2020-12-14 Joy and Frustration A strange day! I played about as good as I could wish, but still don't feel good. For the first time I birdied hole 1 at Wiley (the last not birdied hole there), but don't much celebrate. I shot 20 birdies in six rounds (54 holes), including one round without a birdie at all. I could have teared down my personal best (-3, =24), but ruined it on one hole, tieing my personal best still after a double bogey on a birdie hole! I've hit some many first trees! -- It was light and shadow! It was joy and frustration. (I don't remember being so full of anger and frus- tration on the course. And it wasn't that I would have played bad -- quite the contrary!) The weather conditions were rather good. Only the slightest west wind or none at all. 4C but it didn't feel cold. Slightly wet ground, no towel, but still good enough grip. I took four discs with me: - D P3 - DX Roc3 - Star Valkyrie - DX Banshee I played two double rounds. Valkyrie vs. Banshee, mainly. From each tee I played as two players, making two drives, playing from each one until I holed out. The putter was the only disc that I used for both virtual players on the same hole, but one could use the Roc3 on one and the other on another hole. First round: #1: Valk is overturned, landing right. After bad approaches a bogey. Banshee with an X-step flies well, just a bit to the right. 16m missputt. -> 4, 3 #2: Roc3 a bit short. Missed the 6m putt! :-( Banshee on a low backhand hyzer, parked! -> 3, 2 #3: What a wonderful low and long Valkyrie hyzer! Parking the hole! Unbelievable! The Banshee turned a bit too far right. -> 2, 3 #4: Roc3 forehand and Banshee forehand both landed 5m from the pin. Made both putts! Yay! -> 2, 2 #5: Roc3 backhand too high. Missed the 8m putt. P3 backhand un- fortunately on hyzer the whole way, going down the slope. Roc3 thumber did not turn fast enough, landing way left. Missed the 10m putt. Bogey. -> 3, 4 #6: Valkyrie forehand touched some twigs. Banshee forehand also touched some twigs. Missed the 8m putt. -> 3, 3 #7: Roc3 forehand -- Just perfect for this hole! -- 4m putt for birdie! Banshee forehand high, hit the tree by the basket and was then parked. ;-) -> 2, 2 #8: Roc3 backhand hyzer, just perfect. 3m putt. Banshee hyzer also nice. 5m putt. -> 2, 2 #9: Valkyrie flew to the first bushrow. Banshee with an X-step got overturned right. Missed a 4m putt! :-( -> 3, 4 The Valk/Roc3 made 4 birdies and 1 bogey for a -3, tieing the PB. The Banshee made 4 birdies and 2 bogeys for a -2. Birdieing #7 and #8 with both drives was great! The Valkyrie drive on #3 was the best drive of the round. Round 2: #1: With an X-step both drives turned right. (I need to give them more hyzer!) -> 3, 3 #2: Roc3 was a nice shot. 3m putt. The Banshee also flew nice. Unfortunately I missed the 5m putt, then made the 5m comebacker. -> 2, 3 #3: Both drives lacked the hyzer, thus flying straight and land- ing right. (Today I went with the low hyzer on all drives here.) -> 3, 3 #4: Roc3 forehand. Missed the 10m putt. Banshee forehand: first tree. From there again the first tree. From there again the first tree. :-( (All throws were inside/early releases, possibly caused by the two-finger grip, which does work well with the Roc3 but not so much with the Banshee.) Missed the 15m putt and wrote a double bogey. -> 3, 5 #5: Roc3 forehand, parked! 2m putt. P3 backhand tickled a tree. Missed the 10m putt. Made the 5m putt. -> 2, 3 #6: Valkyrie forehand, great. 3m putt! Banshee forehand almost as good. 6m putt missed. -> 2, 3 #7: Roc3 forehand. 7m hyzer putt through the chains. :-( Banshee forehand. Missed the 11m putt. -> 3, 3 #8: Roc3. 7m putt, again through the chains. Banshee short, bad play and bogey. -> 3, 4 #9: Valkyrie with an X-step, landing between the bushrows. Banshee with an X-step flew to the first row. -> 3, 3 The Valkyrie/Roc3 made 3 birdies and no bogeys for a -3, as well tieing the PB. The Banshee made no birdies, but 1 bogey and 1 double bogey for a bad +3. Round 3: #1: The Valkyrie with an X-step and a bit more hyzer ... What a drive! 4m to the pin, i.e. 96m drive! And my first birdie on hole 1, the last hole to birdie on this course. Finally! :-) The Banshee drive with an X-step was fine as well, but I missed the 7m putt. Made the 5m comebacker. -> 2, 3 #2: The Roc3 was a bit short. I missed the 7m putt with a low ceiling. The Banshee drive was fine. 4m putt. -> 3, 2 #3: The Valkyrie lacked hyzer -- Man! I should fix that quicker! -- landing right. Bad approach and missed putt resulted in a bogey. The Banshee drive was fine. The bit more hyzer changed everything! Made the 7m putt (with the Roc3!). -> 3, 2 #4: Roc3 forehand, a bit short, but I made the 9m putt! That was a good one! The Banshee drive was better. I made the 6m putt. -> 3, 2 #5: Roc3 forehand too low and thus short. Missed the long putt. The smooth (!) P3 backhand was parked for a drop-in birdie! -> 3, 2 (Already four birdies in a row!) #6: Great Valkyrie drive. 5m putt. Great Banshee drive. 5m putt ... missed. Damn! -> 2, 3 #7: Roc3 forehand against the first tree. Then the Roc3 backhand against the first tree as well! Then a Roc3 forehand long. Then a missed putt. And here we have a double bogey! %-) The Banshee drive, however, was good. 4m putt for birdie. -> 5, 2 (That was the fifth birdie for the Banshee player! Don't mess up now!) #8: As the Roc3 was my most consistent disc on #8, I left that for the Banshee player, who has not had much success on #8 yet. Thus I went with the Valk first, and threw a great drive, then made the 5m putt. Now the Roc3 drive ... smashed straight into the tree right in front of the teepad! Man! Shit! The following backhand throw with the Roc3 might have been a bit rushed, any- ways, it flew on hyzer all the way, going way left, beyond #9's teepad. Then a 20m missed putt. Then I even missed the 5m come- backer ... and -5 did not increase to -6, but drop back to -3. This was so frustrating! What a round this could have been -- ``Could have been'', I know! -- but it wasn't! -> 2, 5 #9: Again with X-steps: The Valkyrie drive was way high, but still went up to the first bushrow. The Roc3 forehand was a bit short and the following 6m putt, hit dead-center ... and came back out the same way! Noooo! How?! Why?! The Banshee drive was better. I got between the rows. The 12m putt almost got a highlight, but it only hit the top of the cage. -> 4, 3 The Valk/Roc3 shot 4 birdies, 2 bogeys and 1 double bogey for a par. Simply too much bad stuff! The Banshee player almost ... but then not. It shot 5 birdies and one double bogey to ruin the round. This still comes in tieing my PB, which is somewhat un- believable. This last round was remarkable. If I combine the two players, I birdied every hole, except the last one, where I almost hit the 12m putt. This is something I've never had before. Overall this day was incredible. #9 averaged above par. #1 and #8 averaged even par. Every other hole averaged below par! I've had 4 birdies on #4! 3 birdies on #2, #6, #7, and #8! Let's have a look on the quality of the drives (number of throws, and outcome birdie/par/bogey/2-bogey): - Banshee BH: 14 (4/8/2/0) - Valkyrie BH: 10 (3/4/3/0) - Roc3 FH: 8 (4/3/0/1) - Roc3 BH: 7 (2/4/0/1) - Banshee FH: 6 (2/3/0/1) - Valkyrie FH: 3 (2/1/0/0) - P3 BH: 3 (1/1/1/0) Midranges: I don't bag midranges, usually. The Comet had been a considera- tion for the bag many times, but only because of the slow neutral to understable flight, not because being a midrange. The Roc3, for the first time, makes me wish to bag a midrange. On holes like #2, #7, #8 at Wiley, where I usually throw drivers, as I cannot really reach it with the Zone, the Roc3 is a much better disc. Here the saying: ``Throw your slowest disc that can reach it'' demonstrates its value. While the drivers are fine if I hit the line right, their margin of error is much greater. The slower Roc3 provides a decent result still if I err a bit. It just isn't as much sensitive to nose and release angles. Of the other midranges I have, and I have quite some in regard of the fact that I don't bag them, the Roc3 matches my style of play better. In contrast to the Comet and a normal Roc, I can flick it very well. This doubles the usefulnes of a disc in my minimalis- tic bag. Also, It has the same P3/Zone/Teebird flight pattern: straight to fade. As my JB Zone this is a DX Roc3, which is more workable. Man, my bag's getting fuller and fuller ... I'm not really liking that, but the Roc3 has been such a good disc these days. I even putted better with it than with the Zone! But I don't want to take the Zone out. The overlap starts to creep in. It's about time to make a distance jump, in order to stretch out some room for the Roc3 between the Teebird and the JB Zone. We'll see! For forehands, I throw the Roc3 with a two-finger grip, whereas I throw my drivers usually with a Sexton grip. The driver rim seems to be too wide to grip it well with the two-finger grip. Some- times it works for drivers, but most times not. The Roc3 works better with the two-finger grip, which also is comfortable on it's more narrow wing. http://marmaro.de/discgolf/ markus schnalke