Congratulation to Team South County for their victory. It was a much tighter match than last year. It ended up no surprise that both teams won on their home courses, but the South’s dominance at Sun Valley carried the weekend. Congratulations to Team North County for charging back and nearly erasing a 14-point deficit coming into the final day.
Thank you to Daniel Lichtman, Allen Risley, and all those who committed their weekend to this great event.
To view the complete weekend matchups click here
As we end the 2009 San Diego Aces calendar year, it is time to elect the Board Of Directors for the 2010 year. A list of nominees with a brief bio is provided below. Please take the time to read through them to familiarize yourself with each candidate and their backround. There will be an on-line vote for all current Aces members. For those who do not have access to the internet, you will be able to vote Dec.19 and Dec. 20 during the North and South Team Challenge {place and time to be announced}.
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Allen Risley
Hello fellow San Diego Aces, my name is Allen Risley and I am running for re-election to the San Diego Aces Board, where I would like to continue as Course Representative for Montiel Park.
I have been playing disc golf for over 30 years and have been a PDGA member for 30 years (PDGA #1752). During that time I have seen many changes and recently, much growth in our sport and therefore have a lot of experiences to draw from. Back in the 1980’s I ran tournaments and designed courses in Tallahassee, Florida, and self-published the first PDGA Course Directory, but I stopped playing for several years to raise a family. I have lived in North County since 1994 and have served on the City of San Marcos Community Services Commission (Parks and Rec Board) for the past eight years. I returned to playing disc golf a few years ago when my son showed an interest in the game and I was re-bitten by the bug.
Over the past three years I have spearheaded the development of disc golf courses at Montiel Park in San Marcos, Sunset Park in San Marcos (opening March 2010) and Cal State San Marcos (opening early 2010) and have served as the Course Representative for Montiel Park. I have also served as Tournament Director for three PDGA-sanctioned events (2 Montiel Ice Bowls, 2009 EIEIO), two Ace Races and several other charity fundraising tournaments. I work hard at promoting our sport, hold strong opinions about what is best for the game and prefer to put up rather than shut up. Above all, I love playing disc golf and enjoy seeing more people play this great game. I hope you’ll return me to the Aces Board so I can continue to serve. Thanks!
Patrick Paramore
A big fan of disc golf with the goal to build more courses in San Diego and have members actively involved in the growing success of disc golf. I enjoy playing in Socal, PDGA, and local San Diego events. You can find me volunteering at events I play at to make these events a success. I have a true passion to always give everything my best and I look forward to making a huge contribution to the San Diego Aces and its members.
Daniel Lichtman
http://morleyfield.com/2009/01/27/morley-player-profile-”big-d”/
Steven Thomas
Hi. My name is Steven and I represent the Emerald Isle Golf Course. I was born and raised in North County and have been playing the game of disc golf for over 10 years and have been playing competitively in the last 2. Disc Golf is my main hobby and I will do whatever I can to promote it and help in the expansion of new courses in San Diego County .
Donny Olow
http://morleyfield.com/2009/05/07/morley-player-profile-donny-olow/
Aaron Van Matre
I am running for another term as course representative for the Sun Valley disc golf course. I have volunteered at Sun Valley for the past two years moving baskets, setting up event layouts, and lobbying for course improvements. I feel this course holds great potential for a “regular” monthly event, even if it is only bagtag melees. Please consider me for a board member position for the San Diego Aces, I appreciate your vote. Thank you.
Michelle Chambless
I am currently a Controller for a large landscaping company and have an Associates in Accounting. I will be beginning school at the University of Phoenix to get my Bachelors in Accounting in the beginning of 2010. I have been in administrative and financial roles for over 10 years and really enjoy what I do. I would love the opportunity to be the Treasurer for the Aces because I want to help support my local disc golf club. Thank you.
Carl Renda
Jeff Nichols
As the incumbent Aces president, I have volunteered much my time in attempting to meet club goals, and would like the opportunity to serve another year as a club director. I have served the Aces in the positions of Secretary, Treasurer and President and have been one of its directors since its formation in 2007.
The Aces were formed with the primary goal of getting new courses in the ground. Next year will be the best year San Diego has ever seen for new course development. We all will reap the rewards from the groundwork that was laid in 2009 in the form of three new 18-hole courses being installed in 2010. I look forward to being a part of seeing our hard work come to fruition.
As an organization, I think we can improve in the areas of membership involvement and communication. In 2010 I would like to set as a high priority goal to get more Aces involved in our events and projects. This will be an essential part of getting the new courses installed as well as running successful events at them. The web site remodeling in 2009 should also pay off in improved membership communications. Our blog-based web site now makes it quite easy to post information about upcoming events and club news. I think we can continue to improve communications through the use of the Aces web site.
Lastly, I’d like to thank the Aces for their support in 2009. I was quite impressed that when we needed a new Treasurer, several qualified people stepped up and volunteered for the job. This speaks well for the quality of our members and makes me want to volunteer for the club another year. Together we can continue to grow our club, our enthusiasm, and our ability to promote this great sport.
Randy Wylot
My name is Randy Wylot and I am running for a position on the San Diego Aces Board Of Directors. I have been involved with the club since it began, as a member, volenteer, and Board Of Director. For the past two years I have been the clubs Vice President. As a club event, I have been the Tournament Director for the San Diego Ice Bowl at Sun Valley. I also have been teaching disc golf at the local elementry schools to help promote the sport of disc golf and to help offset the lack of State funds for the Physical Education classes.
I have been involved in the disc sports world since 1982, competing in Freestyle and Overall events on a local and nation level. As a board member I hope to promote more courses in the San Diego County area, as well as run events for club members.
Cotton Man is 2009 SoCal Championships Advanced winner; Local Luke Christensen shoots low round of tournament
Those who have played Advanced for a while in SoCal are familiar with Bert Cotton, he is the main guy behind the Palm Desert Disc Golf Club and has been a familiar face in Advanced for a while. He played three smooth consistent rounds (49-50-50) to win the title at 13 under 149, winning by one stroke over San Diego Aces member Luke Christansen (-12, 45-53-52). Christansen held the lead for the majority of the tournament but was overcome by Cotton in the final round. He put himself out there by shooting the lowest round of the tournament by far (the closest was a 48 by Chad Dietz) in his first round with a 9 under 45.
Christensen was just one of many San Diegans to achieve success at the event, which was held this past weekend, November 6-7 at La Mirada. The event was attended by 138 players, a good percentage of whom were aces members. New San Diego Aces Treasurer Michelle Chambless won Intermediate Women by 23 strokes over fellow Aces member and 2nd place finisher Rita Nash. Randy Wylot remains a model of consistency with another good finish in 3rd place in Adv. Masters, at 2 under 160. There were many Aces members finishing well in the Advanced division, with Christensen finishing second, Angel Garcia finishing 6th (-5, 157), Evan Taylor 10th (-1, 161), Mike Ballestas 12th (E, 162) and Aaron Van Matre 13th (+1, 163). The top Aces finisher in Intermediate was Tracy Crowder in 8th place (+9, 171).
Noah Rodriguez got the only ace of the tournament, on hole 1 of the Backside Course in round 2. Other Division winners of note: Michael Brayton in Advanced Masters, Ryan Kress wins Intermediate, Brian Newmark wins Recreational. Indigo Brude wins Advanced Women.
Other San Diego Results:
Josh Egbert 25th Advanced, Chris Wymer 31st Advanced, AJ Risley 36th Advanced, Eric Simmons 3rd Advanced Grandmasters, Brendan Sage 13th Intermediate, Patrick Paramore and Dale Chambless 15th Intermediate, Neil Mackay 3rd Recreational, Boyd Turner 15th Recreational
The 2009 edition of the Morley Field Course Championships was held this past weekend, and at the top there was a return to the normalcy of years past. That’s right, Micah Dorius came through with another display of “Morley Mastery” giving him a wire-to-wire victory in the Open division. Micah’s rounds of -12, -6, -14, and -4 in the finals gave him a final score of -36, five strokes better than 2008 champion Chris Vilmorin. Chris was able to make up two strokes on Micah in the final nine thanks in part to an ace on Hole #2, but the perennial champ’s lead was simply too large to surmount. George Spracklin took third place at 26-under and Big Josh Damron was perhaps the dark horse in the final group, finishing up at 23-under par.
For many players, the course setup for the second round on Saturday was one of the biggest stories of the weekend. TD and Course Pro Snapper Pierson pulled out all the stops with one of, if not the toughest setup ever seen at the 31-year-old course. All holes used the longest pin positions and all long pads in the second round, with 2 pin positions never seen in regular play (hole 6 on street and hole 12 back right). No player went bogey free in the second round, and under par scores were few and far between. Mike Slonim (top finishing master age player) had only 1 bogey, while champion Micah Dorius posted a 6-under.
In the Amateur division, Jeremiah May shot three under par rounds and a 17-under overall to win the title, eight strokes ahead of second-place finishers Danny Zwolenski and Tim Hanau. Danny Z’s final round of 7-under was the best amateur score on Sunday. In the Women’s Division, it was Emily Hardy who reigned over four competitors, finishing at 17-over to take home the title. Another solid win to add to her competitive year!
The Course Championship holds additional importance for the role it plays in earning players a spot on the Morley Field Team for the Southwestern Team Championship Tournament, held every December at Morley. Qualifying for the team so far, based on their performance in the Course Championship Tournament or monthly tournaments are the following players: Micah Dorius, Chris Vilmorin, Carlo Pelg and George Spracklin in the Open division; Dave Devine, Snapper Pierson and Mike Slonim in the Masters and Grandmasters Division, and Emily Hardy for the Women’s Division. The three remaining Open spots and one remaining Masters spots will be filled through a series of head-to-head elimination matches, referred to affectionately as “the grinder.” Players competing in the grinder are expected to include: Josh Damron, Josh Egbert, Angel Garcia, Mike Lust, Kevin Gomez, Willie Lister, Alex Torriente, Aubrey Daniels and Donny Olow for the Open spots. The last Masters spot will be up for grabs by John Heaton, CVK, Jeff Nichols, Kent La Gree or Greg Olsen.
For full results from the Course Championship Tournament, go to www.morleyfield.com.
Patrick Paramore, Jeff Nichols and Mark Wilson contributed to this article.
Montiel Park in San Marcos, CA was the site of the 2nd Annual Montiel Ace Race on Saturday, October 17th. 40 players registered to take ace runs on a shortened version of the Montiel Park Disc Golf Course. Each year Discraft Discs sponsors Ace Race tournaments all across the U.S., as a way to promote fun and launch a new disc. Players paid $25 to receive two new prototype Discraft Discs, a Discraft logo hat and a gummy Full-color UltraStar mini. Players are required to use the official Ace Race disc and play 36 holes throwing only tee shots, and only counting aces or metal hits. This year’s tournament, sponsored by the San Diego Aces Disc Golf Club, raised $300 towards the development of the upcoming new disc golf course at Cal State San Marcos.
When the dust had settled (and if you’ve played Montiel this time of year you know there is lots of dust…), Mike Allee of San Marcos had taken 1st place in the tournament by being the only player to record an ace. Mike lives about 300 ft. from the course, so he knows the baskets well, but most of the holes had modified tees, so his local’s advantage was a bit diminished. This was Mike’s first ace ever, and came on his final hole of the tournament. His last minute luck…er, skill…secured the first place prize: a new disc golf bag filled with ten new Discraft golf discs! Mike also pocketed the $66 collected in the Ace Pot for the day. Results below:
| Player | Aces | Metal Hits |
| Mike Allee | 1 | 1 |
| Ben Rutherford | 0 | 5 |
| T.C. | 0 | 3 |
| John Bailey | 0 | 2 |
| Cory Marsteller | 0 | 2 |
| Tanner Kurtz | 0 | 2 |
| Brandon Langston | 0 | 1 |
| Ranny Rajsky | 0 | 1 |
| Scott Bowers | 0 | 1 |
| Andrew Mills | 0 | 1 |
| J.D. Bailey | 0 | 1 |
| A.J. Risley | 0 | 1 |
| Pat Rowlen | 0 | 1 |
| Mike Pearson | 0 | 1 |
Up until Mike Allee’s last-hole ace there were quite a few players jockeying for the win based on their number of metal hits. Ben Rutherford probably walked away the most frustrated, as he hit metal five times without getting an ace. And Ben’s metal hits weren’t all cheapees – one hit chains, one hit the yellow band and another clanged off the top-front of the basket. You can see the chain-ringer in the video below which was shot and produced by A.J. Risley.
The San Diego Aces Club held a well turned out Bag Tag Melee challenge at Morley Field this past Sunday. 17 players showed up in the early morning ready to put their tags on the line, with Angel Garcia bringing in the low tag #16. It was a perfect day to play disc golf at Morley with clear skies and warm Socal weather. While the Chargers were on TV running over the Chiefs, the course opened up and lines were very short allowing a steady pace round. It was Mike B. who ended up shooting an impressive -10, taking the Winner spot and selecting a custom stamped 2009 Sun Valley Star Boss from the grab bag prizes donated to the Aces by its members. Grace Rivas, San Diego Aces newest member, just signed up this morning for a 2008 membership to play in the challenge and ending up winning a custom Tie-Dye stamped 2009 End of the Trail Classic Avenger SS from the $1 raffle. What a great reward for becoming a member!
On October 3, La Mirada hosted their 1st annual Pro/Am for women only and the girls from San Diego had a strong showing.
The lady Aces accounted for nearly half of the 28 player field. After playing a morning round on the Lakeside Course and windy conditions during the afternoon on the Back 18 it was obvious that the women from San Diego are a force to be reckoned with.
Top Finishers were as follows:
Open:
Kayleen Boyle 3rd $90
Brittany Breed 4th $60
Allisson Wylot 7th
Advanced:
Rianne Short 3rd
Intermediate:
Michelle Chambless 2nd
Rita Nash 3rd
Miki Sanders 4th
Pam Vaughn 5th
Recreational:
Leta Boyle 1st
Cristina Scantlin 5th
Ann Cheeseman 7th
Be sure to congratulate all these ladies when you see them at the course. In addition to the ladies who played, tournament director Indigo Brude also wanted to thank the San Diego Aces club for their sponsorship and support, especially Carl Renda for his time and labor during the event.
Aces President Jeff Nichols presents check to Monica Watkins, representing CSUSM Associated Students
The San Diego Aces recently followed the old adage to “put their money where thier mouth is” as they made a significant donation to the fundraising drive for a new disc golf course at California State University San Marcos. Aces President Jeff Nichols presented a check for $2,500 to Monica Watkins, representing the Associated Students Inc. at Cal State San Marcos (CSUSM). The check presentation was made during the awards ceremony of the Labor Day of Disc Golf at Montiel Park in San Marcos. The mission statement of the San Diego Aces describes the club’s top priority as being “to build additional permanent disc golf courses in the San Diego area.” This donation is the most significant action of the club to date towards carrying out that mission.
The 18-hole course, championed by CSUSM Campus Recreation Director Hugo Lecomte and San Diego Aces Board Member Allen Risley, will be built once the necessary funds have been raised, possibly as early as Spring 2010. The course will provide additional greatly-needed recreational activities for the 9,500-student campus, which is working to shed it’s “commuter campus” feel as it heads towards it’s 20th anniversary. Half of the course will be located on the campus’ lower athletic field area, which is currently mostly undeveloped and under-utilized. This area will be the site of baseball and softball fields in the future, in addition to the now-present Mangrum Track. The disc golf holes have been planned to coexist amongst these facilities. The other half of the course will be located on the upper campus plateau, adjacent to the Kellogg Library and other campus buildings. Being on-campus will make the disc golf course a convenient way for students to relax between or after classes and will provide a useful resource for classes in the College of Education and Kineisiology Program, which could then incorporate disc golf into their curriculum. The holes on the upper portion of the course will be relatively shorter in length, both for safety purposes and to accomodate access by the disabled. Use of the course will be free for casual play by students, faculty, staff and members of the community.
Fundraising for the disc golf course is being conducted the Campus Recreation office of Associated Students Inc., the student government organization at Cal State San Marcos. Due to recent budget cuts to the CSU system, no new recreational facilities will be built in the near future without funding from private donors. The $20,000 price tag of the disc golf course is seen to be a relative bargain to add a significant recreational resource, especially when compared to the millions of dollars needed to pay for ballfields, gyms, tennis courts and pools. Monica Watkins, a local non-profit fundraising professional, has headed up the development effort and was instrumental in ushering the course through the design and approval process. Her goal is to raise the funds to build the course with an eye towards installation in early 2010. For more information on how you can help sponsor the CSUSM Disc Golf Course, contact Monica at mwatkins@csusm.edu or760-310-9468.
The annual PDGA event held at Sun Valley golf course came to a conclusion this past weekend. This year’s event was one of the biggest ones yet, with over 140 players and a plethora of spectators there in support. One reason why this was one of the biggest events in Sun Valley’s history was the presence of some of the top pros in the sport. Joining local pro favorites Carlo Pelg, Micah Dorius, and Chris Vilmorin in the Open division were big-name pros Dave Feldberg, Paul McBeth, Steve Rico, and Bobby Musick. All and all, there were 9 players in attendance with rating over 1000 battling it out in the Open division.
But, the pros didn’t steal all the spotlight…there were a group of amateurs that deemed themselves the “Ironmen of the SVO”. San Diego Aces members Ben Rutherford, Robert Martin, Patrick Paramore, and Paul Morgavo were among these Ironmen that played EVERY round on each day. They played all three rounds each day with little to no break in between. They were able to do this by competing in both the Advanced and Intermediate divisions. One of them, Rutherford, finished in the top 10 in BOTH divisions. Nice job guys! Click on the following links to see the official results of the event: Pros/Adv and Ams.
Finally, the event ended with the traditional $1000 skins match where the top four scores from the weekend got paired up with four lucky raffle winners. The four teams competed for five holes – each hole worth a $200 skin. If a hole is not won outright by a team, the skin ($200) gets pushed to the next hole. So with everyone at the course watching, the four teams kept it suspenseful and ended up pushing on all five holes of regular play. It was then to be decided in a sudden death hole playoff, with the winning team taking all the cash! The decisive hole was a safari tee location for SVO hole #1. San Diego Aces member Carlo Pelg stepped up on the elevated tee and lasered his drive between two palm trees landing the disc well inside thirty feet, by far the best drive of the bunch since the other three teams were all just outside the circle. Pelg’s teammate, Patrick Paramore, sealed the deal nailing a high pressure putt to win the $1000 for his team. It was an exciting conclusion to a truly great event. Fun was had by all!
- SD Aces Sun Valley Rep. Aaron Van Matre
How it Works
San Diego Aces Club members who compete in organized Disc Golf events around the county will be awarded points for event participation & completion, placement based on score, and divisional victories (1st place).
Points Race
At the end of the year an Awards Event and Ceremony will take place to announce and reward the Divisional Winners.
1. Scores are cumulative BY Division: example Joe Player = 200pts vs. Intermediate.
2. Players may play in and receive points for more than one division, but may only win ONE division.
3. Local or Sanctioning rules may govern which division a player may play in, points will still be awared to the player and assigned to his/her cumulative total for that division.
4. Divisional points will not be included versus competitors who DNF.
Points Breakdown
Participation – 1pt for each completed round. Must finish event(s). DNF = no pts
Placement – 1pt based on final score for each player in your tournament division who you beat or tie.
Bonus Points – 2pts for divisional 1st place. Players tied for 1st will receive same points regardless of tie breakers related to trophies etc;
Double Points – Designated Tournaments such as EIEIO, Summer Fling, SVO, Courses Championships will award double points.
OPEN Division (right-click, save-as)
ADVANCED Division (right-click, save-as)
INTERMEDIATE Division (right-click, save-as)
LADIES Division (right-click, save-as)
