Another post-Worlds Lame Blog Entry

For those of you who have not read enough of these already.

We camped at Coldbrook. All the campers, disc golfers and not, were respectful of the quiet hours. That was very nice. I've never had that experience in a public improved campground before, although it seems common in the private campgrounds. Kelsey and Kira caught fireflies and made a fireflyarium out of the picnic table tant thing. We foraged for wood and made one-match fires. We cooked hobo pies and smores.

Doubles. Diana and I played doubles just for the fun. We beat some of the teams we wanted to beat, but Diana was a little off her game. We took last prizes. The main thing is the Dream Team won. I got Kelsey partnered up with the highest rated local boy I could find. They took a small lead in the best shot morning round. Then in alternating shot they crushed the opposition. When you crush in alternating mixed, that means the girl stepped up. Now that Kelsey has won one, she can be my partner at future World Mixed Doubles. Until she wins one for me!

Singles. I played Advanced with the boys instead of playing with the old men. All the bagging in the age protected divisions, at both ends of the age spectrum, was a little nauseating. So, since I wasn't a contender in either division, I decided to play with the boys in Advanced.

I'm really glad I did. I played well for me. I made the semi-finals. I beat 220 or so younger men and approximately one older man. I did not get so worn out I'll be crippled for a year -- providing i take a month off right now! I did especially well on the harder courses. At Timber Ridge I played well enough to beat the Open A pool cut line. 986 rated.

Kelsey started hot in singles and so did the Frazier girl. Kelsey stayed hot and had a 15 throw lead by mid way. A 983 rated round at Begg helped. Then she let up a little and Michelle closed within seven. I got to walk with Kelsey for the Final 9. She was out of gas but so was Michelle. Paige made a big move. If it had been a Final 18 on that course, Paige might have been the winner.

Kira did fine. She finished middle of the Advanced Women pack. 14 years old. Not bad.

Diana was disappointed with her performance. That happens. She had serious head game problems. I'm starting to find a solution for my head game problems. I think that was the big difference between her Worlds and mine. I have a multi-layered strategy for dealing with head game problems now, but it all comes down to perspective.

[Bruce Brakel]

Update: The official ratings came out today. Kelsey's good round was 991 rated. So was mine. I retain the crown. It's a family tradition.

[Tree]

Yes, I spent the Saturday night after the Worlds Awards in the tent with the girls. It was a nice unwind before my trip home. I was shocked to wake up and find out it was 8:40am......Kira has never slept that late before when I've slept at your place. We all must have been tired!!

[Jon Brakel]

I once had a category 13 miss my head by about a foot. The reason that I would call it a category 13 is that Clint Eastwood was riding on top of it. Of course it doesn't really count because I woke in a pool of sweat...it was a fever dream.

[Bruce Brakel]

For me the past runs away at the same speed the future runs up to become the present.

Well, I remember she was at the fireworks. She was in and out all week, sober, emotionally stable, fully clothed, what's to remember?

But, yeah, now I remember: When we got back from doing fireworks I went down the way to talk to the Flint Town Flyerz to see if they had heard the fireworks. We chatted for a while. When I got back the girls had taken the mattress from the top bunk out to the tent to have a third bed and they all had gone to bed I think. I helped her take down the scoring tent. That was probably Saturday.

The other fun thing we did was watch and categorize the shooting stars on the best shooting star night. The Perseids peaked in the middle of the week on the night when none of us had an early tee time the next day. We use a 10 point scale, although theoretically a shooting star could go all the way to 12 or 13 and you might live to blog about it. A Category 10 shooting star goes all the way across the sky, it has color, sound, a textured tail, and no one has an excuse for not seeing it. And for each feature that is missing, you downgrade it one category. Category 6 lacks all those impressive features but is still a big long one. Anything below Category 6 is pretty subjective. We had several Category 7s, all the way across the sky and everybody saw it. We had no color, sound or texture. Kelsey and I once saw a Category 10 during the Leonids or Orionids in November or October when Kelsey was little.

[Jon Brakel]

I don't know how you can't remember that Becky stayed with you guys the last night...it was two WEEKS ago, not two years!!!

[Bruce Brakel]

We did some fireworks, but not a lot. I was a little anxious about getting caught. We did them on the course in a secluded location. The fireworks were Michigan-legal but the park had a rule against fireworks. The fireworks were like a box of chocolates. We never knew what we'd get. Some snapped like firecrackers and some screeched. I didn't want to get kicked out of the park in the middle of the night.

I hope it was a good enough show for Becky. She stayed an extra night for the fireworks, but she stayed with us, right? I thought she camped with the girls in their tent but now I'm not sure about that. But I think she also wanted to stay an extra night for the denounment.

I tried to shoo all the fireflies out of the scorer's tent on the last night and brush off all the other bugs. I'm sure you've got some Michigan bugs in there though. Hopefully you didn't get any of our Japanese and Chinese bugs, but you'll get them eventually.

On the topic of my faulty memory, this was funny. Once I had the big tent all cleaned up, broken down, folded up and rolled up in the ritualistic manner necessary to fit it back into its bag, at the very end of rolling it up and squeezing out the air, I realized they had left a water bottle in it. So I said, How come there's a water bottle in this? I didn't see a water bottle when we swept it out. Who put this water bottle in here? And Kelsey said, it is in the zipper pocket where you never see it. We always put the tent away with the water bottle in it. Its a family tradition. And I said, It's a tradition? I don't remember this tradition. And Kelsey said, That's a tradition too. You always say you don't remember this tradition. And then I said, Well, it's too much work to unroll the tent and get it out, but this is the last time for this tradition. And Kira said, "You always say that too. Its a family tradition."

We did more fireworks at home, or really, at Jenny's house. Jenny wanted to play Worlds but her boss would not give her the time off, or she was afraid to ask. She's a junior in college and just started working as a teaching assistant but she's only 18 years old, so she's kind of intimidated by the professor who is her boss. She's going away for college this year for the first time, like Kelsey.

So I'm not sure if you were aware, Jon, but we held the biggest Secret Sturgeon Full Moon Championship ever. Over 800 players on eight courses and only maybe six or seven even knew. When we bought the fireworks at the church fireworks tent Becky-from-church-Becky wanted to know if she and Jeff could bring snacks. So I told Becky-from-church-Becky that it was for the our Sturgeon Full Moon celebration in August. I told her that if the church can celebrate pagan holidays under the guise of Christmas and Easter, we can celebrate the Sturgeon Full Moon under the guise of, well, no guise whatsoever. Its a family tradition!

[Jayne]

Did we have fireworks? Not at Shady Bend where we camped.

[Jon Brakel]

Becky was looking forward to the fire works the last night at Coldbrook. Did you have fireworks?

[Jayne]

So true. I knew they were both junior eligible, and I have a male friend in the same boat. Although, he has been playing open out here in MN but hasn't accepted cash. He doesn't see the point in it and neither does anyone else. Why move up so early? People were calling him a bagger in the Advanced field at Worlds after he shot a hot round of 52 at Kimball. He ended up being in the top 75, barely. Everyone just wants a chance to jump on someone who is better than them and call them a bagger.

[Bruce Brakel]

Thanks for the kind words. Kelsey reads stuff here from time to time but I'll mention your post to her.

I don't think anyone is sandbagging if they've never won one. Kelsey won't be playing Advanced Women at Worlds next year. That would be sandbagging. And I don't think a junior is ever sandbagging for playing in an adult amateur division. No one can realistically expect that a junior should have to go pro. {Dude, you're too good to finish high school. Go pro already!} I thought it was really cool that the three top Advanced Women were all junior eligible but were too legit to play juniors. And even cooler that there were at least three other juniors in the Advanced Women's field. Quite a contrast to what is going on with the junior boys.

And you're not sandbagging if you're old like Terry Calhoun or me and you're on the back side of your game. I might play Am Grand next year, but I've never won one. When I was young, [checking the trophy] when I was 45, I won a B-tier in Advanced. That's the best i've ever done and I'm not really getting better. I'm a little cagier, a little more experienced for courses that require experience, but i'm not really getting better.