2021-02-25 Nice Round Soehnstetten Today, Marius and I went to Soehnstetten (by bike) to play a round on this sunny day. Despite the sunshine it only had around 13C and quite some wind, mainly from NW but with variations. Marius scored +14 (7x3, 8x4, 3x5), which is his usual score. The windy holes caused him noticably more problems than the calmer ones. His main problem is his forehand form. Backhand he showed some impressive drives, like on hole 3 almost getting to the pin on a straight line, or almost reaching hole 11 on a straight lines, both with the Roadrunner. I scored -1 (=53) with 5 birdies, 2 bogeys, and 1 double, the rest being pars. After hole 11 I kinda lost the focus a bit, leading to some mistakes. My bag/hand consisted of three discs: D P3, JB Zone, M OLF. The holes: #1: Zone backhand on a slight anny ... never came back (but got pin-high). After a scramble approach, I went for the risky 9m putt and sank it! :-) -> 3 #2: Zone forehand ... parked! :-D -> 2 #3: MOLF backhand, a bit left as always, but otherwise fine, caught the twigs of the tree by the ladder and dropped down there at the lower end of the upslope. I went with a P3 thumber layup ... and threw it in from about 15m! :-D -> 2 #4: MOLF backhand, too left, but hardly made it past the low hanging branches. Bad P3 layup, fortunately made the 7m putt. -> 3 #5: MOLF backhand, all fine. Good Zone backhand approach uphill. -> 3 #6: Zone forehand, much too low and too short. That clearly was a bad drive. Then bad wind for the approach, couldn't figure out what to do. Went a bit long, but not too bad. Had a 7m uphill putt ... hit it right into the center, I already picked up my lie, being relieved that I saved the par, when Marius told me that the disc had spit back out the same way it went in. That's a horrible spit-out. I did not slice through, but the disc tram- poleened on the chains, although I hit them perfectly. Anyways, it even rolled to 12m or so. Missed that putt and had to take a double! What a horrible hole! -> 5 #7: Zone backhand, a bit short but not too bad. The wind was dif- ficult, thus I was okay with the result. Layed up with a thumber approach and had a short putt left. -> 3 #8: Nice MOLF backhand drive, and in goes the 5m putt. -> 2 #9: Nice MOLF backhand drive, just right on the turn. Another 5m putt and (with a bit of putting luck) another birdie. :-) -> 2 #10: And yet another MOLF backhand drive of the nice kind. It got an air drop half-way, thus it landed a bit short, but I cannot complain. Missed the long putt. -> 3 #11: Zone forehand, alright. 4m putt for another birdie. -> 2 #12: Here the struggle began. I had no good disc for this whole. Normally I'd throw the Roc3 or a Teebird on a stall-out shot. The MOLF just didn't feel right, and with the Zone I wasn't sure if I could reach it on a stall-out or hyzer. I went with the Zone on a hyzer lines, but lacked on the hyzer angle. It flew on a straight line a long ways (as I powered it pretty much) and never faded. It wasn't too bad, but birdie was out of play. Then a really bad layup, which went only halfway of the 16m to the pin. How did that happen?! Then missed the difficult 8m putt and took a bogey. -> 4 #13: The MOLF backhand drive went a bit left but was otherwise fine (the wind was difficult on this hole and I overcompensated after Marius' drive). Layed up over the bushes with a P3 upside- down putt. That worked well. -> 3 #14: MOLF backhand a bit left. I went for the 6m death-putt ... it hit the cage and dropped right down, phew! -> 3 #15: MOLF backhand, but much too low. I didn't make it more than halfway to the pin. Then left the forehand Zone approach short again. (Maybe I should have thrown a P3 thumber approach in this situation. Actually it was pretty similar to the hole 12 prob- lem.) And then I even missed the 6m putt. -> 4 #16: A good MOLF backhand drive. Missed the putt from 10m. -> 3 #17: MOLF backhand. The line was a bit high but otherwise pretty good. (If I hit it a bit lower and push 5m or so farther, I could even get myself a putt!) Simple Zone backhand approach, which I threw much more aggressive that I intended to do. 4m putt. -> 3 #18: Again I was inbetween discs. Again I decided to throw the slower disc (Zone), which again I think was the right decision. I went full power. The distance was okay, only I went a bit too much left. With aiming more right or a bit anny it would have been fine. But I was left with a 12m putt, that I missed. -> 3 This summed up to -1, with potential for more. :-) Without the spitout it would have been a new PB ... and there were two more really bad approaches that cost a stroke each. The signs are plain to see: This score (one back of my PB) wasn't the best I could have achieved with this round. There were several more op- portunities. If increasinly more round of this kind happen, I'm getting better. It only takes some time and a new score improve- ment will happen, automatically. Yesterday evening I was thinking on which three discs I would bring with me today. Already set was the putter, of course. Thus the decision was only on the throwing discs. As always I want one disc straight-to-fade and another straight. For the long and straight discs the decision pretty much was between Valk and MOLF. Shortly I also considered a Teebird, but with that some holes simply cannot be reached by me, thus I dropped that option. (But these long birdies are not set with the long discs and if I play the shorter holes better with the Teebird, then bagging the Teebird might actually be the better option! That should be con- sidered as well.) The more difficult decision was between Zone and Roc3. Clearly the Zone is the better approach disc, but the Roc3 flies a bit farther, which is relevant on a bunch of holes, which I can bare- ly reach with the Zone. The deciding point were the drives I usually perform especially well with the Zone, like #6, #7, #11. Although the first two of them were not that much successfull to- day, I still think that it was a good idea to go with the Zone. And I noticed that I actually do have quite some distance with it -- more than I thought. (Only I need to remember that if I throw this worked-in JB Zone full power, it goes straight pretty much, and if I throw it full power on a slight anny it doesn't fight out anymore.) Of the 18 drives, 11 were with the MOLF (all backhand) and 7 were with the Zone (4 BH, 3 FH). Although I had some accidently low and thus short drives, overall the drives were okay. On #12 and #18 I had to push the Zone to distances and lines I'm not used to with it. The problem there was more the lack of practice than it being the wrong disc. Concerning approaches, I should stop trying Zone thumbers, be- cause each time I do so I'm surprised by the line it flies. Ei- ther I start to practice that a lot more or simply use the P3 in- stead, which I usually do and which I know well with this shot. Overall it was a good round, and even more important, a nice day out with Marius. http://marmaro.de/discgolf/ markus schnalke