bowling green

i think bowling green this year was horrible it was ran extreamly poorly and the pay outs where so awful 1st place of int only recieve 75 funny money and this crappy coffee mug that u can hardly read what it says. i mean when u beat out 200 people you think you would get alittle bit better trophy anyone feel the same way about this tournament

[Bruce Brakel]

The PDGA could change this. It would be a simple matter to report the pro and am value in the tournament stats. The TD report calculates that number, or it used to.

The fact that the PDGA has resisted for years the suggestion that they include that stat on the tournament results page really says something. It says, "Pay your dues and shut up."

[Scott Kickbusch]

I can't comment on the event as I was not there. However I'm home sick today so I'll make someone mad on the Internet. There has been mention of lack of press coverage. I've been getting Google updates on "disc golf" and I have as of yet not seen an on line article from the mainstream press on the biggest disc golf event of the year. That is not to say none made it into print, but I have not seen one.

I also went to the Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce site. They have a calendar of events that had 10 events listed for Sat and eight for Sun. No mention of the biggest disc golf tournament there. There is a link to "Disc Golf" on the recreation tab that show a map of courses. For most of the other activities there is a link to another site dedicated to enthusiasts. No link to the Bowling Green Disc Golf Club is provided.

We shouldn't be all that surprised that no one knows what we are doing when we don't take all the steps to get the word out. As it stands right now, almost no one outside the family of disc golf is aware of Bowling Green Ams. If the goal is to attract spectators to our events, this will have to change.

Now for a disc golfer, Bowling Green Am's is a really big deal. It draws 720 people! Really, folks. I live in a small town and we draw more than 720 people for a single High School football game. 720 participants with no spectators is not really a big deal in the grand scheme of tourism dollars.

I've been to Bowling Green for an event at the National Corvette Museum. There were hundreds of people there with cars and THOUSANDS of spectators. The Museum holds 10-12 events a year and attract a group of people who don't complain if they don't win their entry fee back in merchandise. Actually, the Corvette guys lay down some serious cash when they are in town. The amount of revenue any one of those shows brings into Bowling Green dwarfs Bowling Green Ams. I saw a lot of people talking before the event about spending $2.00 bills to let local merchants know how much money we spend in their community. I'm afraid all the money disc golf generated for the weekend would amount to a big "ho-hum."

Yes, the sport is growing. Yes, tournaments are getting bigger. Yes, there are more courses and more players. However, we have yet to grow into the numbers that would make a blip on the radar screen in mainstream America. A lot of work still needs to be done if that is the goal.

[Scott Kickbusch]

My point is keeping things in perspective. If you went to any Chamber of Commerce and said "would you like me to attract 720 people to the community this weekend," of course they would give you an enthusiastic yes. However, Bowling Green Am's-our biggest event anywhere-will not generate anywhere close to the revenue that a single Western Kentucky basketball game or an event at the Capital Arts Center will. I think some people have lost the perspective of exactly what we are talking about here. Some people mistakenly think that because Bowling Green Ams is the biggest event we have that it is the biggest thing going in Bowling Green. It's not. Not even close.

So, it's not that the hotels and restaurants don't care. It is just that they don't care nearly as much about this event as we do.

[Will Corey]

here is some local coverage..

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_doc...

[Matt Travis]

tell me about it Matthew Rodgers is a bagger lol lol lol lol 660 bombs off the tee playing am are you joking

[Smokey]

I think this is a funny topic. Seems like a lot of baggers complaining. BG is strictly a points tourney. The money that is paid for the tourney is put into players packs and deep payout. This is to make the people who didn't play up to their standards satisfied with the tourney pay-outs. Like Terry and Ben say, if you are not happy move up to a true competitive class!

[Matt Travis]

or..... I hears of this site that hanicaps golfers... Thats a great idea for match play... Get the money flowin on some skins..

[Justin Gill]

i have not been able to go back to BG since i was there in 05... but from what i have seen... this is what i've taken from this discussion AS ADVICE FOR THE STAFF OF BGAMs in 2009:

1 -- out of 256 AM1's and with a probable maximum of 85 players in contention for the FINAL 9, have the FINAL 9 start within an HOUR and a HALF from the last AM1 card brought in...

2 -- have AM1 play the original 4 courses every year... if you'd like to play the four BEST courses in town... move up to the HIGHEST AM division... simple logic here... from the pictures i have seen from PHIL MOORE, it should NOT be the FINAL 9 course... bring the FINAL 9 to the best course in BG, KY: Kereiakes!

---------- lastly, and more importantly: ------------
3 -- if you are going to set a CAP for the tournament, MAKE SURE that you can fill every players pack with the same quality and care for every PLAYER! higher divisions with higher entry fees should have the nicest player packs, and within each division: MAKE SURE EACH PLAYER'S PACK IS IDENTICAL IN VALUE!

if you want to run an A-tier, make it A+...

if you are going to have 720 players... make sure you have enough help!


---the random deuce guy

[Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun]

Guys, I am going to lose some friends over this, but I am warning you now that very soon I will delete any post that uses the word "bitch" or "bitching" or "bitches"!

There are a lot of ways to express the same feelings that do NOT make the network uncomfortable for women.

I'm married to one. You only wish you were married to her. (Find your own.) Get rid of those phrases from your vocabulary.

[Bruce Brakel]

Sorry. I clearly used it as an adjective to describe the thread itself, and not any woman or player. Assuming i did use it. I meant too. Maybe I forgot.

[matthew rodgers]

travis im deffinitly not a bagger your a much bigger bagger then me i just got a bigger arm

[jharrski]

fun times, wished Id played better, more people throwin father every year
this was my 2nd- I played last yr- yes mostly for the people, points and weather
nEway my .02

Id say start the final9 as soon as possible to get it n
payout people as soon as its figured
plaster some signage on the scorecard caddies saying where that pool's playing sunday (yeah we went to the wrong course relying on the pre-tourney intraweb info- 'sall good we made it no prob but frustrating-- yeah it was right in the book- my fault...)
lots of players said they liked playing with 33' circles painted- more work but a nice touch at least on the flatter holes

seems like the players meeting could mention/remind folks about our ettykett with regards to chatter and line of sight- in other words be respectfully aware of who can hear you and stay back until its your turn- its not a race to the next teepad...( I had great groups just think sometimes walking ahead to save time spends more when a guy's gotta wait for you to stand still- the golfgame seems to flow better when yer outta people's way is all Im sayin)

a big ol diagram of what it takes to play casual water correctly could have been useful for phillipmorris- I thought landing beyond it and rolling back into it still meant you had to stand behind your lie even if that means standing in a line w/the basket&disc back short of being across the puddle/pond, or stand in the water on your lie of course, looked as though some players wanted their meter of dry footing , /never came up w/our group, no idea how it got handled by everyone- good place for a marshall/spotter...

how about the basket raffle as an incentive to be at the satnite party- gotta believe many names in the box were well on their way home by the time that got drawn so as my odds got better we stayed til it happened prob an hour or more later than we needed to...
thought it'd also be kewl to have the players judge the best bagtag design or something- hang some on a board for us to check out -thread a locking cable thru so mine don't get jacked!heh...

part of the closing ceremony that no one wants stay for and wait thru could be some posterboard factiods put together by a volunteer minister of BS stats like where and when each ace was hit, average score of each course, highest scoring holes per course, birdie/bogey ratios of the top five or something- kinda like a weekend summary taped to the wall you can read at any time, golfers love stats and where their own stack up- summaries of exceptional holes too much?
/thinkin out loud here franklin15 1tee to left tree bouce right int water,2out3rd hyzer out over road,4out5th run baket, kick off top into river6out7turbo from the prickers to roll away back in water, 8out 9th putt to facemask, 10in, triple circle...or somethin- 1s, long 2s, tough 3s, or 10s and up only please;)...


finishing the biggest tourney of the year at a place where you can't have a beer is also counter-intuitive to many - hope the sheriffs and the park people weren't to bent outta shape about it...

all in all good times- I go for good people, good weather, and points- well I met lots of cool people so 1 out of 3 ain't bad...
look forward to playin masters next year and maybe stayin in the top pool...
big thanks to all who helped