Monday, August 13, 2012


The Young Bucks Follow Up.  You may remember that Chris Young "Bucks" gave us his early season predictions.  Well, lucky for us, he's back with a little bit of an August follow-up.  So, enjoy his words and feel free to respond with your own opinions.

-Circle Three


I gave you the YoungBucks predictions back in February and am well over due for a follow up, so here you go.

*In the Juniors division Jayce Slesar has locked up the win and appears to be moving up to AM2 for Wrightsville. Congrats Jayce! Good to see you moving up, you deserve it. It's been great to see some young players out enjoying the GMPS this year!

*In the Women's Intermediate division we still have a battle between Gretchen and Sara and with 3 events left the division is still up for grabs. Gretchen has been dedicated and much improved this year and I look for her to repeat and move on up to Adv Womens division for next year. A win at Wrightsville should lock it up for Gretchen, but if Sara can grab a W then things could get interesting.

*In the Men's Intermediate division I did not have much back in February. A mass exodus to the AM1 division left me scratching my head for predictions. I gave the early edge to Mize and Ira Divoll, but then they also followed suit and moved up. I said that 2-3 players would battle it out and the player playing the most events would have an edge. Currently, that looks to be true with Robbie Bean in the lead after playing all 7 GMPS events thus far. He has no wins though and nothing in the 90's, so he has some work to do if he wants to hold onto his lead. In second place and only playing 4 events we have Doug Wiemer. Doug has 4 very solid scores and is in a good position to take the title, but he will need to play at least 2 more events to do so. In third place in AM2 we have Dan Walsh. Dan has also played all 7 events, but has no scores above 78.57. Dan will need to win or get 2nd at the next 3 events if he is going to make a bid at the title. Just behind Dan is Todd Bouchard. Todd has a 90, but all his other scores are 71 and below, so much like Dan, Todd will also need to win an event or 2 if he wants to take the title. Rounding out the Top 5 is Jordan Potvin. Jordan is getting hot and is very dedicated to getting better and it is paying off with a win at LPO and second at BCO. With a win at Wrightsville Jordan can jump up into the top 3 and be in a good position for a run at the title. YoungBucks predictions are as follows......

1st Jordan Potvin  2nd Doug Wiemer  3rd Robbie Bean

*In the Advanced Women's division we have Jen Frantz at the top. Jen is well ahead of both Dana and Heather House. If Dana can win at Wrightsville then we could have a battle, otherwise Frantz is our Champion. Thanks to Gretchen and the "Ladies Only" rounds, we have a slew of new women competitors in the GMPS and it is great to see!

1st Jen Frantz

*Back in February I looked at 5 players that would have the opportunity to take the title in AM1. I mentioned Dave Carter, Matty O., Seth McQuade, Josh Wedel and Christian Keidel. The only player left from those predictions that has a shot at the title is Seth McQuade. Seth has some momentum, coming off a win at Calais. Seth will need to win 2 more events of the last three though if he wants to surpass Edwin who has 2 100's and 2 89's. Right now it's a 2 man race. I talked with Brad at the N. Calais Open and he will not be able to attend Wrightsville or Burke, so that puts him out of contention. The rest of the Top AM1 players will need to start winning if they want a shot at the  AM1 title because Edwin and Seth are well ahead of the pack. To quote Circle 3, "100's Win!”and right now in AM1 that is definitely the situation. Teed, Kaulius, DeVico and Powell still have a shot, but they all have their work cut out with only 3 events left in the Series. 

1st Edwin Bedell

Thanks again to Circle 3 for letting YoungBucks contribute to the GMPSeries predictions!

See ya on the course soon...

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Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Mayone is the One

Calais Gold
Going into the Calais weekend, I had given you my top five candidates to take down the Pro Division. I told you that Jeff Spring, Chris Young, Mike Habets, Johnny Betts, and Sean Bleything had a chance at winning. As usual, the Circle Three Predictions were a little bit off. The story of the day, at least from our perspective up north, was Chris Mayone. His scores of 66 and 69 were good enough for a first place tie in Pro Open and a subsequent playoff. Although Mayone did not prevail in said playoff, he did put forth an outstanding performance, one good enough to surprise many of us (and himself) as well as earn the Circle Three Headline.

Once again, Vermont was plagued by the last minute out-of-town addition who took down the Pro field. This time around it was former Vermont regular Pete Johnson. He absolutely crushed Calais Golds on the first round, shooting a 61 and grabbing a five stroke lead on the next closest Pro heading into round two. Johnson's second round was a little more down to earth, at 74 strokes. That allowed Mayone and his steady play to claw his way back for the playoff. Although Johnson did prevail on the day, Chris Mayone prevailed in our hearts.

Mayone is an interesting player. He's eligible to play in either Pro Masters or Pro Grandmasters, if he so chose. Plus, he's coming off some surgery, so no one would complain if he hid in one of the age protected divisions. But, that's not Mayone's style. He's a big boy who plays big boy disc golf, so for him, it's Pro Open or nothing. And that's commendable.

I have to touch on the fact that I didn't include him in my Calais prediction. I kind of felt bad after he had such a great day. Was it unfair of me to skip right over him? For a minute, I thought so. Then I found out that Mayone wasn't even confident enough in himself to enter the Pro Side Pot. So, if he wasn't even rooting for himself, then I shouldn't feel so bad not picking him to win.

Either way, props to Chris Mayone. He worked his way through two rounds at a very challenging course. And as Chris Young said, he did it “very smoothly.” Nice work, Mayone. Months ago I said I'd be happy to give you some props if you earned it, so here you are.

Bleything, sampling some of the finer things.
And then...

*Although the Pro Division had some shakeups, the top 3 remain the same. Jeff Spring is in 1st with 416.33 points, Chris Young is a close 2nd with 403.65 points and Habets remains in 3rd with 349.75. I should note that Habets had his best finish (netting 76.92 points) since winning Pinnacle. Maybe he's been reading this blog. Anyway, the top five is rounded out with a resurgent Dave Frothingham in 4th (325.53 points) and the ever steady James Beaulieu in 5th (287.77 points).

*This season, and consequently each tournament still remaining, is really starting to mean something. We've finished 7 of the Green Mountain Point Series events and only 3 remain. For those Pros who want to make a move, time is running out. And let's not forget that Jeff Spring is the reigning Wrighstville Open champ, so I doubt he'll be giving that one away without a legendary battle.

*Rivalry Watch. I owe you a few updates on the Rivalry Watch. I was neglectful and didn't square up our results after the LPO, so we'll do that and then move onto the Calais wrap-up. It's suffice to say that those disc golfers I was beating up on early in the season have had enough of my blathering and are ready to win the Rivalry Watch. Results are much closer than they used to be.

So, going in to the LPO, my record was a respectable 10-6. My score on the day for the Sugarbush courses was a pretty lame 124. I was easily bested by Justin DeVico and Seth McQuade. I beat Ira Divoll (Thanks, Ira!) and we didn't see Spencer Weatherholt, Jim Conroy, Dave Carter or Andy Powell at the LPO. So, on the day, I only had 3 rivals present and 2 of them beat me. That puts me at 1-2 on the day and 11-8 on the season (after LPO).

Calais, however, was filled with rivals. I finished the day with a pretty poor 162. That means that Jim Conroy beat me. Seth McQuade, who won AM 1, obviously beat me. Ira Divoll placed in the money, and beat me, as did Justin DeVico. Spencer Weatherholt got me by a stroke, and I was fortunate enough to play the second round with him and see it with my own two eyes. Thankfully Dave Carter was nice enough to DNF and gift me a win. So, at Calais, I got destroyed. I was 1-5 on the day. Now I'm 12-13, the first time I've had a losing record against the rivals this year.

Nice work, boys, but thankfully the season ain't over yet.

Spencer, hitting good putts right in my face.

*Pro Prediction Follow Up: I picked Spring/Young/Bleything for the win/place/show. Spring and Young didn't have enough to hang tough at Calais, but Bleything did end up in third. So, my predictions weren't legendary, but if you think you would have picked Johnson/Mayone/Bleything ahead of time, then you're just kidding yourself.

*AM 1. Yes, I almost forgot about this one. I played the first round with Seth McQuade, who wasn't very happy with his disc golfing and talked about quitting and caddying for his wife. I was trying to convince him to drop me off at the Three Penny Tap Room before the second round started. Neither on of those things happened, and instead, McQuade came back from behind in the second round and won the division by two strokes. Nice work, Seth. That'll shake up the AM 1 division race. However, we're not going to dive into that today. The work on the street is that Chris Young is going to be bringing us an AM 1 follow-up later this week. Until then, we'll hold off on the AM 1 analysis.

*D(NF) Carter. That is all.

*Calais. What a special place. The course always looks immaculate, I think, but this time it was especially fantastic. The perfect weather didn't hurt, but the time and energy that goes into that course is really legendary. I'd like to extend a special thanks to all the folks who work hard there, but especially to Paul Olander. Paul is the real godfather of disc golf in Vermont, even though I throw that term around a lot. He does so much to make our sport and his course fantastic. Thanks again, Paul.

*Aaron Moore. What a nice guy. Plus, an excellent TD. From my end things went very smoothly and Aaron is a big person to thank for that. Plus, he didn't even play in the tournament. Talk about commitment. Thanks again, Aaron.

*Worlds Update.  Andy Powell shared a story with me about a Circle Three he carded at the Worlds.  It's a great story.  He sailed a huge drive that went past the basket, down a hill and out of bounds.  In true Circle Three fashion he nailed the putt.  I figured it was worth mentioning.  It's also worth mentioning that this was the turning point for Andy's Worlds appearance.  Not a positive turning point, but a turning point that sent his play spiraling out of control.  Like I said, true Circle Three fashion.  

*The final word this time goes to me. I don't often take it, but it's my blog and I'll do it if I want to. I'd like to make a pitch for the formats of tournaments at Calais. No, it's not my course and no I wasn't the tournament director, so I probably don't have much to complain about. But complaining is what started this website and complaining is what keeps me going. Personally, I think that two rounds of Golds for amateur players, even advanced amateurs, is a little too much. Sure, we're just one step away from Pros, so you could argue that two rounds of Golds is good practice for us, but I think it could be done differently. If it were up to me, I'd have amateurs play a round of Golds and a round of Blues. Let's be honest, Blues are still challenging (and it's also a beautiful layout) so why not let amateurs play a round of each? Maybe we can get this in place before the Vermont State Finals...

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