Des Moines Challenge

[jack]

Stolen from IowaDG.com

http://www.iowadg.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8849


Online Registration is up and running. Please note that we added a place for you, the player to sponsor a hole this year for $25. Damon referenced this above and Disc Golf Scene made it easy for us to make this happen. If you elect this sponsorship, a custom sign will be made for the hole, referencing you as the sponsor. You will be able to keep this sign after the event is completed. Make sure if you have a special hole request, you PM either Damon or myself with the details.

Here's the link to sign up!

PRE-REGISTER FOR The Des Moines Challenge Presented by G&L Clothing

https://www.discgolfscene.com/tournaments/Des_Moines_Challenge_presented_by_GandL_Clothing_2013/register


You know you want to go if you have been there....If you haven't been there, you have heard that you should go, and this should happen....if you are reading this for the first time, and are wondering about Des Moines Disc Golf, then click the link above an plan on playing it.  This event is a fun time on four great courses.  Sad, that we won't get Ewing due to construction, but heard that last year.....Still should be a fun time!

[Loomis]

This is a "must play" tournament.

[coops]

Interesting.

Haven't played up there in a few years but they are great courses.

[Loomis]

no Ewing this year

[jack]

Which is sad, but longs from Grandview will be a trip down memory lane for certain.....so you get Pickard (Indianola) which since the revision for Worlds in 2004 is a fan favorite, shots 700' and shots 220' all in the same round, rolling hills, OB in tough tight places, (#18 is either over 800, or right at it, start up a hill, play along the hill, then you find the pin is located in a nestle of bushes that you can only get to one way....oh, and just to the right of the pin, is a big water OB hazard about 30' away.....)  Then Grandview, which is one of the oldest courses in Des Moines, heavily used Rec park, (think Rosedale) but the golf is pretty closely guarded by old mature trees, and some tight lines on fairways, with splashes of openness that looks to be inviting only to be just slightly off.....

Then on Sunday it appears as though it will be Walnut Creek with the redesigns there, the only thing is that we will probably still play #9 from the short tee....(GRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrr..........), open yes, tight yes, clean lines, yes, hills, elevation, yes, tunnel shot, yes.....it is a fun course...there is then Big Creek- Le' Freak.....tight tunnels, and punishing OB's abound on most every shot.  I personally love this course more than most in Des Moines, and will get shot for saying so, but it is golf as I like it.  miss a line, feel the pain.....

I can't wait.

[Loomis]

I think the first year I played this tournament they played all five courses. Now every year when I sign up I'm hoping I will see that same format. Alas, it's not meant to be. I'm glad to see Grandview again, but Ewing is a monster and will be missed. It was at the Des Moines Challenge that I made the announcement I was moving up to masters. So I'm giddy to get back there and honor that claim.

In my hierarchy of disc golf tournaments this is tied for number one in the "overall experience" category with KC Worlds being the other. Other notables - just for comparison - Beaver State is the most incredible party on tour but it's just one course chopped into two. Minnesota Majestic is three awesome courses but it has no tournament "atmosphere." St. Louis has great courses but it always seems to suffer from organizational issues. US AM Nats is the best run with an incredible atmosphere, but it's only one course. So in the give and take, Des Moines has it all (the only knock against them is in the "player's pack" category. One year it was an ESP buzzz you couldn't throw because the design looked like tall grass and you would lose it immediately, and another year they gave out just an R Pro Boss or something like that, which no one - other than the tournament director - liked to throw).

If you're on the fence about this tournament, let me nudge you toward going. For no other reason than to just see Pickard in all it's glory.

[jack]

You may have played 5 courses, but it has always I think only been 2 days.  There has in the past, and probably this year, been a doubles on Friday.

I petitioned their forum for #9 long at Walnut.

Having played all of the events you mention with the exception of US Nats, I would concur with your assessment.  Players pack option, meh, it is what it is.  I personally think/like a bigger pack option over paying the 50% field more....I think as last weekend was a testament, bigger players pack, less deep payouts is a way to go in the Am field.

[Loomis]

http://www.pdga.com/tournament_results/14202

I came in 50th.

[phisherman_77]

Knowledge bomb.

[fenton]

Are there any camping spots or hotel suggestions?

[Loomis]

I know there is a ton of camping, but the courses are spread out pretty well and you will want to do some research on the right spot for your needs. You wouldn't want to sleep at Big Creek and have to drive all the way to Pickard. For some reason I always stay on the West side which is pretty far from the courses.

Big Creek is twenty minutes north of Des Moines. Walnut Ridge is half way to Big Creek. Grandview is on the East side in the city. And Pickard is twenty plus minutes south of Des Moines.

[DDKC]

I'll be there

[jack]

hmmmm....I wasn't there....could be why I didn't remember it being 3 days......I think that the year 2009 was a hard year for me to get much done playing wise....

[jack]

Hotels off of Merle Hay road are you best bet.  Grandview will be the only one out of the way from there.....but they will all be a little drive for certain.  There are plenty of camping sites, but nothing that a hot shower can't fix.  I am going to ask my Brother if he would mind Camping on his back acres......If that is the case, he would be about smack dab in the middle of the locations...putting Big Creek the farthest away, probably about 35 minutes, and having Pickard about 25, Walnut about 20-25 (it is only about 10 minutes to Big Creek from Walnut) and getting to Grandview from there would be about 15-20. 

(Merle Hay area)THe hotels, I would adjust about everything I just wrote and say that Pickard would be 35-40, and then about Big Creek at 25 from there, Grandview still would be 15 minutes or so. 

Most of the timelines as well for Downtown Des Moines would be about all of this add on about 5-10 minutes, with the exception of Pickard, it would still be about 30-35 from there, and Big Creek about 30-35, Grandview would/should be about 10 from downtown, depending on stoplights.

[Loomis]

Tracy, Cooper is probably going. Now if we can figure out a way to get Hemme to go...