2019-04-05 Goettingen, part 1 I'm going to play several rounds on the Goettingen course during the next days. Round one and two I played today. It was rather cold, around 10 deg C, I'd say. No wind but wet grass. Running to the course had several consequences: I was a bit exausted and not feeling comfortable, being sweaty in the cold. I had two discs with me, both in premium plastic but no towel. The discs were very slick in the hand, especially the putter. The two discs were a 158g Star Teebird and a C-Line P3. I did not bring my best discs with me, mainly because of the brutal hole 8, where all the ``fairway'' is stone steps. Thus I stayed with premium plastic and with discs I don't care as much if they get some dings. The C P3 is neither as good for putting as the D P3, nor as good for overstable throws as the Zone, thus I don't really use it much. But still, it's a P3 and flies like a new D-Line. It was the ideal disc to bring with me here, just the C-Line plastic is slick in the wet. The light Star Teebird is a disc I haven't thrown in a longer time. It does bad in any wind, but is a far flyer in nice condi- tions. I thought it'll give me just the right middle inbetween my Ch/ES and beat DX Teebirds. Unfortunately I had to realize that it showed quite some turn. I'm not sure if that was a result of the slickness and thus bad releases. I previously have used it only for straight distance shots during training. The problems today showed up when I wanted to have it do different things. Hyzer angles were a huge problem to get right. The S TB worked well for drives on the holes 1, 2, 6 and 10. Hole 1 is a forehand hyzer, the rest are just straight shots with minimal fade wanted. That was what the light S TB did well. For all the rest I would rather have used the P3, which is more dependable. Let's go through the holes ... On hole 1 I could score a birdie on both rounds. It were my only birdies. The S TB FH drives were unspectacular, the putts from 6-8 meters were great. I simply made them ... without thinking much. :-) There my game has much improved during the last months. Mainly because of more spin-putting. Hole 2 was a safe par both rounds. The S TB flew nicely those 95m slightly downhill. Birdies would have been possible. The putts were just a bit too long. Hole 3 was fine in round one (par) but I hit a tree and kicked OB in round two (2-bogey). All shots with the P3 on that hole. The 47m heavily wooded hole 4 was a huge mess. I hit trees and went OB in both rounds, scoring 6 and 5! Next time I'll simply jump-putt two times for par. ;-) The 115m long hole 5 was a mess both rounds, but differently. In the first round I had not enough hyzer on the S TB and it leaked way right onto the sports field. The next shot was over- corrected. At that point I had not travelled half the way to the basket, but had already made 115m of way. %-) Anyways, in round two the first S TB drive was okay, but then I shanked the P3 upshot in a hilarious way, landing in the bushes left. Well, 2- bogeys both rounds. (For my distance the hole plays like a par-4. With three P3 shots the 4 is well possible.) After the bleeding, a good hole again: Hole 6 was a nice straight drive with the S TB both rounds with putts that were just a bit too far, scoring pars. Hole 7 is tricky: You have to throw over a handrail, uphill below tree branches, below further three branches, up a slope on the left side to the basket, which sits on the top of the slope. Now as I reconsider the hole, an anny-flex RHBH with a fast over- stable disc seems to be the only real option on this hole. This shot would get you over the handrail, below the branches and fi- nally towards the basket on the slope. With the S TB I had to throw a slight hyzer flip, which tightens the height angle, thus I got caught in the branches both times. Furthermore, I was not able to go to the right and fade/skip back left. (We'll see how this hole plays with the S EG. It's not the Felon, but it should do just fine.) Had a bogey both rounds. The disc-frightening hole 8: all paving stone stepss. Went FH with the S TB the first time, leaked too much left, landed down the steps, threw a P3 thumber right under the basket. Next round I went FH with the P3, which was much better, as it has much more HSS. Had a jump-putt approach. Easy pars both rounds. Hole 9: Last time I thought I could throw a thumber there. The shape of the hole would make that a great option, but now I had to realize that there is no room above to throw a thumber. Unfor- tunately, it's not clear how wide the teepad is, as there are no marks. If it's all the way to the left wall, then you could sneak a hyzer through inbetween the lamp post mando and the bushes, for a quite easy shot, but it seems that this is not intended, thus I omitted this option. Other than that, a low skipping FH is the only line left (or maybe a low-line turnover if you have flippy discs). Scored par and bogey. Hole 10 actually is not that easy: It's 100m, you have to hit a (wide enough) gap, land somewhere on the long-stretched OB- bordered peninsula where the basket sits. Still, I had no prob- lems scoring pars here. It's just, that straight shots are no problem with the S TB, everything else is. Hole 11 goes over a big OB parking lot. There is no drop zone marked, thus landing on the parking lot would result practically in a rethrow! (It would be nice if the tee sign would clarify the situation explicitely.) Rethrowing is to be avoided at all cost. First round I ensured to fade left (the safe side) but was a bit short. I shot a bogey. The second round I put a bit more juice into the drive, which made the S TB to turn a bit more and thus fly straight into the bushes beyond the OB. At least no (practi- cal) rethrow, but I had to simply pitch back out because there was no line at all. The third shot still had no line to the basket. The fourth shot was what you would like to have as your second shot, but still no real putt, but at least in long putt distance and with an only half-obstructed line to the basket. Shot a 5 the second round. Last hole (12) is kind of a tunnel shot. I should practice these much more! First round I went too high and too right with the S TB, hitting some branches and dropping after a third of the way, then threw a fine P3 approach (more of a drive) and sank the longer putt for par. Second round I gave the S TB a bit more hyzer, which was a bit too much, landed in jail on the left side, had to fight into the open, but at least not worse than bogey. The course is 12 holes, each par-3, making the course par 36. In the first round I shot 42 (+6), mainly because of the multiple bogeys on holes 4 and 5. In the second round I shot 46 (+10) with more bad holes but as well with major problems on holes 4 and 5. When I had played with only the JB Zone last year, I was quite a bit better. ;-) Probably I would have been better as well if I had played with the P3 only. The next time I'll take the S EG instead of the light S TB. We'll see how that'll work out. And maybe I should do a P3-only round too, just for the record. http://marmaro.de/discgolf/ markus schnalke