Intimidated. That is the only thing that comes to my mind when I think about what I felt the first time I stepped on hole 1’s tee pad. It was only a practice round, but knowing what was ahead of me was scary. I arrived Sunday night and got to the course first thing Monday morning. As I watched my friends tee off, I zoned out and let the moment soak in. It is so surreal to me that a little over two years ago I did not know anything about disc golf and now I am standing on the tee practicing for a Disc Golf Pro Tour event. Practice rounds are pretty straight forward for me when learning a course. I step up and throw several shots off every tee and figure out what works and what doesn’t work. I feel like being able to do this for three days straight before the tournament even starts is a huge benefit to me and something that I typically do not have the luxury of doing. The biggest benefit of having several practice days for me is the fact that I can just step up and throw on tournament days without second guessing myself or putting any thought into my shot. I just wanted to make sure that I felt completely prepared on Thursday when the tournament actually began.

My tee time on Thursday was 11:10. I warmed up for about 40 minutes before my round and didn’t really feel nervous at all. I stepped onto the first tee and they announced my name. This is when the nerves hit me. I knew I was not at this tournament to win, but I was there to do my best and see where I was with my game. The first round was rough. I took a 10 on hole 2 by throwing ob 3 times and failing to execute simple shots. I took a 4 on the next hole which is a simple par 3 and felt like the whole tournament was over. I then proceeded to par my next 7 holes and finish 9 over that round. I was okay with my finish of round 1 simply because I knew that I was 7 over through 3 and finished the next 15 holes at 2 over. This gave me some confidence going into round 2. The wind was crazy so my putts were shaky and I had to play a lot safer than what I had planned to, but I improved by one stroke and shot 8 over. After two rounds, I had not planned on being 17 over par. I was very disappointed and it was hard to keep motivated going into round 3. It was perfect conditions and I did okay. I shot 4 over, but I know I left so many strokes out there. I missed 5 putts within 20 feet that round which is completely unacceptable. All I wanted to do in round 4 was play smart and stay close to par. Instead I started 6 over through 9. This deflated me. I parred hole ten and then regained my focus and went 3 down through the next 6 holes. This brought me to hole 17. In my head this hole is an easy birdie. I already counted it as a 2 and lost my focus completely. Instead I missed the Island off the tee, then I missed it from the drop zone, and then I had a roll away into the water from the drop zone. This made me give up. I was 3 over through 16 and went 7 over through my last two holes to finish 10 over that round. This put me at 31 over par for the tournament on a course that I have no doubt I am capable of shooting par consistently on. So how on earth did I go 31 over?

This tournament taught me a lot about my game. There was a ton of ob on every hole and the course tested every aspect of my game. I ended up losing the tournament by 64 strokes over 4 rounds. So where do I need to improve in order to take the 16 strokes off of each of my rounds? The biggest thing that I found is that I cannot make two mistakes in a row. Simply by executing the next shot after I messed up, I would have improved my score by 30 strokes. This would have made me only 1 over par and 34 strokes off the lead. The next big improvement that I need to make is my putting. A lot of my pars could have been birdies if I was more consistent with my putting. Many outside of the circle putts I would only give half runs at so that I would not have to worry about making a comeback putt. If I improve on both of these simple things, then I feel like my game is very close to where it needs to be. I have every shot, but the issue is that I am not consistent with them yet. This is my number one focus now that I am back from Ledgestone. I need to build up my consistency so that instead of messing up 2 or 3 times on one hole, I make one mistake and then bounce back instantly. I am very disappointed in my performance at Ledgestone and what I thought was a hill that I had to climb to get to the top now feels like Mount Everest. Although I am discouraged by my performance, I am eager to get back to work on my game and make sure that I never feel like this after a tournament again.