What can you say about 2020? On one hand we had to pull baskets for awhile and that sucked, but on the other many improvements have come from us having to adapt. Like why have we not always met at hole 5 for league off season? RIP to the pre-tourney player meeting and welcome to the pre-assigned starting hole and hard start times. And a big WELCOME to all the people that found Disc Golf and Otter Brook because of the pandemic. A pandemic that is not over yet and that we will still be dealing with this year.

Right out of the gate that means we wont know about park access till we do. As of today we cant stage inside the park, so our first causality is our season opener Mr Sippy's! Not that we wont have the event, we just don't know when yet. We have tentatively planned a work day for May 16th, but that is contingent on a thumbs up from ACoE. 

​In general, the club is in good shape. We have a strong balance sheet with around $3000.00 in the bank, we have strong membership and course is in good shape. Sunday league has never been stronger. So we have that going for us!
​ 

 
Well we have have a lot planned for league and tourneys. A lot still needs to be locked in but here is the Overview.
- The usual suspects, Trilogy challenge, MVP, Club Championship, Otter Brook Open, Scrambles and some Flex starts. In the works is a possible B-Tier with Oak Ridge, and a Flex round robin with us, Brattleboro and Oak Ridge. Will give you details when we know more. If you have something in mind drop me a message.

- League is looking a-lot like 2019. A couple blocks of rated PDGA League and working in some handicapped league. We are still working out exact dates, but this was pretty popular when we rolled out in 2019. 

- 2021 Work Day. We have not had a big club workday per se since 2018. This wont be a sexy workday, but a necessary one. Tentative items on our list are building some information kiosks for holes 1 and 5 and maybe up top. Cleaning up 10M circles, Installing new signage, working on B-Tee's, and leveling tee pads as needed and working on improving hole 6. Other assorted cleanup and pruning.

- Another item that came up was Hole 1. A few ideas have been put forward that we discussed at the meeting. One was change to a par 4. One was to move basket to new location and make it a Par 4 and some want to leave it as it is.
​​The decision was made to try the alternate location as a test and see what folks think. Obviously this wont happen till spring. We will keep you posted.

And no post of mine would be complete without a reminder that Free courses are Not free. Every bit of Otter Brook is there because someone stepped up. No one had run a tourney, someone stepped up. Tees did not just appear, it was hundreds and hundreds of volunteer work hours.  And before that were hundred and hundreds of hours to clear fairways. And before that hundreds of hours of planning,  just hoping it would work out. 
​
Again we will need people like you. Its time to give something back to Otter Brook so we can enjoy this gem  of a course for years to come. And honestly, its not just "a course". We have built a great disc golf community unlike any other in NH.

​
I think # 1 is Ribbon Up! Is it a pain? Yes! Does it affect flight? Yes! Do you find tape and ribbons stuck everywhere? Yes!  Do you lose discs? NO! It does not take much snow to make a disc disappear. And honestly if you are not going to take the time to Ribbon Up, then I am not inclined to take the time to look for your disc.
TIPS: Dont ribbon up cold discs, Use decent tape, Use 1/4 inch ribbon used for presents.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq7onUGx5So

So you may be asking what is all the fuss this season with PDGA flex starts and pdga league? Well besides just adding a different level of competition to what we do locally, it also allows locals to more easily earn amateur points to hopefully get an invite to the Amateur Worlds in 2020 being held in Orlando Florida.

New England Amateurs is biggest AM event in New England, AM Worlds is the biggest in the world. This year it is 7 days, 8 courses and I believe 6 rounds of disc golf.

And the deal is you have to commit and plan ahead. To actually play in AM Worlds you need to be both PDGA member AND certified official. Otter Brook will reimburse any member that wants to become a PDGA official. Then you need to play enough events and accrue enough AM points to get an invite in early 2020. In 2018 I only accrued 224 AM points which would not get me an invite for anything.

Here is point breakdown for 2019 and I assume it will be same or similar for 2020

https://www.pdga.com/2019amworlds/invites/criteria

Last years AM World results.

https://www.pdga.com/tour/event/33926

So anyways, by having local PDGA events at Otter Brook you have more opportunity to earn points without traveling as much. And Flex starts are hopefully going to be a much easier way to get involved in a C-Tier event. Just sign up and play anytime of the day that is convenient for you. The only caveat is that you need to have a card of 3 when you go out or a card of 2 and a PDGA official. Probably major difference is that there is no player packs and all money minus costs goes back to players in form of cash for pros and funny money for AMs. Breaking Chains will be handling the payout side of things for us. We have 2 events scheduled already (1 before Mr Sippys and 1 before Summer of Dubz) and are planning to schedule 2 more later in the summer in Aug and Sept.

PDGA League does not earn as many AM points per event, but you can knock out 6 events in 6 weeks. I have been asked how this will affect our normal Sunday league and the answer is not much. There is no change in times or cost. playing for points and a player rating is completely optional. Sign in in the morning will be a little different and we will have to use paper scorecards. Other "change" if you want to call it that , is honestly going to be a change in curtesy on the course. We tend to play a little looser, a little more ready golf like. And there is nothing wrong with that. For PDGA we are just going to be a little more aware when people are throwing, using minis, and being aware of foot faults in and out of the circle.

But the cool thing is we will come out of this with some very solid course information. Like hole averages, what is our median score and dorky stuff like that. It would also set the table for having a handicap league or tourney of some sort which may be interesting.

Bottom line is that these changes may sound big, but in reality are just an extension of what we have been doing and where we are going as a club. It adds options for those looking to qualify for AM Worlds and have more player rating opportunities and changes very little for those who like the status quo.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at knhdgc@gmail.com

​Bob

Jan !5th - Sorry a little late in posting this.  Here's our interview with Ian Anderson from Central Coast Disc Golf on the YouTube (as you kids call it).   Derek Complains about the Celtics, and we make our NFL Playoff Picks.

HERES THE SHOW

Local Keene Disc Golf club members Derek DeCoste and Galloway Johnson (a.k.a Gally) have started a radio show.   It's on Tuesday nights from 9-10pm ET.  You can hear it locally on 91.5 WOOL.FM from Bellows Falls Vermont.   You can also listen online
​HERE


We talk mostly Disc Golf for the first 30 minutes of the show.   We discuss local Disc Golf happenings as well as topics from the larger Disc Golf community.  We throw in some music and will invite people to call in if you are listening live.  (number on the wool.fm website).   The rest of the hour we give our opinions on  sports topics with a general leaning toward the New England Sports Teams.

We will also throw in some special interviews with people from the local Disc Golf community, and really any sports related activities that people would want to chat about.   Send us email to Uderstableg@gmail.com
with suggestions or if you know someone interesting in the sports world that might want to chat with us.

We are also @understableg  on Twitter and understableg on instagram

Below is an archive of our show as well as two interviews Derek has done so far.   More to come...

Interview With Rob Breckenridge and his Ultra Marathon he did this past Summer.

Interview with Tournament Director Derek Dussault  
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SHOW ARCHIVES

October 13th
October 30th
November 13th
​December 4th
​December 11th
​December 18th

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