2010 VO registration starts New Years Day

As the New Year's ball drops in New York City tonight, the link to the registration page will go live on the Vibram Open home page. Good luck!

VO coverage in Discgolfer magazine

My article on the Vibram Open, along with a few photos, were published in Discgolfer, the official magazine of the PDGA. See page 44-47. In a related article, TD Steve Dodge gave me an "atta boy" for writing this very blog during the tournament. Nice.

Even though I've written tons of boring technical manuals and won a few awards for them in my past life as a software and hardware technical writer, I must admit that writing an article on disc golf and getting it published in a major magazine kicks butt.

I look forward to writing more for the magazine or any other disc golf publication, blog, or event. Seriously, send me an email and let's get writing!

The Friday Archives - Hole 14

Steve has started editing all that video. Here is his live call of Day One's hole 14 with the Champions card.

Post-tourney bowling action!

Thirty-seven players, staff, and friends headed out for some post tournament candlepin bowling on Sunday.

Click to see the photos.

Vibram Open - Sunday (batch 3) post-tourney bowling

We made it on ESPN.com!

Check out the article on ESPN.com. Thanks, Jack!

Disc golf has a pro tour, and momentum

• McCluskey: Flying saucers

Photos from Sharky

Mark Sherwood has posted some photos.

• Sharky's photos

Photos from VO Champ Sarah Stanhope

Sarah's mom and dad were with her every step of the way this past week taking pictures, recording video, and even caddying. Her dad, Don, sent me this link to some great photos and video he took during the week. Thanks Don!

• Stanhope photos and videos
  

Sarah is originally from Rhode Island and is now a high school teacher in South Carolina.

Almost 200 photos from Sunday await you

It looks like I finally picked up a little poison ivy roaming around Maple Hill snapping photos this weekend. Found some on my right leg yesterday morning and now some is appearing on my right arm. Oh well, the sacrifices we make, right?

Take a look at these photos from Sunday. You may want to set aside a couple of minutes -- there's almost 200! And there's still more to come.

Batch 1

Vibram Open: Sunday (batch 1)

Batch 2

Vibram Open: Sunday (batch 2)

Send in your photos!

Thank you Doug Bechtel for sending in these photos!

• Email me your photos, favorite moments, or video and I'll post 'em too.

VO wrap-up on PDGA

Be sure to read Jeff L's tournament wrap-up on PDGA.com.

I'll be posting more photos from yesterday, as well as a recap of some candlepin bowling action. Woohoo!

Here's Jason Johnson teeing off on 1.

It's all about the love

Schultz, Pfeifer win!

Barry Schultz wins Pro Open and Dean Pfeifer wins Grandmasters!

• Complete results and payout

All three champions took the traditional jump in the pond on hole 1 to celebrate their victory!

Sarah Stanhope wins!

Congratulations to Sarah Stanhope on her first Vibram Open win! Sarah won in convincing fashion by shooting a 66 (+4) today, finishing +9 overall.

• Sarah Stanhope, 195
• Valerie Jenkins, 204
• Elaine King, 207

Sunday pix

Barry Schultz keeps it going for the men and Sarah Stanhope increases her lead as Val cards three quick 5s to start the day.

Some shots of the top two Open cards.

Barry Schultz


David Feldberg


Naved Hasnain


Naved Hasnain


Kevin McCoy


Henry Childres


Hole 2


Barry on 2


Nikko Locastro on 4


Kevin McCoy on 4


After 4

VO makes history

The Vibram Open technology wizards led by Bob Fleck made disc golf history yesterday by broadcasting an entire 18 holes live over the Internet. Today the Internet, tomorrow network TV!

A colorful start

Thanks to Matt Peckham for sharing this great photo! All of these discs were pulled out of the various ponds over the past three days.

ESPN is here

As I sit in command central, I can see the guy from ESPN.com interviewing Steve Dodge and Val Jenkins.

Val just warmed up with some putting as she gets ready to tee off at 11:00. Will she be able to catch Sarah Stanhope for another VO victory? Stay tuned.

Sat. recap:The ladies steal the show

Read Jeff LaGrassa's recap of Saturday's action on PDGA.com. It's moving day!

Did you make the cut?

Congrats to the top 72 men, 13 ladies, and 6 grandmasters who made the cut and are playing tomorrow for guaranteed cash! They made the cut and now they're getting paid!

Spectators welcome tomorrow. Please consider carpooling because parking is at a premium.

Twisted Flyer RPM / MPH contest finalists

RPM will take place tomorrow.

• Avery Jenkins - 72 mph
• David Feldberg - 70 mph
• Paul Ulibarri - 70 mph
• Tyler Horne - 69 mph
• Henry Childres - 68 mph
• Nageeb Laborde - 68 mph
• Steve Brinster - 68 mph

Even little Sam Streeter got into the action!



Avery breaks the speed limit

Top speed so far...

.... is guess who. Yep, Avery Jenkins at 72 mph. More tomorrow.

Yeti cruises to putting contest win

Jay Yeti Reading cruised to an impressive win in tonight's putting contest finals. He hit all his attempts until the last round where hit "only" 2 from 50 ft. He and Jeremy worked the crowd like true showmen. Good times.

Next up is the RPM/MPG contest where they will be throwing an Ultimate lid with a special measuring device attached into a net. Should be fun to watch.

Avery bombs long drive 601 ft!

In tonight's long drive contest, all of Avery's drives landed inbounds and center line. One actually hit the tape dead center. His third drive flew past the current throw of 585 ft from Big Jerm, landing 2 ft from the basket at 599 ft. His last drive cruised to 601 ft and landed just left of the basket. Wow!

The crowd went crazy!

Thanks for the photo, Cuzz.

Schultz keeps lead in Open

The Open men have just finished their round and Barry has defended his lead with a 57.

• Barry Schultz, -18, 106
  
• Nikko Locastro, -13, 111
  
• Kevin McCoy, -11, 113
• Complete results and tee times

Dinner is being served while we wait for the Grandmasters to come up 18. Then it's the drive, putt, and RPM/MGH contests to wrap up the day.

Dah dah da, dah dah da

Sunday morning, Jack McCluskey, an editor from ESPN.com, will be at the Vibram Open to interview Steve Dodge and some top players, and to see what disc golf is all about.

A piece will be put together and, if all goes well, a disc golf and Vibram Open article will be on ESPN.com in the next week or so.

Nice job Steve!

Smokin' Stanhope!

Sarah Stanhope comes in hot this afternoon with a 1008-rated 62 to take over first place. She leads Valerie Jenkins by three strokes. Nice job!

Bombs away

Saturday pix; scores rolling in

Check out the latest batch of photos, check live scoring, and see where your favorite golfer is sitting in the standings.

Click below for lots of photos!

Vibram Open: Saturday

Ace!

Pat Blazek hits hole 4 with a Buzz. He deuced it yesterday. Nice improvement!

Live coverage continues today

Don't forget about the live scoring for the top men and women cards this afternoon, starting about 12:45 PM.

Also tune in to live video and commentary by Billy Crump for the men's top card starting at 2:30 PM. We had some technical difficulty yesterday that we hope to have worked out by this afternoon. Hey, we're trying our hardest to bring you cutting-edge disc golf coverage!

Saturday's schedule

Rounds continue today, followed by the long drive and putting contests finals between 7:00 and 8:00. The RPM/MPG contest is also on tap for the evening.

Another review of Friday's action

Read Jeff L's summary of Friday's action on PDGA.com.

Friday recap and lots of pix

Today, they gave me a fancy SLR camera to use rather than my simple point-and-shooter jobber. Definitely an upgrade, but I still had a little trouble with the autofocus centering on the wrong thing. So beware, there are a few blurry ones in the lot.

I've uploaded them to Picasa so you can view them all there as a slideshow, along with the rest of them from this week. Enjoy!

Vibram Open: Friday (batch 1)

Vibram Open: Friday (batch 2)

Today was the first day of tournament action at the Vibram Open. I got there about 10:30 and started playing with my newly-issued camera. After watching a few people in the putting contest, I headed over to tee one where several groups were waiting to tee off. Most of the guys looked anxious and seemed to just want to get that first bomb over the pond over with.

Some guys were wearing old MSDGC and Vibram shirts from years past. It was like a living history exhibit.

Next I walked down to the pond to chat with Chris Roberts and his disc-diving dog Bear. Bear is pretty well-known along the East coast for his diving for wet discs. Today he gathered almost 30 discs from two different ponds. He actually dives under the water, swims around, and comes up with the disc in his mouth. Truly amazing! Chris is a real friendly guy, so be sure to say hi and thanks when you see him out there this weekend.

I spent most of the day roaming the course taking pictures and helping spot. I saw Schultz on a few holes as he absolutely devoured it. After 10 holes, he already had 6 deuces and 4 pars on some pretty difficult holes. He ended with a white-hot 49. Even though he was in a zone and focused, he still thanked the spotters on each hole. Classy.

While I was at the bottom of hole 13, I saw two near aces. Feldberg and one other guy threw lasers straight down the hill that missed the chains by inches. Jenkins also pured the fairway and blasted into the dirt embankment about 15 ft away. Very cool to witness.

Later in the afternoon, Steve D and I helped out with the long drive contest and ran all over the place finding each drive. It's not that easy finding discs in a field filled with Christmas trees, especially when discs are flying at you left and right. I think we did pretty well though considering our brains were nearly fried by then.

Back at Tourney Central, golfers were coming into the relative cool of the barn to count their scores and then pass in the scorecard to either Jeff L or Brian G. It got a little hectic in there toward the end as people were anxious to see the top scores, round ratings, and Saturday's tee times. Barry's 49 was rated a 1101.

Evidently some dinner was served (I missed that!) and a ping pong tournament broke out that Tom Southwick won over Billy Dunne.

When I left at 9:00, about 30 guys had hit the poker table for some late night action. They must all have late tee times tomorrow!

Out in the far parking lot, I met a group from Maryland feasting on a little New England lobster and corn on the cob. They were pretty pumped to have fresh lobster for a change.

The whole hour ride home, Derek Hopkins and I talked disc golf and only disc golf. Derek is from CA and is staying at the Plastic household for the tournament. Several locals have opened their homes to our out-of-town golfers and are showing some genuine Yankee hospitality. We're wicked nice, kid. ;-)

That's all for tonight. Good luck Saturday. Make the cut. Get paid.

Tom defends the homeland




We are not from Delaware!