The First Annual Women’s Global Event took place over Mother’s Day weekend and included global participation by over 600 women in over 40 different events. This event was designed to promote women’s disc golf and get women from around the world playing against each other on the same day, regardless of location. The event encouraged women who had never competed before to play in a supportive environment of other disc golfing women. I played the Daisy Chains Event in Watsonville, CA at the Pinto Lake Disc Golf Course which attracted over 50 women, and had some of the highest participation of any event this weekend. Great job to the Chick Flick ladies in the northwest for attracting almost 100 women to their event!
The Pinto Lake course is championship quality and even hosted the World Championships last year in 2011. The championship layout was adjusted to make the course less punishing for newer players. New pin placements were installed just for this tournament that were a little shorter. We also played off a few natural teepads to decrease the length of a few holes. For instance, this course usually has a hole over 1000ft long, but in the Daisy Chains layout, we walked up and played from a natural teepad to a basket 430ft away. Overall, the layout was a lot of fun and I am thankful that Christine, Sharon and Tom put so much time into making the course playable and fun for all levels.
The fun started Friday night, with registration and a random draw doubles round that included tons of local men and women, but women played for free. J A lot of the women who came for the event ended up playing, giving them a chance to see the course, for some, for the first time. Saturday morning we all got up bright and early for a two-round day. We played a mixed card round first, playing with women in divisions other than the one we were competing in. My round went fairly smooth, but with a few mistakes to fix. After the first round, we had an extended provided lunch with local disc golf superstar, Nate Doss, doing the cooking for the ladies. Valarie Jenkins shot a 1016-rated, five under par the first round, with Catrina Allen at even and me at one over. Valarie was also leading the global event which was based on average rating.
The second round was a tight battle, as Valarie got into some out-of-bounds trouble, which allowed me to come within two strokes going into the final hole. Val got a bad kick out of bounds on the tough fairway and ended up taking a five with a penalty and I made a 15ft putt for the birdie deuce and a one stroke lead. This finish put me in 2nd overall averaging 968 for the global event. Congratulations to Paige Pierce, who played an event in Texas and averaged over 987 to win the Women’s Open Global Event title by almost 20 rating points!
On Sunday, the Daisy Chains event continued with one final round. The battle was tight the entire way and again came down to the last few holes. The front nine went well for me, bogey free with two birdies. I continued good play up until hole 12, at which point I had a three stroke lead. Then, I threw out-of-bounds for the first time that day and took my first bogey. Then, I proceeded to bogey the next two holes. I still had a one stroke lead going into hole 16, until Valerie parked her shot for a two and my deuce putt hopped out of the back of the basket and rolled down the hill for a bogey. I birdied the next one to tie and we both pushed on the final hole to end up tied overall. We waited around a little while for the other cards to come in and then went into a sudden death playoff starting on hole one. Val got into trouble off the tee and I hit my drive and upshot to win the playoff.
The day ended with another provided meal, with celebrity chefs Burl and Nate, as well as raffles, prizes, awards and a massive ring of fire challenge. It was an amazing event run by some amazing people!! Thank you to Christine, Sharon, Val, Tom, John, De La Ladies, the Santa Cruz area disc golf community and all the women that chose this event to come to. I really enjoyed meeting so many new faces and being a part of this epic Daisy Chains Experience. Can’t wait for next year’s event!!!
Played in the Denison, TX tournament at Munson Park.. Had a blast