Well, as always it has taken a couple of days to relax, reflect and think, "Wow, that was fun!" I just wanted to take a moment to dole out some thoughts on the tourney that has past.
First off, thanks are in order and I am going to say right out front that there is no way I am going to be perfect in thanking all that were involved, our helped support and sponsor the event. This will simply be a ramble of those that I can think of right up front.....
Paul and Pam Wright-Congratulations on your first event as a TD and the more difficult job of being the wife of a first time TD. For those of you that don't know, Pam did an awesome job with securing sponsors (Thanks sponsors! Your donations were awesome!) and putting together the great player packs along with tons of other stuff. I know I heard soooo many comments about the tissue in the pack that I know it was well received. Also thanks to Pam and her crew for the help at NAD for check in and mid round help with the scores.....crucial as it all went perfect!
Thanks to my wife Jeanne-although not directly as involved as she always has been, wrangling our two hellions while I prepare and practice for a tournament is no easy task. Then add on top of that helping prep al the discs and so on and you find that as always she is the reason that so many things are successful.
Rick Bailey, Mike Heberling, Mark and Nathan Pervininch, Kyle and Brent Huber-For your help stringing over 3/4 of a mile of OB line to make the tournament run without one single question as to whether something was in or out. Also, your help the night before the event to get all of the discs ready so that everyone could get any piece of plastic they may need for their bag. As always, the Dalaiwood crew is there to help without question.
The West Sound Disc Golf Association-for maintaining the courses and having them in tourney ready status and beyond. Not only did the club get these tracks into great shape, the non-playing memebers were out in force to help run the event and spot on the tricky holes of Fairgrounds. Talk about keeping the event running smoothly, you were all awesome and bigtime thanks are sent your way!
Thanks to Discraft and Innova for supporting all of disc golf and making it possible for TD's to be able to spice up their events with generous donations. The added schwag for both the payouts and the raffle (how many things were given away at the raffle? I thought it would never end....) was greatly appreciated. Also, big ups and thanks to Ryan Gwillim and Next adventure for the 18 packs of fun that I got to throw out to people during the final nine and during the raffle! Totally unexpected and absolutely appreciated.
Before I get to the final thanks I want to say the only flaws of the weekend were small and basically our fault. The final nine could have started a bit earlier but that was due to missed communication between Paul and myself. This will be better in the future. As for the final nine duffing, this can either be fixed like others have noted with an overall score payout or we can have the pros drive holes 1,3,5,7,9 and the raffle winners drive 2,4,6,8. I may be leaning to the latter as this then always pits pro vs pro and partner vs partner and may keep things very even. It also may give the partners more of a shot to throw that skin winning drive as they will not be tossing against any of the top four pros......food for thought and just a heads up for other td's that are contemplating using this format. That said, I still think it was a HUGE success and I can't believe how many people we had trampling throught the woods to see the play. It was incredible.
On that note, I want to get to the final and most important thank you....and that is to all of the competitors. I have run a lot of tourneys and I must say that this was probably the easiest off all of them to TD as everyone was at their professional best. You folks all came out to compete and have fun and that is exactly what you did. While there may have been whining, I guess you kept it in the woods because there was nothing but pure competitive spirit in the air everywhere I looked. Thank you all for bringing such a positive attitude and experience out to the West side to show the people here how disc golf should really be seen. You were all champs on the weekend and I can't offer enough thanks and congratulations on your play and how you carried yourselves.
Until next time, we'll see you out on the course!
Scott Papa