Midsummer update: Disc Golf Chicago VS. The Weather
With June in the rear view it feels like a good time for an update. That month was packed with both sweet and bitter moments but it wouldn’t be right to call it a bittersweet month. As they say, your worst times on the disc golf course are still pretty good times.
We’re going to work our way backwards through the month so let’s start with this most recent weekend which was the 37th Illinois State Disc Golf Championships. Jesse Saenz, Jason Poole and the J Town disc golf crew along with countless volunteers and sponsors worked together to put on one hell of an event with no help from the weather. Saturday players battled through two rounds in the blistering 95 degree heat, and Sunday players had their 2nd rounds called off for safety reasons when the sky turned black and tree branches started coming down. After multiple lightning delays the TD’s made the right call to keep all players safe and cancel the 2nd round.
Fortunately for Jorge Piña (currently in 7th place for the 2019 DGC League) his 982 rated first round was strong enough to bring home an impressive 1st place finish in the Intermediate (MA2) division. Just two strokes behind Jorge was Mr. Kiel Devine (currently 3rd place in the league) shooting a 964 rated -12 for a strong 2nd place finish. Oh, and we HAVE to mention the special moment when Kiel did that thing he loves to do where he just throws his disc into the basket off his drive. MEGA ace on hole 12 at Dellwood? During a major tournament? That’s just Kiel Devine, doing Kiel Devine things. In the Rec division (MA3) Andy Odeh showed up with a solid 6th place finish shooting 36 points over his rating with 925.
The weekend of June 23rd took us down to Peoria, IL for the one and only Ledgestone Insurance Open; a globally-renown tournament that brings the top names in disc golf to Illinois every year for 3 days of world class competition and fun. The weather on day 1 treated about half the players to a brutal 3.5 hour lightning delay which proved to have a bigger effect on some players than others. While the weather held up for the most part on day 2 the course conditions resulted in some holes being removed from play for player’s safety. On day 3 even more holes were removed leaving the intermediate field playing a complete round of just 14 holes.
Shout out to long time member Kevin Derrick who helped arrange for 5 of our members to stay in the most righteous AirBnB just outside of Peoria. A total of 10 of us set up shop at a beautiful farm house that came with enough open property to set up a perfectly legitimate 9 hole course complete with water hazards and plenty 300+ ft holes. Nothing beats coming back from a long day of competition to get the grill going, open some beers, and sit around a campfire until everyone is ready for the nightly putting challenges to begin. 10/10 highly recommended.
As far as Ledgestone glory goes, the biggest chunk for DGC surely goes to Brad Cook (currently in 1st place for DGC league) with a 3rd place finish in a field of 166 MA2 players. After shooting a 982 and 962 he was tied for 1st going into the final round, but was edged out by a mere 2 strokes in the end. Still he walked away with over $400 in payouts Following not far behind Brad was our boy Kevin Derrick with a commendable 8th place finish shooting 925, 966, and 952. Another honorable mention goes to Andy Odeh for throwing it DOWN in the flex start C tier tournament at Sunset Hills the day before Ledgestone officially kicked off. Shooting nearly 50 points over his rating he managed to bring home a 2nd place finish in MA3 with a 945 rated round. Boo ya.
One week before Ledgestone a visit was paid to Dellwood by none other than 2X World Champion Ricky Wysocki for the Sockibomb challenge. Ricky treated the players to a valuable clinic and played 1 hole with each card during the 18 hole round. I think I speak for everyone when I say that the best moment of this event was when Ricky agreed to throw arguably the silliest PDGA sanctioned disc there is; the Aerobie Arrow. Only a champion could throw that thing 300+ ft into a ridiculous headwind.
Overall Ricky was incredible personable and gracious with the fans. He was more than happy to take pictures, give autographs, and didn’t even make us feel bad while helping us look for our discs when we completely missed the fairway. If you weren’t a Ricky fan going into this event, you damn sure were by the end of it.
Traveling backwards another week to the weekend of the 8th was the Northern Illinois Open in Elgin where Brad Cook put on his big boy pants again and jumped into the MA1 field. It wasn’t just for fun either. Homeboy came to PLAY. Not only did he play up to the next division, he pulled out a 4th place finish. Damn, it must be feel good to be a gangster.
Last but not least we come to the very first weekend of June which for some of us was a double-tournament weekend. Saturday we had players throwing in the Illinois Open Series #96 Squaw Creek Showdown at Fairfield Park and then on Sunday traveling out to Lemon Lake for the Indiana State Doubles Championship.
Saturday started out rainy and stayed overcast all day but we managed to get through 90% of the day before getting called in for a brief lightning delay. The one DGC player who managed to bring the heat through the conditions was Mr. David Piña shooting a 925 and 945 for a 5th place finish in MA2.
Sunday was about as fun a day as you can ask for in this sport. Doubles events always have a happy-go-lucky vibe about them (if you couldn’t tell from team names like Deez Putts, and Dude, Where’s my Par?) but on top of that the weather was just glorious. Deb and Jay at the flight center absolutely know how to treat the players which is one of the main reasons that the size of their events continue growing year after year.
Brad Cook and Kyle Devine (RHBH/RHFH), a true powerhouse of a team, pulled out a 2nd place finish in the MA2 division shooting -20 on the day. A few spots back were the Piña Brothers tied for 6th place with a -15. In the MA3 division, Andy Odeh and I (Alex Seminary) had a good feeling about bringing home a fat W, but in the end managed a strong 3rd place finish shooting -14 on the day.
That’s enough news for now. Coming up around the corner is the local tournament we all look forward to every year, Clash at the Canyons. If you didn’t manage to sign up for this one, just go caddy for a friend. You don’t want to miss it. Simply put, Steven Rachan and his crew know what’s up.
