2020-08-30 Wiley Revisited Rather bad weather: 15C, slight west wind, wet grass and later even rain. After a long time I was back on the Wiley course. I played three rounds with a positive scoring trend. First round with bogeys on #3 and #5: +2. Second round with a birdie on #4 and a bogey on #7: E. Third round with birdies on #2, #4 and #7, and a bogey on #9: -2. Round 1: 1) Star Valkyrie, good throw, straight, 8m short (i.e. 87m throw). Missed the 8m putt. -> 3 2) D-Line P3, drifted right. Missed the 12m putt, rollaway. Then made the 12m comebacker! :-) -> 3 3) SVL, hit the big tree, dropped down. Zone backhand approach. Missed the 7m putt. -> 4 4) Zone forehand, too high, hit twigs and dropped. Another Zone forehand to approach. -> 3 5) P3 backhand, went down left to the bottom of the slope. Blind Zone forehand throw back up. Missed the 7m putt. -> 4 (A practice drive with the Zone backhand was parked!) 6) SVL forehand low hyzer. P3 layup. -> 3 (A practice drive with the Comet backhand was better.) 7) SVL forehand. Layup. -> 3 8) SVL, big hyzer, too tight, short. Zone layup. 3m putt. -> 3 (A practice drive with the Teebird was better.) 9) SVL, straight. 15m layup. -> 3 The long open holes were good. In the woods and for the hyzers I missed my lines too often. In Goettingen these lines were not re- quired. Round 2: 1) SVL, pin-high (95m) but right. Missed the 17m putt. -> 3 2) Zone backhand, high, short. Layup. -> 3 (Practice drives with the Teebird backhand and the Felon forehand were both better.) 3) SVL, backhand hyzer, again tight and short. Missed the 17m putt (half run). -> 3 (A practice drive with the Felon forhand landed pin-high (=80m) right.) 4) Zone forehand. 4m putt. Birdie! -> 2 5) Zone backhand, went 10m long. Missed the 10m putt. Made the 4m putt. -> 3 6) SVL forehand, good. Missed the 9m putt. Made the 4m putt. -> 3 7) SVL forehand, tree. Zone forehand, long. Missed the 6m putt. -> 4 (Practice drives with two Comets left 8m and 12m putts.) 8) SVL hyzer, again too tight and thus left. Missed the 10m putt. Made the 4m putt. -> 3 9) SVL to the first row of bushes. 16m layup. -> 3 This round everything went a bit better. I hit the lines a bit better, like if the memory of playing this course came back slow- ly. Round 3: 1) SVL. 19m layup. -> 3 2) Teebird backhand. Then hit the 9m putt! Birdie! -> 2 (Practice drives with the Zone backhand and the Valkyrie forehand (!) came within 6m and 7m from the pin.) 3) SVL, without enough hyzer but more nose-up :-(, flew like a stall-out, landed right. Missed the 18m putt. Made the 4m putt. -> 3 4) Zone forehand. 5m putt. Birdie! -> 2 5) P3 backhand, again left (i.e. thrown with hyzer instead of flat), but only barely on the slope. Missed the 14m putt. Made the 4m putt. -> 3 6) SVL forehand, a bit high, but with a good result. Missed the 9m putt barely. -> 3 7) SVL forehand, a bit tight, but bounced off the last/second tree on the right -- tree-directed for a 3m putt! Luck, I take it! Birdie! -> 2 8) SVL, on a good line, skipping beyond the basket. Unfortunately missed the 6m putt, just a bit low. -> 3 9) SVL, straight. Went for the 18m hyzer putt. Had a 6m comeback- er, and missed that. Then made the 5m putt. -> 4 That could have been a great round! On the last two holes I wast- ed two strokes: the bad putt on #8 and the bad decision to run the low-chance putt on #9. Without these two, I would have been a new personal best ... well. To my defence: It had started to rain and it already had become late, I just wanted to finish and go home. The best part of todays rounds were the drives on holes #1 und #9. There I saw my improvements. What used to be unreachable for me, now is within reach. All counting and most practice drives on both holes allowed jump-putt layups or even long putts for par. On hole 1 I had a pin-high drive, which is 95m, with the SVL. On hole 9 I had three 85m drives (first row of bushes) with the SVL (each one too high and nose-up). The practice drives with the Teebird and Felon, both on slight anny force-over lines, reached the second row of bushes: 90m. And then ... the highlight: One practice drive with the orange DX Eagle that landed 5m short of the pin! A 95m drive, flip-up, turning, coming back, full flight, landing right before the pin, for a 5m birdie putt! I've never had anything like that, yet. That's a well makeable birdie chance! Maybe I should give these Eagles more chances still. On open holes, their flight path is a good one. The slight hyzer release seems to ease getting the nose down. The fade provides reliability (which the DX Teebird not really has). Not the worst rounds today. More important: being on the course felt so good to me. It was very necessary! :-) http://marmaro.de/discgolf/ markus schnalke