Monday, August 6
It's hot in my room at the moment, the air conditioning doesn't work for crap… everywhere we go it's hot. Hot hot hot. The heat index today was 108 degrees, 99 actual.
Doubles were held today, and I -- as always -- paired up with Al Shack. I think we cashed, but we left as soon as we got done playing because it was so hot. We had a good second round despite the heat. I was about passed out on my feet most of the time. Played with Teemu and Sami from Finland, they were super cool. They also commented that it was the hottest weather they'd ever experienced in their lives, it never gets this hot in Finland.
After the first round Walter Haney and Larry Leonard were at -9 during a Mark Ellis-modified alternate shot round, where both players drive, pick the one you want, then only one player shoots each lie
until the hole is completed. You can't use the same player's drive more than two times in a row. The format for the second round was best shot.
It turned into Stokely Day in the doubles competitions. The mixed doubles champs are Scott Stokely and Elaine King, followed by Cam Todd and Lesli Herndon. Divisional doubles was won by Stokely and Kevin McCoy, followed by Haney/Leonard and Schultz/Voakes. Kevin was Mr. Amazing in the second round, when they overcame a three stroke deficit. Their second round at Kaposia was -11, an incredible score.
The putting and distance competitions were held in a hot 45 mph wind. I did the putting, Dave and Avery did both. We might have qualified for putting, but didn't know for sure and didn't feel like driving to the host hotel to find out. The finals were today, but hey, it would have meant spending more time outdoors, so we didn't bother this year. I think Dave got edged out of the distance finals by a meter.
My brain has been boiling. The courses are set up so long, and there are lots of hills to climb. It's serious work, even for those of us who do this kind of thing all the time. We haven't talked to too many players because everyone goes and does what they have to do, then get back to the AC as soon as possible. Fortunately, the Minnesota Team is on the ball and has had plenty of water out for us. I drank about 10 liters of water today.
The Champion Edition Rocs that Innova brought here are getting sold like crazy. We bought 36 of them, rumors are they're selling for up to $60. Avery bought 20, Dave 10, and I bought six. They're pretty cool, as long as your hand isn't sweaty like everyone's has been for the last three days. These discs are nice and overstable like a new Roc should be. One of them has already passed the tree test and the parking lot test after John Finnegan tossed some errant shots.
Ron Russell may be having some trouble. His back has been hurting for a few weeks, and then he dropped out of doubles. He was supposed to play with Stokely. There's a rumor that he's gonna drop out completely, but we haven't seen much of him. Dave's foot hurts, he's got turf toe or something from jump putting, but he spent $80 on a new pair of insoles, so we're hoping that those help.
The players meeting last night was pretty cool. There was a video to kick it off, home footage sent by like five people, including the Jenkins family, and a guy from Hawaii who has a surfboard and a map, goes down to the ocean and looks again, then slings a bag over his shoulder and paddles off into the surf towards Minnesota.
14 countries are represented this year, and the players meeting had food dishes to represent each country if you wanted to buy in. It was already 10:30 by that time, so we got out to get some sleep.
Linda is here, and made us some spaghetti today while we were out playing doubles. Yum.
Oh, here's some news about the US DG Championships: They announced the projected purse today, and the winner this year should take home $10,000! Fifteenth place should pay $1000, and it's still $700 all the way down to 30th place. This year's entry fee will be the same at $225.
More on Tuesday!
-Todd
