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| Calais Gold |
Going into the Calais weekend, I had
given you my top five candidates to take down the Pro Division. I
told you that Jeff Spring, Chris Young, Mike Habets, Johnny Betts,
and Sean Bleything had a chance at winning. As usual, the Circle
Three Predictions were a little bit off. The story of the day, at
least from our perspective up north, was Chris Mayone. His scores of
66 and 69 were good enough for a first place tie in Pro Open and a
subsequent playoff. Although Mayone did not prevail in said playoff,
he did put forth an outstanding performance, one good enough to
surprise many of us (and himself) as well as earn the Circle Three
Headline.
Once again, Vermont was plagued by the
last minute out-of-town addition who took down the Pro field. This
time around it was former Vermont regular Pete Johnson. He
absolutely crushed Calais Golds on the first round, shooting a 61 and
grabbing a five stroke lead on the next closest Pro heading into round two.
Johnson's second round was a little more down to earth, at 74
strokes. That allowed Mayone and his steady play to claw his way
back for the playoff. Although Johnson did prevail on the day, Chris
Mayone prevailed in our hearts.
Mayone is an interesting player. He's
eligible to play in either Pro Masters or Pro Grandmasters, if he so
chose. Plus, he's coming off some surgery, so no one would complain
if he hid in one of the age protected divisions. But, that's not
Mayone's style. He's a big boy who plays big boy disc golf, so for
him, it's Pro Open or nothing. And that's commendable.
I have to touch on the fact that I
didn't include him in my Calais prediction. I kind of felt bad after
he had such a great day. Was it unfair of me to skip right over him?
For a minute, I thought so. Then I found out that Mayone wasn't
even confident enough in himself to enter the Pro Side Pot. So, if
he wasn't even rooting for himself, then I shouldn't feel so bad not
picking him to win.
Either way, props to Chris Mayone. He
worked his way through two rounds at a very challenging course. And
as Chris Young said, he did it “very smoothly.” Nice work,
Mayone. Months ago I said I'd be happy to give you some props if you
earned it, so here you are.
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| Bleything, sampling some of the finer things. |
And then...
*Although the Pro Division had some
shakeups, the top 3 remain the same. Jeff Spring is in 1st
with 416.33 points, Chris Young is a close 2nd with 403.65
points and Habets remains in 3rd with 349.75. I should
note that Habets had his best finish (netting 76.92 points) since
winning Pinnacle. Maybe he's been reading this blog. Anyway, the
top five is rounded out with a resurgent Dave Frothingham in 4th
(325.53 points) and the ever steady James Beaulieu in 5th
(287.77 points).
*This season, and consequently each
tournament still remaining, is really starting to mean something.
We've finished 7 of the Green Mountain Point Series events and only 3
remain. For those Pros who want to make a move, time is running out.
And let's not forget that Jeff Spring is the reigning Wrighstville
Open champ, so I doubt he'll be giving that one away without a
legendary battle.
*Rivalry Watch. I owe you a few
updates on the Rivalry Watch. I was neglectful and didn't square up
our results after the LPO, so we'll do that and then move onto the
Calais wrap-up. It's suffice to say that those disc golfers I was
beating up on early in the season have had enough of my blathering
and are ready to win the Rivalry Watch. Results are much closer than
they used to be.
So, going in to the LPO, my record was
a respectable 10-6. My score on the day for the Sugarbush courses
was a pretty lame 124. I was easily bested by Justin DeVico and Seth
McQuade. I beat Ira Divoll (Thanks, Ira!) and we didn't see Spencer
Weatherholt, Jim Conroy, Dave Carter or Andy Powell at the LPO. So,
on the day, I only had 3 rivals present and 2 of them beat me. That
puts me at 1-2 on the day and 11-8 on the season (after LPO).
Calais, however, was filled with
rivals. I finished the day with a pretty poor 162. That means that
Jim Conroy beat me. Seth McQuade, who won AM 1, obviously beat me.
Ira Divoll placed in the money, and beat me, as did Justin DeVico.
Spencer Weatherholt got me by a stroke, and I was fortunate enough to
play the second round with him and see it with my own two eyes.
Thankfully Dave Carter was nice enough to DNF and gift me a win. So,
at Calais, I got destroyed. I was 1-5 on the day. Now I'm 12-13,
the first time I've had a losing record against the rivals this year.
Nice work, boys, but thankfully the
season ain't over yet.
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| Spencer, hitting good putts right in my face. |
*Pro Prediction Follow Up: I picked
Spring/Young/Bleything for the win/place/show. Spring and Young
didn't have enough to hang tough at Calais, but Bleything did end up
in third. So, my predictions weren't legendary, but if you think you
would have picked Johnson/Mayone/Bleything ahead of time, then you're
just kidding yourself.
*AM 1. Yes, I almost forgot about this
one. I played the first round with Seth McQuade, who wasn't very
happy with his disc golfing and talked about quitting and caddying
for his wife. I was trying to convince him to drop me off at the
Three Penny Tap Room before the second round started. Neither on of
those things happened, and instead, McQuade came back from behind in
the second round and won the division by two strokes. Nice work,
Seth. That'll shake up the AM 1 division race. However, we're not
going to dive into that today. The work on the street is that Chris
Young is going to be bringing us an AM 1 follow-up later this week.
Until then, we'll hold off on the AM 1 analysis.
*D(NF) Carter. That is all.
*Calais. What a special place. The
course always looks immaculate, I think, but this time it was
especially fantastic. The perfect weather didn't hurt, but the time
and energy that goes into that course is really legendary. I'd like
to extend a special thanks to all the folks who work hard there, but
especially to Paul Olander. Paul is the real godfather of disc golf
in Vermont, even though I throw that term around a lot. He does so
much to make our sport and his course fantastic. Thanks again, Paul.
*Aaron Moore. What a nice guy. Plus,
an excellent TD. From my end things went very smoothly and Aaron is
a big person to thank for that. Plus, he didn't even play in the
tournament. Talk about commitment. Thanks again, Aaron.
*Worlds Update. Andy Powell shared a story with me about a Circle Three he carded at the Worlds. It's a great story. He sailed a huge drive that went past the basket, down a hill and out of bounds. In true Circle Three fashion he nailed the putt. I figured it was worth mentioning. It's also worth mentioning that this was the turning point for Andy's Worlds appearance. Not a positive turning point, but a turning point that sent his play spiraling out of control. Like I said, true Circle Three fashion.
*The final word this time goes to me.
I don't often take it, but it's my blog and I'll do it if I want to.
I'd like to make a pitch for the formats of tournaments at Calais.
No, it's not my course and no I wasn't the tournament director, so I
probably don't have much to complain about. But complaining is what
started this website and complaining is what keeps me going.
Personally, I think that two rounds of Golds for amateur players,
even advanced amateurs, is a little too much. Sure, we're just one
step away from Pros, so you could argue that two rounds of Golds is
good practice for us, but I think it could be done differently. If
it were up to me, I'd have amateurs play a round of Golds and a round
of Blues. Let's be honest, Blues are still challenging (and it's also
a beautiful layout) so why not let amateurs play a round of each?
Maybe we can get this in place before the Vermont State Finals...
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