(Brock prepares for the putting competition with a few of his fellow competitors. That's Sean in the middle.)
This weekend Brock competed in the Illinois State Junior Disc Golf Championship, and I'm super proud of how he played and competed. About a week before the tourney, Brock had lost confidence in his putting stroke. He put in a ton of work in the basement every day finding a new putting style that would bring him more consistency and confidence, and it worked. He didn't miss a putt within 25' all day. Unfortunately, he ran into some deep deep ungrowth on a couple holes with errant drives, and his rival Sean played a great round, bumping Brock into 2nd place by 3 strokes.
The scorecard makes it look like Brock fell apart on the last hole, but that's not the true story of the tournament. We started on hole 6, and finished on hole 5 that day. It was a back and forth battle until Brock slipped up on holes 22 and 23, then he battled back and was feeling like he could close the gap. Hole 27 was kind of a disaster that certainly made me feel like it was all over. But Brock never gave in or gave up at all. Down 5 strokes, with only 5 holes to play, he turned on his best disc golf, and made up 2 of the strokes immediately. But Sean settled down and closed it out. It should be noted that Sean lives 5 minutes from the course and estimated that he has played this layout somewhere between 100 and 200 times. Brock had played the layout once before. Brock shot a 61 (+2) in his practice round and improved it by three strokes under tournament pressure with multiple blowup holes on the round. Look at those 7 birdies!
These are the scores for the 11 and 12 yr old division which played the exact same hole layout. Brock beat them all. He may have gotten 2nd place in 10u, but he's the 12u champion in my books.
I must confess that I was so intensely into my caddy duties as Brock battled hard, that this is the only picture I took during the round. The pink disc is Brock's tee shot sitting right under the pin as he taps in his birdie on hole 20. It was a beautiful drive around a guardian tree, gently gliding from wide right down to the left. It settled on the wood chips about 10' short of the hole and slid to a stop a few inches past. There were CTP (closest to the pin) competitions on multiple holes, where every player in every age group competed against each other for prizes. Brock got to move 2 flags and write his name on them throughout the round, but this one was the only one that held up. Cause who can throw a better drive than that?
Here's Brock competing in the putting competition. You can see his first shot already in the basket, and this one goes in as well. He hit another from the flag you see on the right, and that was enough to net him the win in his age group. He and Sean had a good laugh cause they both had expected Sean to win the putting, and Brock to win the long drive competition, but I think nerves got to both of the favorites. Brock typically throws about 220-240', but maxed out at 198' (trying to throw 300'), and Sean (who is one of the best child putters I have ever seen) inexplicably missed all his putts.
Brock shows off the day's spoils: a pink eagle for the hole 20 CTP, a yellow essence from winning the putting contest, and a 2nd place Pokemon card for his round.
Yep. That's pretty much him.
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