As for the competition, Saturday was “Beanieman” Carl Renda’s chance to shine, as he picked up his first win in a PDGA-sanctioned event.  Renda and 2nd place finisher Daniel Lichtman tied with totals of 79 after 36 holes, but Carl was able to cinch the victory in a one-hole sudden death playoff. Patrick Paramore won a CTP contest to break a three-way tie, one stroke back for 3rd place with A.J. Risley and Paul Morgavo.  Angel Garcia was the remaining member of a rather idiosyncratic lead card, finishing one more stroke back at 81.

In the Intermediate division, Matt Howard took first place with a two-round total of 84.  Kevin Christie found that the low-ceiling Olive Glen layout suited his style of play, as he took second place with an 88.  Josh Hesser (who also did quite well in the raffle) won a playoff with Glen Kluge for 3rd place (89) and Phil Jordan carded a 90 for 5th place.  Shonda Garcia fired a very respectable 106 to win the Ladies’ division.

Some disc golfers tend to look down their noses at mulligan-aided Ice Bowl victories, but for many in attendance at this and other events, a win is a win.  Patrick Paramore had this to say about Renda’s win: ”Considering that we all used mulligans and were limited to 3 per hole, Carl did rightfully win this XC-tier event. He made some crucial putts that gave him the edge.”  Witnesses to Saturday’s rounds further pointed out that the tournament winner was probably not the top mulligan-user of the day.  But he was definitely the one who used the necessary amount at the right times.  And you would be hard-pressed to find critics at the San Diego Food Bank.  Food bank officials have stated in the past that each dollar donated can feed three hungry people, which means that there are 5,000 people who will get to eat a meal because of Saturday’s mulligan-hounds.  Take that nay-sayers.

The Sycuan Ice Bowl and the earlier San Marcos Ice Bowl were two stops on the 7-event 2012 Golden Sombrero Series of Ice Bowl tournaments.  This is the fourth year of the series, and this year’s collection of events will set records for charitable donations.  So far, the Golden Sombrero events have raised $6,570 (Redlands – $927, San marcos – $1,000, Chavez Ridge/L.A. – $2,538, Beaumont – $355, Sycuan – $1,750).  Remaining events include Wrightwood on Sat., Feb 25th and San Diego/Mission Bay Golf Course on Sunday, Feb 26th.

Full results can be found here.  Full Golden Sombrero Series standings can be found here.

Inside the green fence line is O.B. Very O.B.

Green construction fencing has been installed through much of the upper campus area between the Library and Science Hall #2.  That’s holes 10, 11, 12 and 15 if you’re a disc golfer.  The fencing is in place for a new construction project that will be going on near the center of campus between now and August 2013, as the university builds a new student union.  An Aces representative was on hand Wednesday to walk the site with CSUSM’s Campus Recreation Director, Hugo Lecompte and staff from Planning, Design and Construction to see how the course would be affected.

Bottom line: we don’t expect to lose any holes during the construction project.  A few holes will be impacted though.  The tees for holes 10 and 11 will be shifted slightly as they would have been up against the fence.  Hole 12′s basket and tee will be moved which will result in a shorter hole for the time being.  Hole 15′s basket will also move under the large Sycamore trees.  One thing that was stressed was that discs that go over the fence into the construction site cannot be retrieved, for safety purposes.  We’re trying to work out a process for retrieving discs, although it’s possible we may gain some new players from the construction crew.   The willingness of the campus planning and design department to keep the course relatively intact is a positive sign – disc golf is welcome at CSUSM.

Hole #1 at Olive Glen

South County’s newest disc golf course will be the site of another Ice Bowl tournament this Saturday (Feb. 4th).  Olive Glen Disc Golf Course @ Sycuan Golf and Tennis Resort is its official name, and it’s $20 to enter the first PDGA-sanctioned tournament to be held there.  TD Mark Verrochi is working on getting some Sycuan schwag for winners and raffle ticket holders, and there’s also an assortment of prizes from SoCal and Innova.  But the point behind the event is fun…and to raise money and collect canned food for the San Diego Food Bank.   Mulligans will be for sale during the tournament, with the proceeds going to the food bank.  You can also get free mulligans by donating some canned food.  All players will receive a commemorative disc (Champion Makos or Glow Champion Firebirds) from the 2012 Golden Sombrero Series of Ice Bowls.  Current Sombrero Series points leader Carl Renda will be on hand, as will some of the other knuckleheads trying to catch him.  Only a few spots remain at DiscGolfU.com

Saturday’s participants

Seventy-five disc golfers met at Kit Carson Park this last Saturday with one goal in mind: to leave the course that day with one of the coveted San Diego Aces black bag tags.  The black color is reserved for tags 1 through 10 each year and competition is fierce for these tags.  This year, our bag tag supplier (Little Flyer) had run out of the black mini discs used to make the tags when we ordered 2012 bag tags back in November, which meant that when the first 2012 tags were distributed back in December, the top ten tags were not included.

Which brings us to Saturday.  With the ten black tags in hand, a bag tag melee was organized where players would surrender their current tags before going out to play one round, with the tags to be redistributed based on the results of that round.  Interest was so high that thirty-five players signed up to be 2012 S.D. Aces just before the round.  Many players showed up early to take part in a quick work party aimed at cleaning up trash from around the course.  Twelve of those players received prizes from a work-party-only raffle, including Innova discs, hats, towels and shirts.

 

The prizes...

Saturday morning was especially windy for Kit Carson, and the scores reflected it.  Even though some players are known to brag about shooting “double-digits-down” on a regular basis at KCP, the best score of the day was a 46 (8-under) carded by Pro Master player Mike Westerman.  Mike took home the #1 tag by shooting one stroke better than Luke Christiansen and Stephen Heaps, whose 47′s got them tags #2 and #3.  Justin Kirk and Chris Vilmorin earned tags #4 and #5 by shooting 48′s, and four players (Tom Vincent, Christian Cullen, Nick Newton and Pete Rudart) took tags #6 through #9 by tying at 49.  Tag #10 went to Chris Armacost, who tied with four other players at 50, but had started the day with a lower tag and hence got to leave with the lowest tag in the group.  Full results can be found here.

The winners!

These players’ names have been added to the top ten tag holder list on the Aces website and will remain there until new tag holders are reported.  You can report top ten tag triumphs by sending an e-mail to rizbee@teamrizbee.com (he updates the website).  It is quite possible that some of these tags have already changed hands, because several of these players immediately defended their tags at Sunday’s Goat Hill Monthly (Westerman, Vincent, Rudart and Armacost).  That’s the spirit!

You know you want one...

The infamous black bagtags, those numbered 1 through 10, are now in the hands of the Aces’ Membership Director and will be distributed on Saturday (1/28/2012).  The Aces will be holding a work party/bagtag melee at Kit Carson Park, with the work party beginning at 8am and the bagtag round starting at 9am.  Members who participate in the work party will be entered into a special raffle for schwag items from Innova Disc Golf.

Before the melee round begins, players will surrender their current Aces bagtag and the number will be recorded.  We will be signing up new members on Saturday before the round – more bagtags and discs have arrived!  The top ten scores from Saturday’s round will receive the black tags, with the remaining tags being distributed based on scores.  Ties will be broken according to the tag a player started with.  Example: if players who started with #48 and #115 both score 50, the player who started with #48 will get the lower new tag.

Come out on Saturday for your shot at the black tags.  Then you can defend it the next day at the Goat Hill monthly!

photo courtesy of Lee Beecher

Sixty players filled the course on Saturday for the 5th Annual San Marcos Ice Bowl, and by all accounts the event was a great success.  Most importantly, over $1,100 and 200 lbs of canned food were collected for the chosen charity, the North County Food Bank.  It was a great field of players, consisting of experienced tournament PDGA pros, first-time players, loosey-goosey amateurs, recreating Marines, two father and two-son trios, a mother-daughter pair, a father-daughter pair and a husband-wife pair.  Ample mulligan purchases and use led to some great scores, with Daniel Lichtman taking 1st place in the Men’s Open/Advanced division with a score of 75 for 36 holes, holding off challenges from Carl Renda (78), A.J. Risley (80), Travis Cutler (82) and Dennis Keane (83).  Allison Wylot continued her domination of the Women’s Open/Advanced division, winning again with a 2-round total of 101.

Kevin Christie took home the icy trophy in Men’s Intermediate/Recreational, tying Corona’s Darrell Degner with a score of 80 for two rounds and then winning the darkness-infused CTP playoff.  Steve Brueker (83), Kyle Becker (84), Brendon Tayag (84) and Chad Nichter (85) also posted great scores.  In the Ladies’ Int./Rec. division, first-time tournament player Laura Elliott (124) outlasted Maxine Cook, and newcomer Dakota Sessler (132) won the Junior’s division.

There were side games, too.  Carl Renda won a CTP playoff with Kevin Beath to take home the Hole-in-One basket.  Carl had aced Hole #7 (sidearm) and Kevin aced Hole #8 (lefty backhand skip) in the first round.  Andrew Mills won the long putt contest and its first place Ice Bowl hoodie, while Shannon Wylot won the Juniors long putt contest.  Laura Elliott was the winner of Disc Golf Bingo and received a full-color Ice Bowl stamp Roc.

Because of the great numbers of mulligans used during play and the mysterious missing scorecard from round 1 that delayed the start of round 2, playoffs and awards were conducted in the dark.  It was quite a sight to see – dozens of people huddled on the basketball court using flashlights and cell phones to read raffle ticket numbers, and everyone in good cheer.  Over 30 raffle prizes were handed out, including Ice Bowl-stamped discs and t-shirts, several discs and shirts from SoCal Disc Golf Association, a variety of prizes (hats, t-shirts, towels) from Innova Disc Golf and two gift certificates from Goat Hill Golf Course.

With this win, Daniel takes a 1-point lead in the overall Golden Sombrero points race, one point ahead of Carl and two ahead of A.J.  Many thanks to all of the players and to our sponsors and contributors: Innova Disc Golf, SoCal Disc Golf, San Diego Aces, City of San Marcos, Goat Hill Golf Course, Tina’s Deli.  Full results available here.

By partnering with Innova Disc Golf for our 2011 membership discs, we became eligible to receive some schwag (prizes) from the folks in Rancho Cucamonga (to be fair, DGA gave us a few baskets in previous years, which we have raffled off or used at events).  So when we picked up the 2012 discs, there were a bunch of extra boxes of stuff…which begged the question…what do we do with it?  One solution came up at Monday’s board meeting: raffle off some of the items to last year’s members, since they are the ones who bought the discs that earned the schwag!  So here goes – here are five 2011 Aces members who were randomly selected to win prizes, and the prizes they have won:

The roles of Course Reps vary a bit from course to course, depending on whether they are free-to-play parks or pay-to-play courses. Common responsibilities include meeting with park or course staff to discuss course issues, minor maintenance, keeping kiosks updated, running leagues or tournaments.

The Aces board will be meeting next Monday evening, January 9th at 6:00pm. The location for the meeting is at the offices of Schirmer Engineering in Rancho Bernardo:

11770 Bernardo Plaza Court
Suite 116
San Diego, CA 92128

There is a sign over the door that says “Schirmer Engineering”. You’re in the right place if you see cars with disc golf stickers on them parked outside. If you are interested in attending, please contact one of the current board members – our e-mail addresses are on the “Contact Us” page.

This is the sixth Ice Bowl run by Tournament Director Allen Risley (5 in San Marcos, 1 in San Diego) and the fourth time the San Marcos event will be part of the Southern California Golden Sombrero Series of Ice Bowl tournaments.  In the Golden Sombrero Series, players earn points at each event based on the number of players that they beat.  Their top three point totals in the six Golden Sombrero events count towards the series championship – first prize is a portable Innova basket and a commemorative golden sombrero!  San Diego County will hold two more Golden Sombrero events: Saturday, February 4th at Olive Glen Disc Golf Course @ Sycuan Golf Resort in El Cajon (T.D. – Mark Verrochi) and Sunday, Feb 26th at Mission Bay Golf Course (T.D. – Randy Wylot).  Other Golden Sombrero events will be held in Redlands (Jan. 7), Los Angeles (Jan 21) and Beaumont (Feb 5).

Ice Bowl tournaments are fun for serious and non-serious disc golfers alike.  It’s your chance to get that best-ever score, because mulligans are allowed!  Each of the San Diego Ice Bowls will allow players to purchase mulligans (do-overs) for $1 each, with all proceeds going to the event charities.  At the San Marcos and Sycuan Ice Bowls mulligans will also serve as raffle tickets.  These events typically have a great raffle haul and interesting 1st place trophies.  At San Marcos, players will also compete for a portable basket for a hole-in-one and there will be a long-putting contest during the between-rounds break.  A catered lunch from Tina’s Deli will be available for $5 extra.

Online registration is available at DiscGolfU: http://www.discgolfunited.com/disc-golf-tournaments/tournament-dashboard.cfm/tourn_id/287

Or download the tournament flyer here.  For more information contact Allen Risley at rizbee@teamrizbee.com or 760-798-2080.

The San Diego Aces have agreed to install disc golf baskets and tee pads at Brengle Terrace that are property of the club – the Aces purchased these items when Emerald Isle Golf Course removed its disc golf course.  The club will be soliciting donations and sponsorships to help defray some of the installation costs, and is looking to its members to supply the labor to put the baskets, tee signs and pads in place.  The Aces Board of Directors is currently ironing out details of the agreement with the city of Vista.  Once that process is completed work will begin on the course.  Stay tuned for our call for volunteers!

See more about this in the story reported in the North County Times.