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Okay.... It's been a while since I wrote anything and I've been hearing it from people. I can't access the Internet from my computer right now because my bank card expired and that's how I pay them. I have a new card on the way but it might take awhile.

Last off we were leaving Halbaby Kurz' house and heading for a canoe trip on the Gasconade River. We all showed up close to 'on time'. This year we had 20 people, including newcomers Tim Kremer, Mike Belchik, and some others. Dave and I teamed up again this year even after our experience of getting separated from everyone last year. This time, our canoe leaked. We had to pull to shore and empty it 10 times during the trip, and did a lot of paddling and almost no coasting. We were pretty tired by the time the trip was done. The administrator of ye olde canoe rental hut gave us some free passes for next year... so we’ve got that going for us! ;-)

With the float trip under our belts we headed for the Peoria Open in Illinois. This would be our first experience with the new PDGA Ratings based events. Al and I played in the Gold pool, with the added cash spread between all four Open divisions. Only about 20 people played in Open Gold, which had an entry fee of $100. Dave opted to play in the Silver pool, which had twice as many entrants and a lower cost of $75 to play. Sue did not play. If she had she would have been in the Pro Ferrite pool.... which was won by a man.

After everyone figured out where they were playing we all camped over at Old Man Wallis' house. There’s a ton of golfers on tour now. Mike Randolph showed up out of the blue, and Mike Belchik from California (you may know him from rec.sport.disc). There there’s Juliana and Randy Bower and their cats, along with. Cameron Todd, Mike Young, and Leslie Herndon, who have put Rivers Sherrod’s old pop-up camper back on the road. Cameron Ravenhorst (I butchered his name) and Jack Smith have been touring for a couple weeks and put a new $3,500 engine in Cam’s motor home. There are some others too. We're working our way up to 20 traveling golfers on tour now. Pretty cool.

So ... in Peoria... after the first day I'm leading the tournament. Al is close behind in 5th. Dave is in 2nd in the Silver Pool. I'm one stroke up on Russell and two up on Climo. Second day it rains. Man I hate the rain. Climo doesn’t mind the rain, and ties the course record in the 4th round. Russell doesn’t mind the rain either, he broke the course record in the 4th. I didn't, and ended up in 4th place. Al finished 6th. Not bad. I beat everyone there except Ron, Ken, and Randolph, and picked up a $323 check. Al got $190, Dave got $390 for 2nd in Silver. Juliana shot +2 the last round and took 7th in the Silver pool for some good cash. BTW +2 on McNaughton longs is very good. I shot a +1 myself...

Chuck Kennedy took a lot of complaints over weekend. Chuck is the man who came up with the player Rating System and is striving to implement it into PDGA sanctioned events. It's going to take some time. I think that it's good for disc golf in general to have touring professionals. People of high skill levels that can travel to tournaments and put on a bit of a show for the locals. New people and new ways of thinking help everyone’s games. It also makes for a tighter disc golf community. Four pools of professionals means that in the very top pool many golfers, who are trying to sustain their touring efforts, can go out and shoot well and not make a dime. I don't mean to sound bitter, but I showed up to this tournament and paid $100, then proceeded to play very well -- better than 95% of the entire field of golfers. I was beat by the best player to ever throw a disc (Climo), the current World Champion (Russell), and Mike Randolph who has been among the best in the world since he was like 10 years old or something. When all was said and done I didn't win enough money to pay for gas to the next town. That's not gonna cut it.

Enough of that. In fairness... Chuck Kennedy suggested that all added money go to the Gold pool but the TD (Wallis) decided that it wouldn't go that way. The next ratings based event is the Minnesota Majestic run by Matt Koerner, who has informed me that 'most' of the added money will go to the Gold pool.... and that there should a lot of added money too!!!! I'll let you know how it goes.

Next up..... InFlight Open, Lansing Michigan. Two years ago Juliana Bower beat Elaine King for the first time ever and won the InFlight Open. Since then Elaine has been known as second best. Could Elaine recapture some lost glory this year?

Cameron Todd has been playing well this year with SuperTour wins at Dogwood Crosstown and the Waco Charity Cup. Will he be able to best Ron Russell on one of Ron's home courses to get a hat trick? What will happen?

Type to ya soon....

- Todd

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