mentioning Elaine's name enough during the broadcast, I caught the broadcast maybe 45 minutes in and had no clue who it was. Biggest opportunity I felt was talking about the various discs the ladies were throwing. I don't know if the manufacturers are pushing for flight numbers to be pitched during the broadcast, or if she just thought they'd be helpful or what, but it just came across as a giant cluster. I totally get them wanting a list of disc descriptions and colors for the various players so they can say player x is throwing disc z here to tee off, because a lot of people watching at home are curious. Having a list of 30 discs though is just overwhelming, maybe 4-5 main drivers and a couple of other situational discs.

At one point she was fumbling with the disc name and ratings and Terry specifically said something along the lines of "yeah but those numbers are just marketing anyway".

Not a big deal though. Probably a decent chance they gave her that info as a first timer if she felt like she needed something in front of her to talk about?

I liked EK's commentary and found her way more listenable than Val. She reminded me of the whispering PGA announcers, and added some funny and insightful comments.

BUT my commentator pet peeve is when they are confidently saying something that is obviously incorrect - in that vein it irked me when she went into a deep dive about Weese's speed 13 vulcan vs Cats F7 vs Paige's high speed zeus - all while Weese was clearly holding a TERN...

I like Philo in the booth, his one downside is his desire to correct people - similar to Jerm - typically on minor or subjective things like distance of a putt being 47' or 45'. If a co-commentator has minor blip it feels awkward when the smartguy commentator just HAS to correct them.

 

[DanJon]

Who did the tee times and planning for this event?

Why are the women still out on the course playing disc golf at 7:45pm on a Sunday?

Between this and Gibson injuring himself on those teepads, I'm wondering why some pros aren't calling out the DGPT?

Wonder if that would be different if it were a PDGA event?

 

[@CD-]

Field size and finishing time probably not as big of a concern with the proximity of this weeks event and next week (~1 hour drive). Original schedule was Blue Lake (shorter course than the Glendoveer one they played) for Portland Open and Riverbend (Milo) for BSF (<1 hour drive).

I don't think the commentators need to be so precise in guessing the putting distances. "Just outside the circle 1 markers" "middle of C1/C2" "Edge of C1/C2" are about all I care about. Also quoting the uDisc putting distances which are the averages of the ranges they provide (5',16',27', etc) after the fact to comment on what competitor made what distance on the green for birdie. All the commentators seem to guess a bit at where discs ended up in relation to the circles before the camera is able to locate and show the lie well. Suggest they just hold off on the speculation until the player gets there.

The real time nature of the live coverage disc choices & their flight seemed to catch Elaine shuffling through notes on the different players' selections/bags. Probably could hold off if it isn't known with certainty what was thrown till after the flight finishes, "looks like playerY threw a fairway speed disc that had a certain flight, could be one of a couple discs we know playerY carries."

Sometimes I think it would be nice to break up the monotony of the way the holes are being commentated on. Let the course sounds come through (I don't know if they have mics on all the camera positions), field reporters call a hole for the whole card from the fairway (maybe they move ahead and watch both chase and lead cards and compare/contrast landing zones or approaches for the hardest rated holes from the prior round), color commentators solo/paired up on certain holes, and let the player's comments on their own shot come through. Leave some mystery on where a disc ended up with a throw to commercial by not commenting on it or just saying "We'll see if playerZ ended up in a rough spot when we return from commercials".

 

[@CD-]

Utah Open is this weekend and looks like the MPO field is pretty split. FPO top players are all heading over and likely waiting till today to start the 10+ hour drive after the long rounds out at Glendoveer.

 

[dehaas]

At one point didn't they shift to FPO finishing last in order to minimize any back ups on the course?

 

[nothinbuttree]

I have to admit, though I was not thrilled about ANOTHER golf layout, I thought the setting at this course was beautiful. There were some more touchy up shots needed with the sand, and they did make good use of the trees. It was definitely more enjoyable as a spectator to watch than most golf layouts I have seen. That said, it seemed just too long. Some really good players just really have no shot on a course like this unless you have 550' kind of power. Nothing wrong with rewarding players who are elite in a particular skill, but some balance is needed IMHO.

It does appear the course fairly well highlighted the skills overall of the best players--I think the top 4 are the current top 4, with KJ right there as well. The truly elite distance guys (other than Eagle, who has a 100% complete skillset) were mostly outside the top 10. Simon did make a really good showing, but not because of elite distance, just great all around play. He really does seem like a better player. He and Paul seemed to have rubbed off well on each other. Drew may have proved that wrong too, sucks about his injury.

 

[@CD-]

At one point didn't they shift to FPO finishing last in order to minimize any back ups on the course?

I think the live coverage makes a bit more sense to have both the lead cards teeing off closer together and in one broadcast. Used to have the FPO field start at like 7/8am which for certain time zones couldn't attract much viewership and there was downtime between them finishing and the MPO lead cards teeing off (2x 4+ hour streams vs. 1x 6+ hour stream). Having both the FPO and MPO on the course at the same time allows for switching feeds around to fill up the broadcast and they've incorporated 'replays' for shots we may have missed viewing live from either field.

 

[Horsman]

Philo is probably the 2nd best commentator I can recall (good ol' Sexy Nate is hard to beat), but I still see a lot of room for growth from all DG commentators. I agree that some of the time Philo talks too much, because I think every commentator talks too much. When the players on the course are talking, commentators should let the players be heard. It's much easier to fill air time when you're letting the players speak for themselves, you can glean things to talk about from them, and sometimes I want to hear the birds chirping or the wind blowing because that's part of the reason I play disc golf (to be in nature).

I would vote for Ian Anderson and Terry Miller as being the top commentators in the game imo. Im a big fan of Sexton as well. EK was not a good commentator to me, maybe its because it might have been her first time but I wasnt a fan.

 

[Ryan P.]

I would vote for Ian Anderson and Terry Miller as being the top commentators in the game imo. Im a big fan of Sexton as well. EK was not a good commentator to me, maybe its because it might have been her first time but I wasnt a fan.

I like those guys too. But mainly I just want commentators to talk about half as much as they do, especially for live coverage.

 

[the_lung]

For the record, I was told on Facebook that there was a rain delay that caused the women to be on the course later than desired. However, take away those roughly 45 minutes and that means that they are STILL out on the course at 7pm on a Sunday.

I know the event had to change venues and all that, but I still don't get how a PDGA Elite Series event is deliberately scheduled with the full realization that players would be still out on the course competing at 7pm on a Sunday!

 

[dehaas]

Gatekeeper R3 coverage Earhart mentioned 1500 spectators, not sure if that was total tickets sold total or just for the final round.

At a bare minimum 1500 times the $30 price I could find for Friday only comes up to $45k. Not too shabby considering that's a bare minimum estimate. I'd expect prices would increase each day, with a break if you bought tickets for multiple days.

That right there is why you're going to see a shift away from big event public park courses over the next few years. Get the government involved and you start coughing up them cash moneys to use the space.

I think anticipating tens of thousands of spectators like a PGA event is silly, but over a 3 day event I think 1k Friday, 3k Saturday, and 5k Sunday with tiered pricing isn't too far off especially once things "get back to normal".

That's a good chunk of change on ticket sales alone, not counting any food/beverage/merch purchases over the entire weekend.

Think about it…given current situations if all the manufacturers stashed inventory to sell at DGPT events and you had access if you had a paid ticket. People are complaining lots now about companies only putting out special release stuff…it could be a lot worse…like behind a paywall…

 

[Jolt]

For the record, I was told on Facebook that there was a rain delay that caused the women to be on the course later than desired. However, take away those roughly 45 minutes and that means that they are STILL out on the course at 7pm on a Sunday.

I know the event had to change venues and all that, but I still don't get how a PDGA Elite Series event is deliberately scheduled with the full realization that players would be still out on the course competing at 7pm on a Sunday!

For US over in Europe the FPO startime is hopeless, they play in the middle of the night.
If the FPO field Tee of before the men, at least everyone in Europe can watch.

So for me the morning start times was MUCH better, they started play on friday just as i got home from work. . .now they started WAY after midnight.

 

[biscoe]

For the record, I was told on Facebook that there was a rain delay that caused the women to be on the course later than desired. However, take away those roughly 45 minutes and that means that they are STILL out on the course at 7pm on a Sunday.

I know the event had to change venues and all that, but I still don't get how a PDGA Elite Series event is deliberately scheduled with the full realization that players would be still out on the course competing at 7pm on a Sunday!

What's the big deal? Seems totally predictable to me and will likely be the case more going forward rather than less. Only so many hours in a day and events want to maximize player count.