Showdown at Spilman by Dynamic Discs

Tournament Recap

PDGA C-Tier

December 10th, 2022

The Course

This tournament was played at Spilman Park in Amissville, VA near the town of Warrenton. This is a par 56 4,757 ft (1,438 m) course with two par 4’s. Spilman is a pretty mixed course in regards to it being semi-open and semi-wooded. All of the holes have some level of danger to them. Whether it be trees in the fairway, dense brush along the fairways, or steep greens. So, even though I throw a putter off of 9 of the tees you still have to be accurate with your throws which does add a level of difficulty to this relatively short course. On most of the holes if you land off of the fairway you do have to scramble to save a par or even a bogey. In general the course only has one layout but I do think it is still challenging and fun for both advanced and beginner players. The only problem the course has is with the tee pads. The frames are wooden with turf nailed onto the tops. Most of the tee pads are torn or have stretched with wear and can lead to slipping and tripping on the tee. Luckily the Tournament Director allowed us to tee off to the side of two of the most problematic tees to prevent injury. I have to admit that this course holds a special place in my heart because I competed in my first tournament at this course, and it also led to me winning which catapulted me into this love for the game and the competition that surrounds it! Would I recommend playing a tournament here? Absolutely! 

Preparing for the Tournament

Before talking about how the tournament went, I always like to talk about the preparation that went into this tournament. Mainly because I find it more useful to see the work that someone puts into the tournament before actually competing. Hopefully you can find this section relevant to your own game!  

My main takeaway from my previous tournaments was working on my accuracy and approach shots, specifically the two put together! I have been working on my backhand form a lot recently which tends to lead to some errant shots when throwing since I don’t have all the timings down yet. In my last tournament, unfortunately I don't have a recap for that one, I was struggling with this problem. It made me rethink what I want to work on now versus in January/February which is my “off season”. I have decided to pause on changing my form until the new year. Mainly because I still have four more tournaments this year and I don't want to jeopardize my standings in those events by not playing with the level of confidence I like to have going into an event. However this does not mean I didn’t practice the week leading up to the tournament. My main focus was on regaining my accuracy with my current form and also working on my approach shots and gaining confidence with those. As I said in the previous section, I had to throw a putter off of nine of the tee pads. Meaning that nine holes were essentially just approach shots on a variety of angles. 

On Wednesday, December 7th I went out to the course to do a practice round. It ended up being a slightly drizzly day which meant we had the course to ourselves which is great for a practice round and throwing a few shots off the tee to make sure I throw the correct one in the tournament. I was feeling pretty good about my game, there were only a few holes that I had a little trouble with deciding what disc to throw and how to throw said disc. But it ended up being a pretty fantastic practice round and I even got my first ace since last December! It was a crazy flair skip ace that was redirected by a tree into the basket! Here's a link to that video on my Instagram! That definitely helped my confidence going into this course knowing how well I could play it! 

On Thursday, December 8th (which also happens to be my dog's birthday!) I went out to my local wooded course and played the short pin positions. My main goal from this round was to try out some different grips and to work on my putter tee shots and approaches in general! On hole 1 I was lucky enough to get another ace! This time it flew straight into the chains! Again, this really helped my confidence going into the tournament because I knew I was gaining accuracy with these shorter throws! 

On Friday, I played another 9 hole wooded course to continue working on those putt and approach shots. This continued to help with my confidence as I hit almost every line and had several ace runs again! These past three days really helped me regain my confidence with my form as well as my accuracy with the shorter touch shots. I can not recommend enough going to a tight wooded course for practice if you are working on accuracy. Field work is great for working on form but it’s alot harder to train yourself to be accurate in an open field and then translate that into a wooded course. If you are accurate in the woods you will be able to use that to your advantage in wooded and open courses. 

Tournament Day

I got to the tournament an hour early to check in, warm up, and practice some of the holes. I felt great during my warmup! I was hitting all of my lines and my putting felt great! I was definitely ready to get this tournament started! 

Round 1 went pretty well! I hit a majority of my lines, there were only a few holes where I had a bad tee or approach shot. Unfortunately due to the rain in the morning the baskets were wet and in my personal experience, Prodigy baskets have a hard enough time catching discs. I’m sure I could have putted better but some of them felt like great putts but they just didn’t stay in the basket. So, I ended the round at +1 and it ended up being an 831 rated round, which isn’t bad! I was hoping to be at least -2 under par but I was still happy to play above my rating! 

Round 2 felt amazing! I hit all but one of my gaps off the tee! That one hole ended up being my only blemish and it unfortunately led to a double bogey since I had to just pitch directly out to the fairway. I was also super happy that my putting felt much better! I don’t remember missing any putts other than a few at the edge of circle 1. This led to me being able to card 7 birdies this round! Meaning I ended this round at -5 which ended up being a 910 rated round! This is my first time ever playing a tournament round rated over 900! Because of my hot second round I finished the tournament at -4! Overall, I am very happy with how I played! All of the practice in the woods really paid off and I felt super confident in all of my throws!  

Next Steps

I am planning on continuing to work on my approach shots because they do still give me some anxiety especially between 90 (27m) -140ft (43m). And I do plan to continue to work on my putting most days, if not everyday. I am hoping to focus on improving my backhand and forehand during the off season so I can get through these next 4 events with as little stress about my form as possible. Then it’s time to really grind out the problems in my form! Next weekend I technically have 3 tournaments (two are on the same day and at the same property). One is a long wooded course and the other is a short mixed course designed for people to get points for eligibility for AM Worlds next year. The only two sections offered at this tournament are MPO and MA1, so I’ll be playing in MA1. Both should be fun and the wooded course has a lot of women participating so that should be a good competition! The other is more for fun as it’s the first course I ever aced on so I’m hoping to repeat those aces this year!  I’m super excited for both of these and I can’t wait to tell you all about them next week! 

- Jen ♡