2017-11-01 Big Tournament with Doubles Today, I played my second big tournament, the 3. DGCA Suedstaatenturnier in Ehningen. [0] The first big tournament I played was in March. Back then the long holes were too much for me, I couldn't cope with them, my motivation dropped as it simply overwhelmed me then. Now I played on the same course, but on a more normal layout, not the safari one. The difficulty was about the same, I'd say. It were 18 holes with Par 55 (one Par-4 hole). Back then I had huge problems with nose-up and lacked the ability to throw long annies, for example. During summer I have improved, thus being much more prepared for the tournament than I had been in spring. The tournament format was singles in the morning and best shot doubles in the afternoon. It was the first time I played doubles. My bag consisted of: - D-Line P2 (2x) - Zero Hard Pure - ESP Zone - ESP Comet - Q JLS - DX Teebird - Champ Teebird - Star Eagle-X - Star Valkyrie Let's start with the singles round in the morning. I putted with the P2s. I approached with the Pure and Zone, seldom I used the Comet. For drives I used the DX Teebird most times, which now is beat-in and goes straight. Up to now I hadn't used it much, but today, I realized why DX Teebirds are great discs. This DX Tee- bird became my disc of the day! For overstable drives I threw the Champion Teebird. Sometimes I drove with the Valkyrie, but would rather have used the DX Teebird as well in these cases. The JLS and Eagle saw no air time at all. Sometimes I would have liked to have my Star Teebird with me, which is right between the two oth- er Teebirds. In consequence, next time, I rather go with a bunch of Teebirds than with several different molds. My two biggest failures were a risky putt which resulted in a rollaway -- I should have layed up --, and the island misses. I missed the island downhilll with the Pure to the right. In the afternoon I missed it with the Comet to the left. :-/ To my de- fence: This situation (downhill onto an island) is one that I haven't encountered before. It was difficult calculating what would happen if I did this or that, and how much release angle would be necessary and how much would be too much. (At least I was not the only one to miss the island.) My approaches in general landed too far from the basket. This is mainly caused by little practice. When I had played recently, then it was for driving not approaching. Consequently, my drives were quite good, but my approaches not. In this first round, I started well. I had the box several times (which is unusual). After the front 9 I had a score of +3, which included one triple Bogey, another (normal) Bogey and one Birdie. I was much satisfied so far. But in the back 9 things got bad: After another triple Bogey, I had Bogeys on all remaining holes, except one ... adding another +10 to my score. My flight lead from the first half changed into being last in my flight at the end. In the back 9, my drives still were good, it were my ap- proaches where I sucked. After round 1 I had place 42 out of 47. Three men were worse than me. This place didn't change after the doubles. Playing doubles was big fun! It's such a great format! I had the TD at my side. We were joined by Johannes, who had been in my flight in the morning, and his partner Patrick. We had a great round with a lot of fun. Yes, doubles is so much more fun! My partner Matthias, of course, was the better player, but I did add my share, especially after I got my putting going. This was my best putting streak ever. It started with a great far putt where I just felt that I would hit it, then I made them in, one after the other. This really was a confirmation of my new putting form and technique. My afternoon game was much like the one in round 1: I putted with the P2. I drove with the DX and Champ Teebirds. I approached with the Pure and, this time, more with the Comet than with the Zone. The Eagle I left in the car, the JLS I never did use. The times I picked the Valkyrie turned out bad (I better had used the DX Tee- bird ... but actually I had wished for the Star Teebird). On a short dogleg right hole, by forehand drives with the Zone turned out great. We scored -5 (50 on par 55), with 2 Bogeys, 7 Birdies and the rest Pars. More importantly: We had the box most of the time and finished one better than the others. ;-) In conclusion: I so much enjoyed playing doubles! I'd love to do that more often. The long holes don't overwhelm me any longer. I am able to play them well enough and feel ready for them. Most I suffered under bad approaches, this time. My putting form proved to be good. The DX Teebird was the disc of the day. To the next tournament I'll take two oder three Teebirds and no other drivers. [0] http://www.discgolfturnier.de/event- details.html?event_id=132&Event_Name=3_DGCA_S_uuml_dstaatenturnier http://marmaro.de/discgolf/ markus schnalke