1000 Rated Disc Golf Players, News, scores, and more

One Man’s First 1000 Rated Round and the Convenience of Confidence

BY CHRIS WOJCIECHOWSKI: Have you ever heard of the Westside Course in Columbus, Ohio? The Westside Course at Hoover Reservoir is only in play for two weekends out of the year: once for the Discraft Westside Challenge and once for the Brent Hambrick Memorial Open, a tournament to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphona Society (and also my favorite National Tour event, how often do you get Father Time himself TDing a disc golf tournament?). I’m not exactly here to talk about the National Tour side of things, however. I’m actually here to talk about the other half of the event: the SuperTour amateur side. In 2007 it was at this event that I, by some freakish miracle, pulled off my first 1000+ rated round.

To understand just how unusual it was that I shot 1000 rated golf you have to take the round into context. For one thing, I had only shot 980 once (over eight months prior to the Hambrick and exactly 980). Not only that, but the round before I had thrown out my back on the Brent Hambrick Memorial Course. I shot a 111, 30 strokes over par on a 27 hole round. It was rated at 825. It was so bad that my second round would be played with 3 advanced women, one of whom was within striking distance of me. The second to last advanced golfer, Steve Ganz of California, actually thanked me for sparing him the ignominy of playing on the advanced women’s card.

Thankfully, one joy of playing in a tournament that has both a 27 hole course and an 18 hole course involved is that there is a very long break between rounds to insure that things are in sync. With over two hours flat on my back in the van, and a lot of pain pills (including some borrowed Vicoden), I wasn’t feeling all that bad going into the second round. On the first hole (hole 17 of the Westside course) I stepped right up and threw a thumber. My back felt that good, but it landed smack in the middle of the OB and I wound up with a 4p on the first hole. It was cleared up with a birdie on hole 18, but it was hole 1 that would clarify the sort of round this would wind up being.

Hole 1 on the Westside course is truly unique. It has an actual distance of about 200-220 feet, but I’m not sure of the exact measurement. It plays down a 45 degree decline. The green is approximately 50 by 50 feet, with the basket square in the center. If you miss the green, you are OB and reteeing. Additionally, to the left of the hole is the reservoir. If you’re too far left, you are in the drink. In the time since this tournament I have witnessed Barry Schultz take a 9pppp on the hole. Opinions on how to take the hole are varied. Local pro Jordan Rauch favors, and does well with, a giant spike hyzer. Another local pro, Kevin Cruise, throws overhand on the hole (then again, there aren’t many shots Kevin doesn’t throw overhand on). Many people choose to go dead at the pin with a putter. At that point in time I was throwing a grenade shot, or a spike-hyzer ’scooby’ to clarify it. I proceeded to hang the grenade out to dry, far left of the fairway. It landed directly on the left-most guardrail over the reservoir and slid back onto the stairwell. It then slid down the stairwell on its topside, bouncing off the right side of the concrete, then the left, and finally to the bottom along the sidewalk and inbounds about 20 feet left of the pin, 5 feet in bounds.

That may seem like a lot of setup for a single shot, and relatively insignificant for someone that wound up taking 33rd place in a 44 man division, but it may be the shot that I remember the most. Over the course of the round I wouldn’t be terribly consistent. I believe I wound up taking multiple bogeys, and hit more than my share of big putts to save for par and score for birdie. However, with as much out of bounds as there is on the Westside course it doesn’t take incredible consistency to shoot 1000 rated golf.

The key here is that I’m able to say now that I realize that shooting a 1000 rated round isn’t terribly difficult. It was after this round was over and I went home and saw my rating that I found I had the ability to shoot 1000 rated rounds. There will always be rounds like that one where I was inconsistent throughout, but happened to score more than I scrambled, and still pulled off 1000 rated. On the whole it really only takes a moderate amount of consistency to shoot those rounds.

I’ve only shot about 15 more 1000 rated rounds since. I still can’t do it all the time, but the biggest thing that came from shooting that single 1000 rated round is the confidence in myself and the knowledge that I can do it. I’d say that might be one of the biggest things in the way of a lot of 950-970 rated golfers that can’t seem to crack the barrier. For most golfers that can pull off 980 rated rounds the only thing preventing them from reaching 1000+ is their own mental block. Once you shoot a round rated over 1000 you think to yourself: “That wasn’t so hard,” and it becomes normal. I know I’m not the only person to have this thought. I’ve talked to other young local golfers after they’ve shot their first 1000+ rated round, and the mindset is the same.

All you really need to do is tell yourself that it isn’t so hard. Really, it applies to most aspects of disc golf - on the course you need to tell yourself: “That basket is freakin’ huge,” or “That fairway is so wide.” If you can convince yourself, it becomes that much easier. Convince yourself that you can play 1000 rated golf, and the time will come soon enough that you will…

…assuming you’re willing to put in the field work, practice rounds, and myriad other small things as well, but that’s all content for another article.
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***We would like to thank Chris Wojciechowski (#27965) for writing this article