http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/C9K7J27

On more reflective matters post-tournament, now that I’ve decompressed from the weekend a bit more… wow. Planning for the ACT usually starts germinating around Thanksgiving/Christmas (I can’t help it) and really starts to get into gear around Feb/March of each year. Organization hits its stride about early-to-mid April, and all of May is one big pile of tournament stuff as more details fall into place. The entire week before the event is essentially spent living/eating/sleeping the last-minute details of the event, and by Friday night we reach the “hold on, here we go!” point. Suddenly, I find myself slowing down and it’s 9:30pm Sunday night, I realize two days have gone by, and I wonder “was that really it?” It’s all quite surreal as we go through the weekend itself.

The actual logistics of running the tournament on event day is like some weird, overly complex dance that everyone expects you to know the steps to, but no one ever bothered to TEACH to you. And you’re not allowed to hear the music. As I said at the awards ceremony, it really is the volunteer staff which I’m so lucky to have that is really the glue that holds the ACT together. I have these thoughts like “we should play alternate baskets in round 2, plus alternate pins where available” and I have people like Brian Carter or DM asking me if they can go move baskets when they need to be moved, people like Steve Ditter putting the trash bags over the “wrong” baskets where we have 2 permanent positions (and coordinating where players can help move them for us after round 1 is over – thanks to you guys as well!!), and poof it’s happened. It’s like some weird magical disc golf fairy is there to grant all of my wishes, except these are real people who all can never be thanked enough by myself. I simply float around making sure all of the wheels are turning, doing a few of TD-specific things, and otherwise help any of those wheels where needed. I simply say “we should do a basket throwoff”, come up with a few obnoxious twists where people get extra throws sometimes and free discs handed to them other times, can turn in receipts for free throws other times; and I have someone like BUC who runs the whole thing soup to nuts both days and does a phenomenal job of it without me really needing to intervene. I have people like my buddy Dave who doesn’t disc golf himself anymore, but still comes out every year to help with all the scorekeeping, being photographer to help document the event when I can’t be bothered to worry about carrying a camera to do the same, and doing any number of other random things that need being done. My wife Jen for doing all of the checkin, scorekeeping, helping me keep things organized through awards, and being so damn good at being able to grab my attention in a noisy crowd with a loud yell of “MCHALE!” so that I can make a call on something she knows I need to have a hand in. All that and for all of her support keeping up with things as we plan for this event, and her helping me to keep my head on my shoulders when putting all of this on sometimes starts to weigh a little too much.

Thank you thank you thank you to ALL of the volunteers who helped out this weekend, ALL of our sponsors for filling our player’s packs and donating prizes to our on-course CTP’s, basket throwoff prizes, and other items available for all of our players like all the drinks (both alcoholic and non). And definitely thanks again to all the players for coming out and participating. It really is fun seeing everyone out there enjoying (we hope) the event that we put this effort into hosting!

180 players came to Wickham Park to play in this event over the course of the weekend, and we couldn’t have asked for more perfect weather. Congratulations to all of the division winners and we hope that everyone who played had an awesome time!

Results, photos, and more will be posted soon. Please bear with us as we unpack, regroup, get everything plugged into spreadsheets, and generally decompress from a long weekend of hosting this event. It will all be online as soon as we are able, we promise!

Sorry about a lack of more updates here on the site the past week or two, but rest assured we’ve been in overdrive mode getting ready for this weekend’s tournament. In less than 36 hours now we’ll be starting the Saturday Edition, woohoo! We have, however, been dropping more consistent (but smaller) notes to people who are following us on Facebook. If you’re not a fan yet, why not? Go now! http://www.facebook.com/actdg

Round 1 will be the “standard 18″ holes. No “alphabet loop”. MA3 and FW3 (the lowest men’s and women’s skill divisions) will play short tees on holes 1, 3, 6, 8, & 11.

Round 2 will be the “alternate 18″ layout. This means alt pins on 2, 7, 8 (different tee), 9, and 18. MA3 and FW3 (the lowest men’s and women’s skill divisions) will play short tees on holes 1, 3, 6, 8, & 11, and will also play from a temporary short tee on hole 7 when playing to the long pin.

We will have trash bags covering over the “wrong” holes during each round, and will strive to have adequate signage on the tees and baskets so that all groups are reminded as much as possible where they should be playing from on every hole. Information regarding the round layouts will also be in the tournament program, which will be available to pick up at Tournament Central on the day of the event at check-in.

We understand some players don’t want to play the shorter tees for reasons of pride or posturing or whatever: please just know that this is done since the lowest skill levels need to play at a pace reasonably in line with the rest of the field. On most holes, the short tees simply remove a throw (or two) from the score you may normally get on that hole and keeps the flow of the day moving along. The rest of the division is also playing from the same tees, so you are at no advantage or disadvantage by playing from the short tees.

If you have signed up for MA3 and would NOT like to play from the short tees, you will need to request a division change to MA2. Fill out the contact form to submit your request.

http://www.discgolfunited.com/disc-golf-tournaments/index.cfm

Remember: YOU MAY SIGN UP FOR SATURDAY *OR* SUNDAY, NOT BOTH! Thanks for your cooperation. We want 180 people to be able to attend this event so there are NO double-entries allowed.

All entry fees have a $2 online processing fee built into the price on the DGU website. Your $15 Men’s Advanced/Intermediate/Amateur entries are $17 at checkout, and Women’s $10 divisions are $12. Sorry, but that’s just the way it is.

You can feel free to sign up for the Ace Pot at registration, but we’ll take your money day-of as well if you don’t want to sign up now. $2 gets you in the pool, and if you hit an ace at the event you win all the money in the pool! (Saturday/Sunday pools will be kept separate from each other). Multiple aces on a single day will split that day’s ace pot winnings.

You can also pre-order one of our Fundraising discs for only $20 during registration. We will likely have more for sale at the event (still $20), but these ARE first-come, first-served and when they’re gone they’re gone. Get one (or more!) while you can to throw or to hang on the wall, and help support this event at the same time.