Challenge Board

With the recent re-introduction of the Morley field a challenge board there has been a huge increase in the competitive play at Morley Field. Having both an A and a B board it accommodates to all skill levels while offering a competitive environment to help hone your skills. At $6 a spot and $5 for a match, every time you step onto the course presents an opportunity to have a tournament setting round.

After two months of matches, the top 8 players; 1. Clint Calvin 2. Grant Fisher 3. Drake Avila 4. Mike Ballestas 5. Matt Jankowski 6. Mike Westerman 7. Donny Burdette 8. Billy Donovan, duked it out this weekend in a double elimination match play series on Saturday leaving 4 players left for a 19 hole round on Sunday to determine the winner. Executing shot after shot and pinpoint accuracy on the green; 2. Grant Fisher beat 7. Donny Burdette and 4. Mike Ballestas to secure his spot in the final. 3. Drake Avila also went 2-0, beating 6. Mike Westerman and 1. Clint Calvin to take his spot in Sunday’s final.

In the end of Saturday’s double elimination 1. Clint Calvin would best 5. Matt Jankowski while 6. Mike Westerman took down 4. Mike Ballestas to give us our final 4 competitors .On a cold, very salty Sunday morning, our 4 competitors started the final round. Starting off hot, Morley’s own, Grant Fisher birdied the first 5 holes in row, laying down an XL over the top roller on 3 and absolutely parking hole 5 with his Leopard to develop an early lead. Grant shot a blazing -7 on the front 9 to lead by 3. With everybody close behind him, Grant continued his stellar play, going 100% inside the circle on the putting green to win by 4 strokes, finishing -13!

The final standings were; 1st Grant Fisher -13 2nd Clint Calvin -9 3rd Mike Westerman -6 4th Drake Avila -2.

With the conclusion of the first successful challenge board event, we will be increasing the stakes to $6 a match with a dollar going into the total pot so that at the end of the next two month cycle there will be more money in the pot. The next final will be the first weekend of February. As well, players now must document their matches at the pro shop, simply to keep track of who’s playing who and who’s winning.

Tags are now available for both the A and B boards so make sure to stop by the pro shop if you would like to join.

Snapper's Wrap Up - 2018 Course Championship

Morley Field Course Championship Final Results

Clint Calvin (Course Champion) and Nick Newton (2nd Place Open)

Clint Calvin (Course Champion) and Hans Degner

Clint Calvin (Course Champion) and Alex Gerlock (Am Champ)

This year we had 90 players in our extended category course championships. We added two age protected categories. A senior category for men over 50 in both the Open and Amateur categories. We had perfect light winds and a warm day that led to some great scores in all five categories. Clint Calvin who is our new course champion shot what is now a new course record for our modern course championship format. About 10 years back we changed our format to include an incredibly difficult second round that only the players in this event will ever play due to its’ difficulty and crossing fairways, Clint bested the 21 person Open field shooting a -11 on the medium difficult course, a -5 on the long course, a -15 on the short course and a -8 in the final 9. His -39 is the best score yet with this format and earned him $400 for his efforts. Rounding out the top four Nick Newton wowed the crowd with a near ace on hole 8 for his bid at the first ever -10 in a nine hole final. He eventually missed his putt on hole 9 as well to finish -8 for the final nine as did Clint. Max Nichols finished third again this year. Being a lefty Max is always fighting an uphill battle on this course. Coming in fourth was one of our longest playing champion players Carlo Pelg. Carlo has won the Course championship once but he’s finished second 13 times. Of note in the third round hard charging Carlos Caballero also a former course champion had two aces in his round. He nabbed hole 11a and hole 16b for the ace pool monies. That was one very high energy group to follow. Mike Westerman won the senior open division with a fine -12 in the third round outlasting near daily local Fred Aguero.

In the Am category Alex Gerlock aced hole 12 long for the first time ever in tourney play earning him a dollar from each of the other competitors in the event. He then went on to win this 55 player category shooting a -11 for his three rounds, For his efforts he won a new sharpshooter basket from Legacy Discs plus an additional $200 in merchandise and shop credit. There were 18 players in the amateur division that cashed. In the Am Seniors Hans Degner led from start to finish carding an eventual -8 for the tourney . The seven man senior division had 3 who cashed. John Maki took second and Seamus Garland took third.

In the women’s category Rianne Hamilton dominated again this year winning by 26 strokes in the four person field. Rianne shot a magnificent -8 in the third round. Second place finisher Pam Vaughn also shot an under par round carding a 56 in the third round.

Lunch was pizza, salad and drinks donated by Amplified Ale Works again this year. The San Diego Beer Council sponsored as did the Morley Field Disc Golf Pro Shop. Players earned back 100% of all entry fees paid into the event. Big thanks to Zac Burnside and Chris Dilloway for art and computer work, my wife Joanne who ran around town and picked up all our lunch food and served it to the players. My staff Jesse, EJ and of course my long suffering side kick Mac. Mitchell was invaluable with tourney prep in the shop. Also a special shout out to Christian and Britany for spotting in the 5 ½ hour second round. Till next time…

Z ya

Snapper's Wrap Up - 2017 Course Championship

This Course Championship was unexpectedly the largest in our 41 year history. With 30 players entering in the last couple days there were 91 total entrants this year. Out enjoying the perfect weather on a closed course were 37 Open players, 6 women and 48 amateurs. As we’ve done the last couple of years we offered the players three totally different layouts in this event. First round was a normal, medium difficultly layout. Second round is always talked about all year as everything is long. We even play long pads on 8,9 and 17. Several pin placements are only used for this specific event as they are too dangerous for the general public to play on. The third round is all short. Easiest course we can put up. To give you an example of the difference many players shot 15 or more strokes better in the third round than the second. One old seasoned veteran Dan Shorkey improved 23 strokes in his third round over his second round. 

Our open winner was no surprise. Seppo Paju staying here in San Diego while visiting his girlfriends parents had just finished his pro tour for this year. He is a 1027 rated player from Finland and finished 6th in the USDGC this year to end his season on very high note. Our locals gave him a good run for his money with perennial second place finisher (14 times) Carlo Pelg only one stroke behind before going into the final nine. Seppo wowed the crowd of approximately 100 spectators when he chose to throw a 100 foot high “staker” over the tops of the trees on hole two and tombstoned into the ground just a few feet short of the pin to the roar of the crowd. Last year’s course champion Carlos Caballero finished a very solid third with this year’s shop representative Clint Calvin rounding out the top four in the final nine. Clint also gave the crowd a thrill by drilling a 100 foot jump putt downhill on hole three for a birdie. Also notable was Carlo Pelg’s deuce on long 6 on the hillside next to Jacaranda Dr. (don’t look for this pin position on the tee sign) and Seppo’s drop in deuce on long 16 (talk about a horken hyser).  

The women’s division also had a very close contest with reigning course champion Rianne Hamilton pulling away with a -3 in the third round to win for the second year in a row. Second this year was Allie Robles (I hear she’s due in March) with third going to Kimmy Cottrell.

The Am division was also highly contested with Travis Thomas playing a very steady game to pull out a three stroke victory over the ever smiling Willie Grenis. Willie shot an Am division best -10 in the third round to jump over Quinn Henry and Hunter Mannix who finished third and fourth respectively.

The top finishing Master aged individual was Carlo Pelg and the top finishing Grandmaster aged player was Ed Speakman. Both players received automatic invitations to the upcoming Team Tourney for their excellent play in their age division.

This tourney was sponsored this year by Sean Powell and flydisc.com. Sean gave all the winners a one of a kind custom disc with the tourney artwork He also gave out 8 coupons for designing your own custom disc to the winner of each category, plus the top three open players, the grandmaster winner and the Master winner. This is a very cool website where you upload your own custom artwork and create a one of a kind disc for yourself.

Other sponsors were George Spraklen’s custom wood trophies and Amplified Aleworks provided the players with salad to go with their pizza for lunch.

The full results and payouts are found elsewhere here on the website. CLICK HERE

As usual a big thanks goes out to all my staff for all their hard work as well to my wife, Mac (for the last 30+years), Charlie Grenis, Woody and Greg Olsen. 
Till next year,
Z ya…

Snapper's Wrap Up - 2017 Spring Fling

This tourney is a PDGA “B” tier event held once a year offering 7 different age or skill level Amateur categories. The tourney is played on a closed course and included lunch, free drawing and a “mondo” contest where all the players get a single putt for a free portable basket. Trophy plaques, framed certificates and prizes are earned by the top 40% of each category. 

This year’s Spring Fling was run a little later in the year than usual which allowed us to play under the fully blooming Jacaranda’s. The morning dawned with June gloom dampening the course before play began but fortunately it was dry by mid morning. The afternoon round actually saw some sun and a little wind came up as well.

Play was closely contested in each category. Smiling Willie Grenis’s steady putting style won the day in the Advanced division. Willie shot a -7 in the first round which gave him a tourney best 1009 player rating. Willie followed that up with -6 on the shorter and easier second round course to win by 2 strokes over his daily playing mate Drake Avila. 

The intermediate division saw local Hugo Lopez stepping back a division to dominate by two strokes over Darren Ziegler and a field of 21 players. 

The Recreational division was our largest at 23 players and our most hotly contested division ending in a sudden death  play off lasting over 30 minutes and eventually being won by Eric Eller over stalwart Numer Licardo.

The Am Masters for men over 40 was won by long time competitor Mike Lamb over first round leader Tommy Tom Millard. 

The Am Grandmaster division played by men over 50 was won by Hans Degner. This was Hans’s first “B” tier PDGA victory. Hans won over the most tenured player in the event Allen Risley. This was Allen’s third heart breaking 2nd place finish in this event. 

The Juniors category also ended in a tie with Xaelen Nash prevailing over his good buddy and neighbor in the playoff  Kai  Barrios. 

Finally, in the Womens category pre tourney favorite local Allie Robles won over newcomer Charlotte Towle by a comfortable 4 strokes. Allie also won the Women’s CTP in the first round on hole 8 sponsored by Madden Construction. 

Of special note Jay Welchans had the only ace in the tourney. He bagged hole 3 in the second round. Bobby Martin and Mike Ballestas had the best second round scores in the tourney at -8 which was rated with a 975 player rating. Ever happy Don Burdette won the Men’s division CTP.

The entire event ran relatively smoothly and on time. This year’s sponsors Innova Champion Discs, Dynamic Distribution, Discraft Discs, Gateway Discs, Legacy Discs, and MVP Discs donated discs and clothing items for the free drawing and some of the player prize packages. Hole sponsor’s Mark Madden from Madden Construction Co, Timothy Simons of Nitro Monkey Coffee, and Alex Pierson from Amplified Ale Works were hole sponsors.
All are to be thanked for their generous donations for this event.

As always I have to thank my staff: All the guys (and gal) in the shop as well as Mac, Eric, EJ, Jesse, Clint, Charlie, Oscar, Joanne and Chris Parker for their help setting up and running this event. This makes 39 years running that Mac has been assisting me here with events…yikes.

Everyone in the shop was really happy for Willy’s victory as he truly represents “the most fun wins” attitude.

Till next year,
Z ya

2016 Southwestern Team Disc Golf Invitational - Wrap Up

Well it finally happened. San Diego after 36 years of hosting the annual Team Tourney could not rely on local knowledge to give them an edge. The absence of two mainstays Micah and D2 was too much to overcome and San Diego ignominiously fell to last place having never earned more than 5 points in any 12 point match. They were flushed in round 7 by perennially last place Oak Grove team in what was euphemistically referred to as the Toilet Bowl. But teams came into the match at 0-6. Oak Grove prevailed 7-5.

The real story this year was the amazing performance of Team Oregon. Having been absent from this event for the past 6 years they came with Team Nate (Nate Sexton and Nate Doss) on the top end and current PDGA Women’s World Champion Valerie Jenkins anchoring the very talented team on the back end. Their whole team showed up for the putting contest on Friday and #1 Grandmaster Mike Ward took down first place ($100) in an extended and thrilling contest. Then they unanimously won the “Spirit of the Event” award (6 discs each plus a Dryfit from Dude Apparel). Then Jim Tobish one of their Masters won the individual “Spirit” award (Black Hole practice from MVP) and finally they also won the event ($250 plus 5 discs each) over Santa Cruz ($120 plus 4 discs each) 6.5-5.5. It came down to the last hole of the last players still playing where Val deuced and Sarah Hokom scored par.
Amazing…had they tied that match Santa Cruz was ahead on points that round and would have taken the title. 
No team has ever won everything the tourney has to offer before. Kudo’s to team captain Magilla for putting together such a talented and fun loving group.

Overall the tourney ran smooth. The change of allowing the players to stay out on the course after the 4th round and continuing on with their 5th match made a huge difference and allowed virtually all teams to finish before dark. The “all you can eat” lunch provided again this year by my son’s restaurant Amplified Ale Works in PB was much approved by the ravenous players. 

Next year San Diego has several motivated individuals moving up an age category. That with a little extra recruitment from the North County talent pool could hopefully help us become competitive again.

Many thanks to this year’s sponsors Innova, Dynamic Distribution, Discraft, MVP, Legacy, Millennium, Gateway, San Diego Hydroponics, Hamilton’s bar, and NP Trophy. The staff in the shop Mitch, Tyler and Tommy put together much of the paper prep. The much enlarged “day of” tourney staff Mac, Eric, EJ, Chris, Jesse, Charlie, Willie, Oscar, Mikey B., Jeff N., Chef Aaron and Joanne made for a far less stressful event when challenges arose. It is with deep appreciation I give my heartfelt thanks to all who made this year’s Team Tourney one of the best in recent memory.

Till next year…
Z ya

Click here to view results

2016 Course Championship Results and Wrap Up

We had perfect conditions for this year’s event. Light winds and warm days made for some hot scores. Eventual Open winner Carlos Caballero shot a personal best -14 in the first round. He followed that with a solid -2 on the long and treacherous 2nd round course and finished with a -12 on the third round short layout. Going into the finals he had a five stroke lead and all but ended the drama on the first hole by being the only member of the final four to birdie. Not content to sit on his laurels he continued to birdie the first 5 holes in a row finishing with a -7 in the final nine and a very respectable -35 for the tourney. He received $500 and a custom George Spracklen trophy for his wire to wire leading performance. Micah Dorius, many time course champion took fourth overall but was the highest finishing master player and won the $100 bonus. Mike Slonim finishing one stroke behind Micah won the grandmaster bonus of $100. Jet and Max Nichols had a great battle for second place culminating on the very last hole when Max bogeyed and Jet deuced to gain second place.

This year’s Course Championships payouts were the highest in history thanks to an additional $500 sponsorship for this tourney by San Diego Hydro. 

The amateur division had a lot of drama and a different leader after each round. Tadas Mikuzis had a hot -9 in the first round to lead. Carlo Portacio had the smoking -2 on the long course to take over the lead after the second round. But Ozzie Fausto shot a -10 in the third round to secure the win this year. He won $250 worth of prizes including a Dynamic Distribution Ranger Bag filled with discs and a custom wooden trophy. Ozzie also earned the right to play in the grinder on Saturday November 12 at 9:00 for the last Open spot on the San Diego Team.  

The women’s division saw another wire to wire winner with Rianne Hamilton finishing with a women’s tournament best -2 in the third round for an 8 stroke victory over second place finisher Pam Vaughn. Michelle Chambless took third. All the women were amateurs and as such received prizes for their winning efforts. Rianne also received a custom wooden trophy for her first ever Women’s victory.

This event is always played out on a closed course which allows for us to put up the incredibly difficult second round course that includes the three long pads and several extended pin positions not scene in any other tourney throughout the year. In addition this year’s 67 players all received a commemorative T-shirt and Pizza and salad lunch as part of the tourney experience.

-Snapper

Spring Fling 2015 - Snapper's Wrap Up

This year’s Spring Fling was a very smooth running event. Staff had all the scorecards, tourney boards and prize packages completed and ready well before the event even began. The course was arguably in the best shape ever with the Jacaranda’s in full bloom and the grass bright green from the recent and much needed rains. We had a full field of 95 amateur players spanning 7 different competitive categories. This was our first year as a Dynamic Distribution primary sponsored event. They provided each of the players with a Lucid Escape in their player packages. They also donated other discs, shirts and cozies as prizes for the players. We still had our other usual sponsors of Innova, Discraft, Gateway, Legacy, Millennium, Vibram and MVP. Each of the players received a shirt, disc, coozie, deck of cards and 2 mini’s in their player packages . They also got lunch (Pizza, salad and drink) and entry to the huge free drawing where we gave away over $600 in donated items from the disc manufactures. For the first year their greens fees were also included in their entry. Each player competed for two rounds on a rare closed course. Full results are available on PDGA.com/events. In the premiere category of Advanced amateur long time local Jonathon Maki lead from start to finish winning by a convincing 4 strokes over top contenders Carlos Caballero, Jet Tydingco and much traveled Brandon Langston. For his efforts Jonathan won a Discraft Chainstar basket valued at $375. Over $4500 in prizes were awarded to over 40% of the field in this event. Additionally, plaques or framed certificates were awarded to the top two players in each category. Among the prizes were 2 Chainstar baskets, a Dynamic Distribution basket, an Innova Skillshot basket, 4 Ranger bags and a host of other disc golf paraphernalia. Each of the players also had a chance to win a Skillshot basket in the ring of fire during the lunch break for a $1 fee. James Barnes was our basket winner.

The Intermediate and Recreational divisions were won by the brothers Chris Dilloway and Andy Dilloway. Women’s and Masters were won by the expecting couple of Allie Robles and Chet Morse. Grandmasters was won by another long time local Christian Cullen. Finally, our Junior category was won by Beck Russel. On another note we had a rare occurrence of one player, Noel Sanchez shooting the worst in his category (+6) in the first round followed by shooting the tournament best (-9) in the second round. His round was highlighted by a 100’ sidearm skip deuce thru the double mandatory on long 11. Booyea! In front of the tourney director no less. What a turnaround.

I’d like to thank all our sponsors and all the staff Mac, Eric, Oscar, Jesse, Joanne, EJ and all the regular shop and outside staff members for the usual outstanding efforts. Till next year… Z ya!

2014 Southwestern Team Disc Golf Invitational - Snapper's Wrap Up

This year was the 33rd year we’ve held the Team Tourney here in San Diego. Always run the first weekend of December to let the end of season traveling pros and other visiting players from colder climates enjoy a little respite from the ravages of winter. This is both a highly competitive match play team event yet also a big party weekend for the visiting teams. Many of the participants have been here 20 or more times over the years. For the first time in 33 years Anni Kreml, the queen of disc golf on the west coast, was unable to attend leaving possibly only Peter Sontag as the last remaining player to have played in all 33 tourneys. This year San Diego and Arizona faced off in the finals. San Diego’s home course advantage was put to good use as the locals handed the team from the desert a 7.5-4.5 defeat. For their efforts the locals won $250 each while the Arizonians took home $120 each. Final team results: San Diego 7-1 Arizona 5-3 Redwood Empire 5-2 Sylmar 4-3 SoCal 4-3 Santa Cruz 2-5 Huntington Beach 2-5 Oak Grove 0-7   The pre tourney started off Friday afternoon with an “Around 9” putting contest at our practice basket. There was $300 in prize monies divided between the top 5 finishers. To add a little spice to the event, obstacles were placed in front of stations 3 and 4. There was a chair on top of 2 tables between the basket and where you putted at position 4. If a contestant putted through the chair legs successfully, they skipped right to station 7. Station 7 is the money station. If you sink the 50 foot putt at station 7 you’re assured of making the finals. All 5 people in the finals make money. Ranging from $100 for first to $35 for 5th. No surprise to anyone, traveling pro Greg Barsby of Santa Cruz completed all 9 stations in the prelims and won the $100 1st prize. Ohn Scroggins from Team Sylmar completed 8 stations in the prelims firing laser beam putts from 60 ft. She finished 3rd in the finals.

Saturday morning dawned clear and bright, thankfully. Knowing we must play 60 competitive holes before sunset it is always a testament to organization and punctuality that we start and finish on time. Much of the staff for this event have been in place for years. Jim McDowell after having played in the first few team tourneys has now staffed with me for the last 25 years. Father and son Eric and EJ Simmons have been on staff since 2008. Human dynamo Greg Olsen has been with us about 5 of those years. Jesse Meyers again manned the website and Jeff Nichols provided his custom team tourney software again this year. Daniel Vega and Dougie Fresh also gave up their weekend to help out on staff this year.

My son’s restaurant, Amplified (formerly known as California Kebab and beer gardens) catered again this year. They provided the famished masses with fresh salads, chicken and lamb kebab meats, pita bread, humus, dressings and sauces. Falafels and rice filled out the plates.

Each team is comprised of 12 players; 6 open, 3 masters, 1 grandmaster, 1 sr. grandmaster and 1 woman. They play the corresponding player from each other team in a one on one 12 hole match play format. A win is a point and a tie is a half point. It is not uncommon for two teams to tie at 6-6. The scorekeeper then goes to the individual points scored in each of the 12 players matches and tallies them to break the tie. Often the margin of error for a match loss or win is just one missed putt.

Each year, players beat opponents they’ve never beaten and lose to opponents they’ve never lost to. I’m told last year Ricky Wysoki went 7-1 and Avery Jenkins went 1-7. Guess who beat who head to head. That’s the thrill and the agony of match play. Each match is only 12 holes and you never know…

This year was San Diego’s 23rd victory in the 33 year history of this event. There were a record 4 rookies on the team this year as well. Individual player stats and full team stats will soon be posted by Jeff Nichols on the Morleyfield.com website.

Innova Disc Golf, Discraft, Legacy, MVP and Dynamic Distribution all donated discs and goodies for the free drawing and first and second place teams. Santa Cruz again won the “Spirit of the Event” award and took home 4 discs for each team member. The best thing about the Team Tourney is not just one but 12 people have bigger than usual smiles on their faces this week. Till next year… Z ya  

2014 Morley Field Course Championship - Snapper's Wrap-up

The predicted and expected rain never happened this year. Both days dawned bright and clear for the 70 entrants for this year’s course championships. As always the course was closed to the public for this event. All players received a T- shirt designed by Chet Morse showcasing a picture of Woman’s Am World champion Vanessa Van Dyken. This years entry included salads from Amplified Ale Works and lots of pizza. The course layout was changed for each of the 3 rounds with the second round being a very difficult, never to be seen by the public at large, layout. This round proved to be the undoing of many aspirants. In the first round Chris Hanna had the hot round shooting a -13 only to fall victim to the tough layout and shoot a +7 to fall out of the lead. Micah Dorius our 14 time course champion shot a -11 in the first round followed by a -2 on the tough layout and a remarkable -16 in the final third round to cruise to an 11 stroke victory in the final 9 over second place finisher Jason Perdue at -22, Oscar Garcia -21, and Max Nichols at -19.

In the women’s division the expected shoot out between 5 time Women’s World Champion Juliana Korver and current Am World champion Vanessa Van Dyken was thrown a curve when local Allie Robles shot a fantastic even par first round to tie Juliana and take a 3 stroke lead on Vanessa. In the long layout second round Vanessa was able to gain some strokes on Allie and by tourney’s end finished 5 strokes behind Juliana in a marvelously played Women’s division.

There were 2 players in the Men’s Am division that managed to shoot under par in each of the 3 rounds. Patrick Paramore shot -2,-1,-7 to finish second to this year’s Am winner Carlos Caballero would shot an impressive -17 total for the event.

It’s apparent our course is becoming more difficult as the trees and shrubs mature. The overall mean entrant scores were the highest in history this year. This may not be the longest course but has proved it can still be technically challenging to the masses. Till next year…

Z ya