If the second round of the tournament ends after midnight, does that make it a 2-day tournament?  That was the question filtering through the crowd of players congregating outside the Verdugo Hills Golf Course Pro Shop a little after midnight this past Saturday night.  Play had just ended for the second round of the One Night Stand @ Verdugo Hills and the wear and tear of a long day was showing on many faces.  So Much so that a planned 6-hole final for the top four Open players  was nixed because of the late hour.

One Night Stand, played under the lights. - Photo courtesy of Arroyo Disc Sports

It probably was also deleted because the 2nd, 3rd and 4th place players knew it would be pretty tough to catch 1st-place Stevie Rico.  Rico’s 3-shot margin of victory opened with a blistering 1063-rated 41 in the first round, followed by an average (for him) 1031-rated 48 in the second round on a somewhat longer and darker layout.  Bobby Musick finished comfortably in 2nd with a 2-round total of 92.  Chris Traven, hot off a close 2nd in the Am Wintertime Open and cashing at the Pro Wintertime came in third with a 14-under 94, while Bert McIntee finished in 4th at 12-under.

In Masters, Dan Duron and Jerry Goff both started out hot with 44′s, but Dan’s second-round 51 (95 total) bettered Jerry’s 54 (98 total) to give him the win.  Dennis Bohanon was 3rd at 9-under 99 and Dave Owens was 4th at 6-under 102.

Rahim Dhalla and Steve Valencia battled for 1st in Advanced, with Rahim’s 4-under 104 taking the title over Steve’s 3-under 103.  Advanced Masters was also a close race, with Roger Snider (2-under 106)making up ground in the second round to take a one strike victory over Robert Arzate (1-under 107).  John Babin’s 2-over 110 was good enough to take the victory in Advanced Grandmasters.

Almost half of the field was made up of players in the Intermediate (13), Recreational (13) and Novice (6) divisions – a great turnout of local players.  Ben Neely and Brian Newmark both finished under par for the tournament, with Ben’s 4-under 104 besting Brian’s 1-under 107 to take the win in Intermediate.  The Recreational division was won by Bryson Williams, whose 1-over 109 beat 2nd place Mario Martinez (113) by 4 throws.  Steven Reinhard probably heard a few calls of “bagger”, as his score of even par gave him an eleven-shot victory in the Novice division.

This was the third ball golf course to host a SoCal Series tournament in recent years, and the players definitely enjoyed the combination of tightly-mown fairways, gentle hill and precarious pin positions that characterized the Verdugo Hills layout.  While some of the tees on the 2nd-round “long” layout required players to tee off from the dark, the course was well-lit around the greens and regular fairways.  Many of the holes sported alternate pin positions for the second round, which added to the variety.  A between-rounds CTP contest for Ams kept the crowd busy and if you were hungry there were fantastic-smelling (didn’t get to taste one) burgers available in the 19th hole bar in the clubhouse.  I also heard that they sold beer.

TD Gary Sandoval is to be congratulated for the great disc golf layout and Verdugo Hills GM John Mascarenas should be thanked for the hospitality shown to the disc golfers.  It looks like John has been bitten by the disc golf bug, as this new PDGA and SoCal member joined the field in the Novice division.  John is possibly the only SoCal member to be both a PDGA member and a card-carrying PGA pro.  He is hoping to combine these two loves in a disc golf/ball golf combo event sometime in the near future.

Those of us who played in the One Night Stand had a great time.  It did make for a long night though – this writer didn’t put head to pillow until nearly 7am, after getting some chow and then the 2-hour drive back to San Diego County.  But don’t take that as a complaint – I’ll be back for the next one.

Full results available here.

In disc golf, when you see “10th Annual” or “20th Annual” as part of a tournament’s name you know it’s an event that has passed the test of time.  But 34th Annual?  In disc golf? Yes, that’s the Wintertime Open, the grandaddy of disc golf tournaments on the west coast, and the pros took their turn over the weekend to tour the venerable Oak Grove Disc Golf Course.  Mark, Susie and Chris Horn were great hosts for the event as was Mother Nature, who hasn’t cooperated in years past.  Sixty-nine players enjoyed clear skies and mild temperatures as well as great golf.

It’s often difficult to know how a tournament is unfolding when you’re playing in it, unless you’re living on the lead card.  You can look at the leaderboard between rounds and hear the stories, but there’s nothing like seeing how the top players are throwing to show you who is the star on a given weekend.  That’s why they play the final 9 – so we can all see who the star is that week.  Well, based on the final nine at Oak Grove on Sunday, the star of the tournament was Paul McBeth‘s pink Destroyer.  Paul and that disc put on a show for the gallery Sunday afternoon, especially on the stretched out holes of the Oak Grove tournament layout.  But we’re getting ahead of the story…

There were thirty other players in the Open division at Oak Grove, and Philo Braithwaite displayed his skill and local knowledge of Hahamonga Saturday morning by posting a 1052-rated opening round score of 52, taking the first round lead over McBeth (54) and Legacy Discs’s Steve Rico (55).  Brian Vagi, John Tompkins and Shelby Klein were one more stroke back at 56, but this was destined to be a 3-man contest.  Philo maintained his mastery as the wind came up in the afternoon with a 54 for a 106 total, two shots ahead of Paul (55/108)  and five ahead of Steve (56/111). 

But the tables turned on Sunday, as McBeth tore up the course in the morning with an 11-under 50, setting a new course record and taking the lead at 158.  Braithwaite stumbled a bit Sunday morning with a 58, which kept him in second place, but six throws back at 164.  Rico’s morning was solid, with a 7-under 54 that pulled him within one shot of Philo.  Fourth place was ten more shots back, but notable because it was held by Chris Travern, whose heroics during the final nine of the previous weekend helped him make up 6 shots to almost pull off the Wintertime Open Am title.  Chris showed that that was no fluke, and took home a check for $185 to celebrate his joining the ranks of PDGA pros.

Which set the stage for what might possibly be a perfunctory final 9.  With six and seven shot leads over his rivals, McBeth could seemingly put it on cruise control, play safe and walk home with 1st place cash.  However, on hole #1, whether because of adrenaline, the uphill teepad or the ghost of Wild Bill, Paul juiced his tee shot too far past the corner created by the mando tree and into the road, O.B.  The resulting bogey tightened the race a little, and after watching a near-collapse final 9, the gallery was wondering if drama was on the horizon.  Well…yes and no.  Drama was coming, but not because of a collapsing lead.

On three of the next four holes, Paul gave the gallery a glimpse of why he would drive away with the Wintertime Open title.  On the 506ft hole #3 (regular tee #3 to basket #4) McBeth blasted a drive to a spot nearly pin high, giving him a run at an eagle 2.  Then on the next hole, the 625ft hole #6 (regular tee #6 to basket #8) he launched the pink Destroyer up and over the oak trees with a monster flex shot.  The crowd at the tee had no idea where it went.  The crowd in the soccer field saw it pop over the tree line headed towards the basket but behind more trees.  Only those who were still hanging out near the parking lot saw the pink disc come out of its right turn, fade left, and land gently in the open grass, 80 feet from the basket.  Paul made a run at eagle with his R-Pro Roc that had the crowd holding it’s breath until it dropped under the basket for an “easy” three.  At the same time, Steve and Philo were making what would normally be recognized as great 3′s any other afternoon.  Two holes later on 498ft #8 (regular tee #10 to basket #11) the pink Destroyer soared again, up and over the canopy of trees, around the mando pole and a long putt away from possible eagle.  While Paul didn’t cash in on these eagle opportunities, it was clear that this relentless pressure was the difference this weekend.  To their credit, Steve and Philo continued to battle, with Rico’s error-free 27 allowing him to leapfrog into second place.

And yes, there were other divisions playing this weekend.  Suzette Simons displayed rock-solid consistency in winning Open Women, firing 71-71-72 to finish at 214, four shots ahead of first-round leader Indigo Brude.  Dan Duron shot an opening round 56 in the Masters division, one throw ahead of Dagoberto Bribiesca and two better than Chris Brophy, and held on through the weekend for the win.  Brophy pulled within one shot after the second round, but fell victim to his third-shift work schedule and didn’t make it back for Sunday’s round.  Jerry Goff did though.  He tied for the best score in the second and third rounds for the Masters, pulling in to 2nd place as the only master other than Duron to break parr for the weekend.  In the Grandmasters division, Steve Killian got off to a hot start along with Marcus Cisneros with 59′s, and held off a charge from 2nd-place finisher Randy Wylot to take the win.  Tournament co-hostess Susie Horn cruised to the Women’s Grandmaster title.

The winner of the Senior Grandmasters division was a player who had not played in the Wintertime Open in twenty-five years.  Mark Horn.  As he explained at the post-tournament awards ceremony: “the tournament runs so smoothly now with all of the knowledgeable players around, I figured I might as well play.”  PDGA #67 recorded the best score in his division two out of the three rounds and cruised to a 9-throw win over Glenn Triemstra in 2nd, who was two shots ahead of another Hall-of-Famer, Snapper Pierson.  In the biggest cliffhanger of the weekend, Legends division players Bill Richards and Ray Carr finished tied for 1st place at 233 after three rounds.  Bill had watched his large lead splash away on hole #12 of the final round, but was able to prevail after three sudden-life rounds of rock-paper-scissors to take home the trophy.