Melbourne
OPEn
Melbourne, FL
National tour #3. This event was played at Wickham Park in Melbourne, Florida. The park is beautiful and very nice as it contains camping, an 18 hole disc golf course and crystal clear swimming pond. For this event, the course was extended to a 24 hole course. This wasn't difficult as there is plenty of room in the park. However, the layout of the land is such that nearly every hole on the course is very similar. A typical hole has some trees at the tee, some trees at the basket that are surrounded by palmettos and open area in between. Unfortunately, it is not really possible to stay clear of the palmettos which usually make your next shot much more difficult. For those of you not familiar with Florida fauna, the restriction is the least of your problems as the steams of the palm fronds are covered with sharp little teeth which scratch up your legs quite easily. The weather for this event was a huge improvement over last weekend. Temperatures were in the low to mid 80's with winds 10 to 20 mph.
Now on to the competition. Neither Shawn nor I played our best. Shawn was incredibly consistent with his mediocre rounds shooting three consecutive 71's which left him one stroke out of the money in a field of 49 pros. In the women's division, they saw their largest field ever with 11 players. Lesli Herndon started strong and never looked back. She shot extremely well and easily took first place. Local favorite, Deb Renner, played well at times. She is the strongest Florida woman player. She is a former ultimate player and utilizes her disc skills to the fullest. She had some creative upshots from behind the palmettos. Deb is really easy going and fun to play with. She took second this weekend about 5 strokes ahead of me.
Despite the poor finishes this weekend, Shawn and I had a great time. The tournament time frame was unique as we played only one round each of the three days. That is not necessarily that unique, but the fact that we did so with a shotgun start is different. Due to this fact, we had plenty of down time over the weekend. We spent much of it on the beach. Friday we played catch on the beach with Jeff Watson and Mike Byrd (two FL disc golfers). We did some freestyle and MTA and mostly stayed out of the water. On Saturday when we got to the beach I was not in the mood to throw a frisbee anymore so Shawn took me out in the water and showed me how to body surf. It was a blast. I enjoyed it so much that we went back Sunday and gave it another shot. This time with NorCal golfer, Carrie Berloger, also known as Berl. Berl is a former ultimate player and placed 4th in the event only one stroke behind me.
| Pro Women ( total 11) | ||||||
| Rnd 1 | Rnd 2 | Rnd 3 | Final 9 | Total | ||
| 1. | Lesli Herndon | 74 | 71 | 77 | 32 | 254 |
| 2. | Deb Renner | 78 | 79 | 78 | 31 | 266 |
| 3. | Juliana Korver | 78 | 80 | 81 | 32 | 271 |
| 4. | Carrie Berloger | 84 | 78 | 78 | 240 | |
| Pro Men ( total 49) | ||||||
| Rnd 1 | Rnd 2 | Rnd 3 | Final 9 | Total | ||
| 1. | Barry Schultz | 64 | 64 | 64 | 28 | 220 |
| 2. | Walter Haney | 68 | 64 | 66 | 27 | 225 |
| 3. | John E. McCray | 66 | 64 | 68 | 28 | 226 |
| 4. | Ryan Renz | 68 | 64 | 68 | 28 | 228 |
| 5. | Steve Brinster | 69 | 66 | 66 | 201 | |
| 6. | Ron Russell | 65 | 68 | 69 | 202 | |
| 7. | Ken Climo | 75 | 61 | 67 | 203 | |
| 8. | Brad Hammock | 69 | 66 | 69 | 204 | |
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