2018-10-21 Suedstaatenturnier I played a tournament today, the same one as last year. We had one 18-hole round in the morning and a doubles round in the afternoon. I like this tournament a lot. We started with fog and cold weather early in the morning. In my flight were Uli and Gabriel -- two new players, which did a good job. My round included a bunch of bad holes ... tree hits, scrubs, and the like. One time I missed the mando. With a single birdie, 8 pars, 6 bogeys and 3 double-bogeys, I finished at +11. I had some nice drives. My birdie was on a long straight hole, which I drove with the DX Teebird. My bogeys were mainly caused by tree hits and some bad putts, especially the three-putt on hole 3b. The round was okay. I had good moments and not so good ones. Surely I was a bit distracted by the two new players I had with me. I couldn't so much focus on my own game. But it was nice to play with them. After this first round, I was tied for 17th (out of 26 in Open). This is okay. (A bit better would have been possible.) The doubles were formed across all classes (best with worst, and so on), which moved me to the middle of the field, pairing with Anja, which had scored just two strokes better. We made a fine team. During the first half of the round, I was usually providing the better shots, whereas she did so in the second half (where I had some really bad shots). We got three birdies and stayed bogey-free, scoring -3 (51). This doubles-round provided my highlights of today. My throws provided us with a birdie on hole 1 (great forehand drive with the ES TB). With the same ES TB on hole 6 a hyzer-skip-shot from the tee through the woods which even tickled the chains! What a drive! ... and our second birdie. Right thereafter a short dogleg right, which I parked after another skip-shot with the Felon. There was the Ace possibility again! I'm hugely happy about those skip-shots, which I tried to practice for some time now. During practice I wasn't half as successful as now, rather by accident, during the tournament. And lastly a thumber with the ES TB over big scrubs, which gave us the putt for par. Overall I placed 16th out of 26 in Open, and 18th out of 34 players in total. (Last year, I placed 42nd out of 47. This time I left not only three but ten men behind me.) There's advancement to be seen. :-) Concerning shot types, I've successfully executed: backhand drives, forehand drive, backhand skip shot, forehand skip shot, thumber, short forehand roller around a corner, long backhand anny. I've missed good turnover drives. I haven't felt it. The ones I tried failed. Maybe I couldn't deal with the wind. Overs- tability is so much more reliable with wind. In my bag were ten discs: - D P3 (3) -- putts and approaches - ESP Zone -- approaches (~ 3 shots per round) - ES Teebird -- main driver (with fade) - DX Teebird -- main driver (without fade) - Lucid Felon -- OS (1 good shot per round) - DX Leo -- turnover (1 bad shot per round) - DX Eagle -- not used - Star Eagle -- 1 bad shot in R1; swapped for a DX TB backup The putter section was fine as it was. The three P3s are con- venient. I'll stick to bagging all three. The Zone is important enough to have for those shots. Powering down a faster disc does not provide the same (no skip, brakes when top-down, ...). I didn't regret going without midranges. Who needs midranges, anyway? ;-) Out of the six drivers only three were necessary. The two Tee- birds did almost all of the work. The Felon was worth bagging. There is a big difference between the ES Teebird and the Felon. (The Champ Eagle would be almost as OS, but does not skip that much.) The Leo would have been useful for different hole layouts (there were no typical turnover holes) and with less wind. The DX Eagle, the Star Eagle, and the other DX Teebird were intended as backups only. My plan to switch from Teebirds to Eagles doesn't work out. It seems I simply like Teebirds better. It lies in the fade, I think. Those Teebirds are simple, they all are HSS (zero turn) but fade more or less, depending on plastic and wear. The Eagles all fade, but turn more or less, which provides less security to me. It's clear what a Teebird will do, after you've seen the first part of the flight -- ``Does it turn at all?'' is the only question. I think, for now, I'll stick with the Teebirds. My putting was not hugely bad but neither good. Seems I have to work on some putting routine. Whenever I'm in a tournament, I lose all putting form. In my undecidedness between push and spin putting, I drift towards my original putting form, which means very little spin, which is clearly bad. My jump-putts got me the required results, but they lack form, too. But, well, the fun today was much higher than those remaining flaws might suggest. Eventually, my double partner, Anja, gave me the disc she re- ceived for being CTP -- a prototype driver by the new FlyTec com- pany. I requested that she'd draw something on the blank upper side, which she did. She gave it to me for having fun playing doubles with me. This I can return. http://marmaro.de/discgolf/ markus schnalke