Juniors events

[12StonesScott]

I've seen the listing for the juniors event at Toccoa at the beginning of Dec, but haven't seen any additional info on it -- who's in charge, and what's the story?

Would also be interested in figuring out if there's a way to get some additional juniors-only or junior-oriented events out there for next year. I'd love to see some chances for my son and other younger players to compete against a larger group of their peers, instead of there being one or two groups of juniors as part of a large adult-focused event. I'm also aware that for events with a fixed size for the field, a lot of juniors paying reduced entry fees means less money in the purse overall, so I'd rather take up slots in an event where that's not a consideration.

One challenge I've noted in considering whether to sign up my son and myself for events this year has been that most of the big ones are two-day events, which is a logistical challenge for a lot of kids -- ours have standing obligations elsewhere on Sunday mornings, for example, so two-day events are pretty much out. It's tough to expect younger kids (13 and under, let's say) to play two days' worth -- a lot are doing good to make it through two rounds on one day.

Would it make sense to set up a single-round tournament for a Saturday afternoon as part of a bigger all-day Saturday event? Have a clinic in the morning, a lunch with perhaps some additional presentations, etc., and then an 18-hole tournament in the afternoon?

Also, working from the idea that one of the best ways to improve your game is to play with players better than yourself, I've been wondering if there's a way to structure a tournament that would match up experienced pro or advanced players with juniors in a format that would be fair and interesting for everyone involved -- both the adult and junior players -- and that would reward team effort as well as individual scores.

One possibility that occurred to me was an event using modified-Stableford-type scoring, where 2-person teams of one adult and one junior would compete for the highest score by assigning point values to specific scores on specific holes for each division. For example, on hole 1, a 3 (par) is worth zero points for the adult, 1 point for the junior. A deuce (birdie) would be worth 1 point for the adult, 3 for the junior. Bogey would be worth -1 point for the adult, zero for the junior. Double-bogey, - 3 for the adult (negative points would only be assigned for adult players -- this has the advantage for the juniors of making a bad hole just one bad hole -- an 8 doesn't hurt the team any more than a 5). You would still want to keep individual scores for all players, and you'd probably want to have some recognition for the best individual rounds in each division/age group. Modified Stableford scoring is frequently used for ball golf events (including at least one PGA tour event, the International), so it's not as if the concept hasn't been proven, but I'm not sure to what degree it's been tried as a concept for this type of disc golf event.

I'd be happy to help with planning/organization if someone is willing to step up on this front. I have my PDGA official's certification but that only means I paid my $10 and passed a test -- I have zero experience running events and am not arrogant enough to think I can pull it off myself -- I got a good look at what's involved during LITW and I admire those of you who do this stuff well. I also don't have the contacts and standing with sponsors, courses, etc., that many of the rest of you do. But I'm willing and able to do some of the heavy lifting if someone shows me where to grab hold.

[tdg]

The 3rd. annual Jrs. Holiday Classic will be held on Dec.1 at the Rose Lane course. $15 gets you in. There will be 1 round of 24
holes, putting contest, drawing for an Innova skilshot target.
A pizza party will follow. To guarantee a players pack you must be registered by 11-27-07. All Jr. divisions will be offered. Registration is from 9-10. day of tourney. Send name, age,
DOB and entry to: John Nisewonder POB 801049 Toccoa Falls,GA
30598. See you all soon.

[mrpbody33]

John,

Let me know when/if you have a flyer and I will put it up on the front page.

[Funky Bobby J]

12SS - you really need to get you and your kid(s) up to Toccoa. It is really a blast and they put on a great show. I think we had ~40 kids last year. I too have started pondering a way to hold another Jrs event, but have 0 TD experience. Timing is also critical as you want to try to get it in b/w sports seasons and hopefully at a time that the weather is mild.

Central is a great place for a Jr tourney with the open course and white tee pads.

The only thing missing from the Toccoa event is getting some of our local big-named pros (Phil Arthur, John Ritger, etc) out to put on a clinic for the kids. Other than that, they have contests, lunch, a great course and the perfect kid-friendly atmospere.

John - are you still going to do a younger division this year? We had quite a few younger kids that were not real competitive in the U-10 age group.

See you all in December!!! and for Fright Flight

[12StonesScott]

Excellent -- sounds like we definitely need to plan to make it up to Toccoa.

I've played Central with my kids once, and the white tees and more open layout definitely made for a different experience for them (the red tees at ERP are what they're used to) -- I can see it being a reasonable venue for a juniors event. My initial reaction is that I have some concern about the logistics of getting a decent turnout given the distance from Atlanta proper, but if 40 or so turned out for Toccoa last year that may not be as much of an issue as I'd thought.

I would love to see at least a couple of events, maybe three, next year, at different courses -- ERP, Central, Lenora or Redan, whatever. I realize that there's a danger in being too ambitious, but by the same token I think that any one date or location is going to be impossible for everyone who's interested to make. There's a limited number of weekends left that don't already have an event somewhere in North Georgia or a major event elsewhere, and even fewer that don't have some sort of intrinsic conflict (holidays, school schedules, etc.).

If RRPD decides to do another disc golf camp next summer, it might be possible to schedule one event at ERP to follow right after that, as a sort of "graduation" (though of course not limited to those who attend the camp). Another might be the sort of mixed adult/junior doubles event I mentioned before.

I'm sort of flying blind here in that I don't have any history about what's been done or tried in the past and how that's worked or not. Anyone have any data or anecdotes to share?