The Encore Recap

This past Sunday 42 players braved the cold drizzly day as they played the Encore tournament held at Swing Right Golf. With weather being near perfect just a day before, battling nature’s elements was the name of the game. Despite the constant precipitation, the tee pads seemed to be enjoyed by most. There are 3 completed tee pads and the other 15 are about 1/2 done. The 15 uncompleted pads had a solid base with Astro Turf placed on them making them grippy despite the rain. The Astro Turf was provided by Team Monkey’s Kevin Carder.

The players meeting started at approximately 8:30, as planned, and allowed tee off to kick off right at the scheduled 9:00. Swing Right currently has 18 permanent holes. A 400’ 19th Hole was added allowing the course to connect between the first and last holes allowing things to flow better for tournament play.

With the smaller turn out, there were only six divisions at the Encore. As mentioned earlier the conditions were a factor as the light rain and cold wind began shortly after tee off. Some cards finished rather quickly and others took a while longer in the nasty weather. After the first round was in the books, the following players were leading their divisions: David Richeson in Junior, Michael O (58), Brandon Shields (59), and Charles Rector & Wes Lot at (60) were all in a close race, Candie Luster in Wn, in Intermediate Steve Kastner blasted a 53 with Chase and Brad close behind with a 55 & 56, Advanced was held by Daniel Ainsworth destroying the field with his hot round 48, The Open division was very close with Derek Norris (48) and Andrew Preznell (49) and my (51) allowed me to stay in the hunt. Personally, I was happy that first round was out of the way so I could get warmed up.

Brad Hilton, my mom Belma Burns, and brother Ruben Apodaca, made chile for the players. This was about the perfect meal for the day. During the break, raffle tickets were sold as there were some great prizes to be given away including the big ticket items: Team Keen back pack, a DD micro Recruit basket, and a $425 Discatcher Pro 28. The raffle proved to be an exciting part of the event as 2 1000+ rated rafflers went head to head!

The final round was played and the results can be found on the PDGA website at: https://www.pdga.com/tour/event/38642

The following players finished on top in their divisions. Candie and David each won in their divisions. In the super close Rec battle, it was Charles coming from 3rd to take the win over Brandon by one and Wes by 3. The Intermediate was won by Chase (Sandy Bagger) Luster who went on record to say that the Encore would be his last Intermediate tournament. His “Hot Round” 48 gave him a comfortable 6 stroke win over Steve. The Advanced field was won by Daniel as his 48 hot round proved to be enough to hold off Ray Preznell who did get a stroke on Daniel in the second round. If any of you would like to share a story line about your card please do so in the comments. Also, any time you would like to share something send it my way after the tournament and I’ll try to include it in a tourney wrap up.

The only card I can provide lots of details on was the lead card in Open. Derek had some trouble early having a few unfortunate kicks and roll always, in the stretch of wooded holes. Andrew had an early tree hit and one nasty roll away that went out of bounds. Despite this he still finished tied for the lead. I was able to put 2 bogie free rounds together with a 9 under 2nd round that helped me catch the Prez with a total of 14 down. We went to the first hole to start the play off. I through first landing about 30’ short and Andrew parked hole one. I made my putt forcing another hole to be played. I threw a flick and landed 20 long, and Andrew through a big hyzer around the evergreen landing about 25’ out to the right. Again, we both birdied. The 3rd and what proved to be the final hole, was interesting. I shanked my drive hitting a tree leaving myself 200’ out. Andrew threw wide right clipping a tree changing the direction of the disc into a perfect line toward the hole landing 10-15’ from the pin. Andrew’s birdie sealed the deal. Great job Andrew it was a fun round with 3 exciting bonus holes. Congratulations to Andrew and all the other winners.

The last note worthy recap was the raffle. It was Brad Hilton 1050 rated raffler squaring off with 1045 rated Seth Hamilton (coming in as a late entry as he did not play the event). The stage was set as Brad purchased his tickets strategically at different times during the day. Seth slipped in at last call, being kept up to speed by his buddy Tadge. Each won an item before the Innova Pro Basket (Seth won the Micro Mini Basket). The numbers were called and Seth took the basket sweep! It’ll be close to see if this win will put Seth ahead in the Raffle Ratings, but I don’t think it will as Brad has one 4 baskets in 7 events including 2 Monkey Traps, a custom Throw Pink Innova Pro 28, and an Innova Sport. Seriously to all who continue to support Thank You!

It has been an incredible season and am looking forward to 2019. I hope to see you at the Winter Blast in December.

Aces, Birdies, and Happy Thanksgiving to each and everyone of you!