2008 USDGC (Part 1) Doubles

2008 USDGC Doubles

So I arrived in Charlotte, NC on Wednesday night before the start of the USDGC Doubles Championship. I made the 8 hour drive down from Ohio with my friend Steve Mills and pulled up to Billy Crump’s house to spend the weekend. Feldberg, Climo and Schultz just arrived that day as well, early enough to get some rounds in at Winthrop Gold, Renaissance and Honests Nest in preparation for the Doubles event. The Doubles Teams were Feldberg and I, Schultz and Schweberger, Climo and Brinster, and Orum and Barsby to name a few. It was due to be a super competitive doubles competition on some technical Carolina courses.

Thursday we made a trip out to Wintrop the very next day to get in a solid day of wind practice in preparation for the doubles and for the singles later on the following week. It might have been the most wind that I have ever experienced on that course, making hole 17 one of the hardest holes ever just trying to land a shot in play anywhere on the green. The ropes seemed the tightest that they have ever been on many of the holes making the course at least 2 to 3 strokes harder in my opinion with a lot of the OB’s closer to many of the downhill slopes and surrounding many of the baskets.

On Friday, Billy Crump made arrangements to record a Worst-Shot Doubles Clash out at Hornets Nest but it was cancelled that morning due to mass amounts of rain that we experienced throughout the night into the remainder of the next day. Not the kind of weather that you want to worst shot doubles in, we also did not want to damage the expensive video equipment. We put off the video until Monday morning so that we could show the course at its best in better conditions.

2008 USDGC Doubles

The USDGC Doubles Championship started on Saturday morning at Hornets Nest in the downpour rain. Some teams decided not to play due to the weather and due to the amount of teams that actually signed up. Climo had to pull out of the event due to a hip injury and did not want to risk hurting it worst with the start of USDGC the following week. So Brinster teamed up with Ken “Tank” Franks that morning to join in on the action. The rain soon let up after the pre-round warmups.

The first round we started off playing an alternate shot format on Hornets Nest, being one of the tighter woods courses on tour. We played pretty consistent only missing a few drives and putts throughout the round, it that placed us in 3rd place after the first round of play shooting a 52. Michael Johansen and Jeremy Koling were leading the pack with a 47.

The 2nd round was played out at Renaissance Park, a great combination of wooded to moderately woods holes with a few shots to open up on throughout the round. That round was a straight up best shot doubles format and we were paired up with Disc Golf Legends – Stan McDaniel and Joe Mela. It was a Stan McDaniel designed course, so he knew that course better then anybody and it definitely showed as they shot a 51 for the round. We edged them out during the round shooting a mediocre 50 with lots of missed opportunities. Johansen and Koling shot a 50 as well to retain the lead with Will Schusterick and Kris Orrick shooting a 50 to move up to 2nd place 4 strokes off the lead. We remained in 3rd place still 5 strokes back going into the 3rd and final round at Winthrop Gold.

The 3rd round was held at the Winthrop Gold (USDGC) course, which for those that dont know, it is one of the most challenging and most difficult courses in the world. It has lots of of par 4’s and 5’s, with lots of open holes but also lots of OB on every hole. Trust me, its as good as it gets. We were paired up with McDaniel and Mela for the final round, what a pleasure, we could not ask for a better pairing for a doubles event. The doubles format for this round was best disc, which is a format where both players play the hole and best score between the two is then recorded. So it gives lots of opportunity to score well and it was probably the best format for us especially on this course where we have the most experience as compared to the teams ahead of us.

2008 USDGC DOubles - 3rd Round

We battled through the first 5 holes only shooting at -3 down at that point, we didn’t start to really heat up until the back 9 holes where we birdied 7 of the last 9 holes to shoot a solid 57, but we both knew that it was probably not going to be good enough with the strength of some of the teams out there. We saw the lead card absolutely tearing it up, but no one was to say what they were shooting at the time. At the end, Schultz and Schweberger shot an amazing 54 to come back to take the temporary one stroke lead on Feldberg and I until Schusterick and Orrick came in the clubhouse with a solid 56 to hold them off for a one stroke win. So we finished 3rd place 2 strokes off of 1st and 1 stroke off of 2nd.

Congratulations to Kris Orrick and Will Schusterick for being the 1st Annual USDGC Doubles Champions!!!

2008 USDGC Doubles Champions

It was a great weekend and we played some great golf on some challenging courses. I know that we should have shot a lot better the first couple of rounds on the wooded courses especially on those layouts. It was not exactly what we expected but they played great and totally deserved the hard fought win. Thanks to the Bill Jacobson and Charlotte Disc Golf Club for hosting and running this Annual Doubles tournament. Looking forward to next years USDGC Doubles event.

USDGC Singles Coming Soon…………………………..

10/28/08

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