Introducing
Top Disc: Emerson 2010

This competition will showcase top amateurs from Auburn NY and surrounding areas. Players will compete for cash, prizes, and the title of the first SyracuseDisc Top Disc Champion!

The field of battle for this first series will feature Emerson Park Disc Golf Course.

This tournament is over. Thank you everyone!!!

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Top Disc

The Magnificent Seven! Who will move on??? Click here.

Emerson Park

Site of the first Top Disc challenge

Video recorded

Highlights and footage from all 3 rounds

Bracket

Two weeks of elimination challenges to reach the final four.

Top Disc Emerson Park Video recorded Bracket

Round Three

August 16, 2010

Three rounds in three weeks!

As bad as the weather was last week, the weather was near perfect tonight. Some strong winds here and there, but sunny and not too hot. All five of us played in the Finger Lakes Open the day before, so we were all pretty beat.

Thanks to the efforts of a great group of volunteers, the course never looked better. I know they did it for the FLO, but my event benefitted as well. I also took the opportunity to run around before the event and take pictures of every hole. I'm not sure who all the volunteers were, but I'm going to thank Tony, Chad, Pat, Jay Riker and Christian Hanning. I hope I got that about right.

The FLO used some stricter OB, so we used that tonight as well. The hole with the biggest difference was hole #17. There is an imaginary pond to the right of the pin, and OB behind and to the left. It tripped up a lot of people yesterday, and at least one of our contestants tonight.

Lets get to a recap. The Quickfire Challenge was about Accuracy. We started by throwing discs from across the soccer field and into the soccer net. After a few throws from everyone, Pat and Justin scored. They threw off on a mid-range CTP to the #18 basket, and Justin won. That gave him a small cash prize, and the 1/2 stroke advantage going into the round. Would it come into play?

The initial card order was Chad, Justin, Pat, and Brian. Chad and Justin jumped out to an early lead with pars on #1. Pat came back with a birdie on #3, and Brian held tough with a birdie on #8. Chad also took a circle on #3, and Brian and Justin took circles on #4. At the end of 9 holes, there was only a 2-stroke spread. It was Chad at +2, Justin and Brian at +3, and Pat at +4.

Going into the back 9, Pat gained a stroke on #11. Justin lost a stroke on #12. Pat gained another stroke on #13 to tie the leader, Chad. Brian and Justin were tied 2 strokes back. A lot of movement on #15, usually an "easy" hole with lots of pars and some birdies, but here we had a 2, 3, 4, 5, with a couple going pond OB. Justin carded the only duece, and Pat took a bogie, which left Chad in sole possession of 1st place. Pat was the only one to not birdie on #16, so dropped another place to third. Chad and Justin took bogies on #17 which brought 1st, 2nd, and 3rd within 1 stroke of each other.

Hole #18 was a little on the dark side again, but not as bad as last week. Justin and Pat both uncharacteristically yanked drives right and left, and took bogies as a result. Chad took a par, and with a 2 stroke advantage was crowned our first Top Disc champion! Justin and Pat tied for second, and I was about to initiate a playoff. That was, until I was reminded that Justin won the Quickfire, and with his half-stroke advantage, took 2nd place! Woo-hoo, congrats Chad and Justin!!!!! Pat took 3rd place, and Brian took 4th place. Brian threw a couple of double-bogies in the woods which really hurt his chances, but he still finished only 3 stokes out of first.

Congratulations to Chad, our first Top Disc champion!!!!

Round Two

August 9, 2010

The second round is in the books!

On a sad note, Brandon was not able to make it tonight. He had another commitment come up that he could not get out of. So instead of eliminating two off the cards tonight, we eliminated one plus Brandon.

The theme for this week's Quick Fire challenge was "speed". We had a putting competition to see how fast each competitor could get 5 discs in a basket from 25' out. If a disc went in, it stayed in but you had to retrieve the others and throw them from behind the line until you were done. Hopefully the video comes out and I can show you some of that. Congratulations to Justin for winning!

I put all 5 competitors on one card. Worst score would go home. Justin would have his 1/2 stroke advantage for winning the quick fire. It rained for most of the round which didn't help anyone (not the least of which the camera man). The rain wasn't hard enough to stop play. Everyone was great about it.

We started on hole 1. Justin put himself behind scoring the only bogie. Another bogie on #2, and Justin was looking at trouble early. He bounced back nicely with a couple of dueces, and the only par on #6. Tony's downfall on the front 9 was no birdies to offset his 2 bogies and one double-bogy. Brian was a little off his game and finished 3 up on the front. Chad was the only one not to card a 5 on the front 9. Two bogies and two birdies to shoot even. Pat did card a 5 on hole #6, hitting an early tree, but he also scored three birdies to finish the 9 with the best score at one down.

So going into the back 9, it was looking like a battle between Brian and Tony for the last spot. As we all know, anything can happen in the woods at Emerson, so it was still anyone's game. The card started out rough with four 4s and one five on #10. Rough start. No birdies on 11. Actually, the whole rest of the round there were only two birdies, and they were both on #16 (Chad and Tony). Chad's two over on the back blew away the competition, and Chad finished first overall with a 56. Pat lost ground to Chad, but still finished in 2nd with a respectable 59. Justin shot 6 over in the woods to finish with a 61. Brian was 7 over on the back 9 for a 62. Tony took too many 5s in the back that even his birdie on #16 couldn't help, and finished with a 67.

Conditions were definitely a factor in everyone's game, but in the end Tony is eliminated from the competition with his 67. Thank you for playing Tony!!!

Next Monday will be the 3rd and final round, and will feature Chad, Pat, Justin and Brian. Prizes awarded for 1st and 2nd. One card, 18 holes, starting on #1. If it is raining again, we will postpone for one week. The theme for the Quick Fire challenge will be "accuracy". We have some good ideas going for that, we'll see what happens!

Look for a highlights video on Wednesday. Click the Videos tab for the highlight video from last week. As far as putting together video as a tv show goes, it still goes, but slowly. We'll see what happens. I have a nice 30-second intro completed. Thanks, see you next week.  --Matt

Round One

August 2, 2010

Dim lights

5:00pm Registration: All seven participants showed up on time and ready to go. Nice start!

5:15pm Photos/Interviews: While everyone warmed up, each player got his picture taken, and some introductory footage filmed. This will hopefully be the basis for the intro to the videos.

5:40pm Quick Fire Challenge: The theme for the first Quick Fire challenge was "Consistency". Each player threw not one, but two discs at the #18 basket from around 100' out. The idea was to "ctp", or put the disc "closest to the pin". In the basket would work too! But there were none of those. Some close though. Some not so close. The twist for this contest, to emphasize consistency, was that out of the two discs you threw, only the one farthest away from the basket would count! Fourteen shots later, and we had a clear winner. Congratulations to Tony Demillo! Tony won $10 as well as a half-stroke advantage going into Round 1.

6:00pm Round 1: Players drew discs to determine their starting hole. Four discs in the bag had the #10, and three had the #1. On hole #1, we had Fred, Chad, and Brandon. On hole #10, we had Pat, Tony, Brian, and Justin. I filmed the holes #1 through #9 for both cards, so I could not eyewitness the back 9. Looking at the scorecards, here is how it looks like it went down.

Card 1 (Fred, Chad, Brandon): Brandon jumped out to an early lead, but Chad caught him at hole #6. Fred stayed competitive with only 2 bogies on the front 9. Lack of birdies hurt him here, as Chad was able to birdie 7, 8 and 9 to finish the front. Nice shooting Chad! Looking at the scorecard, it doesn't look like the back 9 went well for anybody--not unusual for Emerson of course. Brandon's 6 on #11 stands out. Fred took 6's on #12 and #13. Chad did the best job of minimizing the damage, and came out +3 for the back 9. Brandon had a nice birdie/birdie on #15 and #16. Final scores were Chad(54), Brandon(59), and Fred(68).

Card 2 (Pat, Tony, Brian, Justin): This was the group starting on #10, so I have to report what I see on the scorecards. Pat starts off with a 1-stroke lead by getting the only par on #10. And gives it all back to the group with a 5 on #11. Nice birdie on #11 Tony. Brian got hurt the worst on #12 with a 6. Pat got stung on #14 with a 6. Justin threw one into the pond on #16, a rare occurrence for him. The rest looks pretty normal, with the group getting to the parking lot with Tony+2, Brian+3, Justin+4, and Pat bringing up the rear with a +5. I met up with the group on the first tee, and one look at Pat's face told me he was in trouble. Nine holes left! Really for the most part they all just played their game and finished okay. Brian had a nice deuce on #9, but an ugly 5 on #7. Pat and Tony took the "easy" deuces on #8. Justin got his on #5. Other than that, pretty smooth sailing. Final scores were Tony(58), Justin(59), Brian(61), and Pat(61).

Final results: Unfortunately for my good friend from Syracuse, Fred's 68 put him clearly in last place for the round, and he is eliminated from the tournament. Fred was my Syracuse sneak-attack, one of several amateurs routinely kicking my butt this year at Jamesville Beach. I'd also like to thank Mike Morano for helping me with the Quick Fire ctp challenge.

Round 2 is scheduled for next Monday. There are six competitors left. The pressure will get ratcheted up quite a few notches as not one but two players will be sent packing. One person will get sent home from each card regardless of overall scores. Play your game, but you won't have to worry about what anyone is doing on the other side of the course--just you and your threesome is all that will matter!

Videos will get uploaded as soon as I can create them. Maybe 1-2 days, maybe 1-2 weeks. I'm trying for 1-2 days! Wish me luck, and see you all next week.