After Gnomes

There are many ways to tell that summer in Vermont is in full swing. The hills and mountains are covered in explosions of green. The swimming holes are as scenic as ever. Sunsets over Lake Champlain are utterly beautiful. And those southern disc golfers come north in droves to take our NEFA points.

Some of the White River Gnomes.

On Saturday June 23 the White River Disc Golf Course hosted the Gnomes Challenge V. The tournament was small, capped at 72 players, but nothing short of interesting. The course was ravaged by Hurricane Irene on August 28, 2011. The bridge was ruined, trees were decimated, and baskets swept away. Some NEFA support and a small group of hard workers rehabbed the course in time for the 5^th running of Gnomes. Some replacement holes, old fairways covered in sand, and a river crossing by canoe could not stop strong NEFA players from slamming chains all day long.

The first ever disc golf tournament with a river crossing by canoe?

The Pro Open Division was won by NEFA phenom, reigning NEFA AM 1 champ, and new Pro, Stephen Economos. Despite some first round difficulties, he won the division with scores of 50 and 46 on the par 54 course. That gave him a one stroke win over fellow out-of-stater Mark Valis. Five players had a total of 99 strokes on the day to tie for third. Green Mountain disc golfers James Beaulieu, Jeff Spring, Ian Thurston, and Chris Young were in that group. Props to Thurston for a strong finish. All in all, the point series won't be too changed by any of this.

Stephen Economos takes Pro Open.

AM 1 was also won by another out-of-state player, who happens to be another member of the Economos family. Nick Economos won the division with a two-stroke lead over Vermonter Matt Cohen and third was taken by Vermonter Sayer Dwinell-Yardley. None of those folks are GMDGC members, so that won't affect the point series too much either.

Following the tourist trend, Phelan Lyman, a phenom in his own right, won AM 2 with scores of 50 and 47, which would have put him in a two way tie for 2^nd in Pro Open. Doug Wiemer, of Smuggs, Vermont fame, took 2^nd in AM 2 and claimed his first tournament ace pot prize, with a ridiculous ace on hole 10. Jordan Potvin, a Vermonter who's new to the point series took 3^rd.

Vermont is still beautiful, despite Irene's best efforts.

Thankfully there were some folks who didn't let their divisions go to out-of-staters. Al Rosa won Men's Pro Masters with a 51 on both rounds. Dan French took Men's Masters, Dana Dwinell-Yardley won Advanced Women's, Gretchen Kruesi grabbed the Intermediate Women's win, and Jayce Slesar beat the Juniors.

Let's Not Forget About:

*The Green Mountain Points Series. Things really didn't change all that much and not nearly as much as I hinted at last week. Chris Young is still winning the Pro Open Division. I bet you've never heard something like that before. Jeff Spring is still in 2^nd and Jon Moorer continues to hold 3^rd. Young now has three really bankable scores in the series (90, 95.83, and 87.5) so watch out.

*AM 1. Justin Kaulius still holds the division lead, despite getting only 33.33 points out of a poor Gnomes performance. Andy Powell is in 2^nd. About 18 points separate those positions right now. Edwin Bedell is 3^rd and only 6 ½ points from Powell.

*AM 2 and those other divisions. All around good guy Dan Walsh has the AM 2 point series lead. Doug Wiemer's 2^nd and Robbie Bean is 3^rd. In Pro Masters Josh Rappeport is in the lead and in Pro Grand Masters John Sudarsky has 1^st. Gretchen Kruesi has the lead in Intermediate Women's and Jayce Slesar has four 100's (move up) in Juniors. How about that? All the multi-person divisions just got Circle Three mentions.

*Rivalry Watch. Well, things were bound to even out a little in this race. I was 9-3 against the rivals before Gnomes. Four rivals played the tournament: Seth McQuade, Andy Powell, Spencer Weatherholt, and Justin DeVico. A 51 in the first round and an absolutely terrible 60 in the second round gave me a 51/60/111 on the day. McQuade was 49/52/101, so he beat the pants off of me. Powell was 54/53/109, so he beat me too. DeVico was just one stroke away from being bad enough to tie me, but he got me with a 55/55/110. Spencer was somehow bad enough to lose to me. Sorry, Spencer. He was 56/56/112 for the day. At Gnomes I was 1-3 against the rivals. That's the first time this season I've lost the day. Overall for the year that leaves me at 10-6. That's a .625 winning percentage, which doesn't sound very good, but is better than any team in Major League Baseball right now.

*Later in the week Circle Three will be offering some more commentary on Gnomes, some deep thinking on the Green Mountain Point Series, and a look ahead at the 5^th stop on the summer tour, the Killington Classic. Feel free to stop back.

*Thanks as always to Gretchen Kruesi for great pictures.


*The final word this time goes to the wonderful folks in Randolph. Thanks to everyone who helped out to fix up a course that took the worst of a very, very bad storm. Thank you.   

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