Another Year, Another North vs. South Challenge

This weekend will see the fourth installment of the San Diego Aces’ North County vs. South County Challenge.  The details of this event are kept secret each year from the disc golfing public, with the team captains (Dan Lichtman/South, A.J. Risley/North) holding all of the information until the last possible moment.  Why?  Not sure.  Perhaps it’s because it’s extremely difficult to put together teams of San Diego disc golfers who will commit to being someplace for two whole days, without the threat of losing their entry fee and where there’s no prize money on the line.  Perhaps it’s because it’s so difficult to get the OK to play the courses on a given weekend at a given time.  Perhaps it’s because the team captains can’t figure out how to type an e-mail to announce the details.  Perhaps it’s because there are fugitives from the law on the teams and the captains are trying to make it difficult for the police, sheriff or Dog the Bounty Hunter to find them.  Well…whatever the reason, we think we finally have enough info available to announce what is happening this weekend.  Here goes:

The competition consists of four rounds of match play disc golf, played over two days, two courses per day.  According to sources close to one of the team captains (OK, it came from a team captain, so that’s pretty close), Saturdays rounds will be at Kit Carson Park (8 am start) and Goat Hill (1pm start).  Sundays rounds will be at Sun Valley (8am start) and Morley Field (1pm start).  Players are responsible for paying their own greens fees at Goat Hill, Sun Valley and Morley Field.  There is no truth to the rumor that any of the courses will let the South team trade in their spiffy team shirts for greens fees.  Singles matches will be played at Kit Carson on Saturday and Morley on Sunday, with doubles matches played at Goat Hill on Saturday and Sun Valley on Sunday.

Scoring?  No details have been released on how the matches will be scored.  Standard match play rules call for players to compete for the best score on each hole, with the winning player/team receiving one point.  We’ve heard some people muttering about keeping score by totaling the number of holes won by each player…we’re not sure.

What’s at stake?  Well, obviously bragging and trash-talking rights for the next year.  There’s also a rumor about a trophy, but very few people have ever seen it if there is one.  That’s because the South team has won every time so far and team captain Dan Lichtman keeps the trophy at home in his kitchen, using it to hold down the napkins he brings home from El Pollo Loco.

Along with the disc golf competition, two other events will be going on in conjunction with the Challenge.  The 2012 S.D. Aces Board Election will be held this weekend.  The online portion of the election has been going on since last Friday night.  Members who have not voted online (we have a list) will be allowed to vote in person at each of the courses this weekend, while the voting is going on.

Also, this weekend will be your first chance to join or renew your membership for 2012 and be able to receive a 2012 bagtag and 2012 membership disc.  Bagtags have arrived, and the first 50 members to sign up will be given a chance at the top 50 tags.  The new discs will be picked up from the Innova factory on Friday and will be available this weekend.

This weekend’s rosters:

Team rosters