Ice Bowl 2005 - Portland Preparation for Ice Bowl 2005 Portland began months before the event. I met with the Course Pro, Justin Ubel, at Starbucks in Hillsdale. We selected February 19th, because it would give us the most time to prepare, and the best opportunity for inclement weather. We chose to raise money for NW Medical Teams Intl., and with the recent tsunami, it seemed like an even more appropriate choice. We met with Pat Farrell, of Disconcepts, LLC, to discuss purchasing and installing his Launch Padz, a highly superior rubber tee pad product. We closed the deal; and he gave us a good discount. We cleaned out the course donation box (and our own personal wallets), and began construction. In the style of the Course Designer, Full-On Dave Underwood, we decided to “go for it” and attempt to get nine new permanent alternate tees installed in time for the event, despite the limited window of opportunity, funds, and labor. We excavated the tee areas, laid down the commercial landscaping felt, and installed the 10x5’ 4x4x10 pressure treated lumber frames. We used George’s 4-wheel drive Dodge Power Ram to drive yards of ¼-minus crushed gravel to the frames and fill them. We nearly got stuck, but that Power Ram was not to be denied, and we got it out after creating a maze of ruts that looked like a battlefield. We compacted the gravel, and screwed down the porous ½-inch rubber mats every foot with a large deck screw and fender washer. These are definitely the best rubber tees I have ever seen, and maybe the best tees period. The newly hired property manager, John Muirhead, wisely vetoed one tee box excavation, and we relocated it to an elevated area requiring the removal of several trees to make a throwing lane. We barely got the trees down in time, and had to lay a large slash pile right next to one of the greens, creating a considerable hazard on that hole. On another tee, we only had time to chop a tee area into the 20-foot tall blackberry patch, so players were forced to throw over it, to a basket they could not even see from the tee box! So many great people helped with the course improvements: see our results page for a listing of helpers: http://www.accuspeed.com/LDGC/results.htm. Ordering the Ice Bowl merchandise is always a lot of fun. We always provide every player with a player’s pack containing a full-color Ice Bowl logo disc, and a golf weight Ice Bowl mini. I ordered over $1300 worth of discs, minis, towels, and hats. We managed to give away or sell almost every item, helping us reach our goal of $600.00 raised. I got the web site up, and the active.com registrations began to pour in. By using the ODSA web site, and accepting PayPal as well as mailed checks, registration began to fill up quickly. By the time I sent out the free Evite invites to 693 people, and mailed out 273 flyers to past players of our tournaments, registration was half full. Nearly two solid weeks before the event, it filled to capacity with 90 PAID players – a new record for pre-reg! Players donated $165.00 along with their pre-registations, and pre-paid for 81 $1.00 entries into the WABFAB: Win-A-Basket-For-A-Buck putting contest. I stayed up late nights preparing flyers, maps, player guides, scorecards, leaderboard cards, and of course, tee signs! Meanwhile, mini disc golf course designer extraordinaire, Jordan Lewis, laid out a FANTASTIC 18-hole course, that included elevated tees and pins, island shots, and even noodle-arm holes, that proved to be a TOTAL BLAST for all the players. The day before the event, my close friends begin to arrive from as far away as the Seattle, Washington and San Francisco, California areas! They are good about dragging me out to play a fun round of golf (I get so involved in Ice Bowl prep that I will often skip golf for months!), and then they help me prepare the event site. We assembled the nine extra baskets that we use to expand the course to accommodate more players. We assembled the 18 mini baskets. We set out tables for our vendors, SweetPlastic.com, Huk Lab, Disc Golf Depot, and Sassy Pants Gear. We set up more tables for the food service staff. We set up even more tables for registration, check-in, players packs, and leaderboard areas. We cleared out the pool and air hockey tables and pinball machines, to make room for the putting contest. We set up the practice basket and putting contest basket. Then the student center building, which the Greater Portland Bible Church so generously allows to use for tournament central, was ready. So many players wanted to get in to the Ice Bowl, the waiting list swelled to 17 names! The course pro, Justin Ubel, felt badly that one of our most generous volunteers, Karl Ransom, had been unable to pre-register early enough to get in to the event. So Justin gave his entry to Karl Ransom! Another player who could not make it transferred his entry to another player, who transferred it to yet another player! When all the dust settled, there were only three no-shows (one had already phoned to warn that he may not be able to attend, and two had the same last name, one of whom was on the waiting list). The next waiting list players quickly snapped up those spots, and we were officially full! I am already making plans to accommodate even more players for next year’s Ice Bowl. We gave a golf weight Ice Bowl mini to every waiting list player that showed up, whether or not they got in the tournament, so they wouldn’t have to go away empty-handed, and so they could play the 18-hole mini golf course! The morning of the event, I arrive at 5 AM – it is still dark out, allowing me to get a great shot of the illuminated reader board sign, which reads: ICE BOWL * DISC GOLF – FULL! * SATUDAY 8 AM * WWW.ICEBOWL.NET. I prepare the leaderboard, and distribute some $855.00 in pennies, ones, fives, and tens to the check-in, pro shop, and putting contest cashiers. I put out the “COURSE CLOSED” sign, with directions to other nearby courses. I dispatch the basket crew, tee sign crew, and mini golf course crew, and they prepare the venue for the big day. The weather was clear and cool, a bit foggy, but promised to burn off, and turned into a fantastic sunny day by noon, which had us jokingly referring to the event as the “Nice Bowl!” The WABFAB is a lot of fun. It is run like the Am Worlds putting contest. You get 5 putts for one $1.00 entry. You can take them from any of the five putting spots: 10-foot putt (10 points) 20-foot putt (20 points) 30-foot putt (30 points) 40-foot putt (40 points) 50-foot putt (50 points) A spotter returns your putter to you after every shot, and calls out your score and remaining number of throws. A dry-erase board tracks the top 3 scores. Highest total wins. The volunteer food staff wowed everyone with a decked-out spread of muffins, bagels, and doughnuts for breakfast, with coffee, juice, and milk provided. The lunch was over the top too, with homemade hearty chicken noodle soup, meaty chili, and a tasty pot of vegetarian chili. Numerous side dishes were laid out, so many I can’t even remember them all, but they were all great! Even the TD had a delicious lunch, a luxury I often miss out on. Players donated $130.00 We took an long lunch break to allow everyone the time to play mini – I played a round myself during the tournament, and it was a fun way to get out and see everyone having a good time playing in the Ice Bowl, and enjoy a round of mini golf at the same time. Of course, we included a GOLF WEIGHT mini for every player in their player pack to be sure they had a suitable mini for playing with. Lunch was a flurry of activity, with people shooting mini golf holes, practicing on the course and putting green, eating lunch out in the sun, lounging inside the tourney central on one of the many overstuffed couches or chairs, watching the photos and videos from round 1, shopping the pro shops, spouses and meeting with their loved ones between their rounds of golf, and the staff running around preparing for round two. Jerry Miller went out and shot a -12 on the mini golf course! Throughout the event, numerous volunteer photographers and videographers roamed the course, shooting stills and video. Each time they filled up their memories, or run out their batteries, they reported back to central. We immediately uploaded their work, recharged their batteries, cleared their memory cards, and sent them back out. We burned the images to CD, and we added them to slide shows, which we played back in continuous random loops on three large televisions AND on a projector screen! During breaks, players really enjoyed relaxing in the tournament central, and watching photos and videos of themselves playing during the previous round. The event was a huge success. It ran on time, and we nearly reached our $600 goal by raising $593.00. Everyone had a great time. I felt so gratified as dozens of people took the time to personally shake my hand and congratulate me on a good event. It felt great. We awarded prizes for: Lowest Round Score in Round 1 (each division) Lowest Round Score in Round 2 (each division) Most Improved (greatest reduction in score from rd 1 to rd 2) Most Consistent (least variation in score from rd 1 to rd 2, tie goes to highest total, tie goes to lowest division) Most Persistent (greatest increase in score from rd 1 to rd 2, MUST FINISH TO WIN) Most Fun (highest total) We had a CTP (Closest-To-Pin) or LP (Longest-Putt) prize on EVERY HOLE! Some were for all players; others were limited to specific divisions and/or brackets. That was 18 more Ice Bowl prizes! TWO $74 Ace Pot prizes were awarded. The 401’ ace on hole 5a+b in rd 1 by Aaron Kirshling was phenomenal! The other ace came in round 2, as Don Etchart nailed the first ace ever on the brand new 149-foot hole 9b! Each player pocketed $74 in cash for his efforts. The $99 Ching Skill Shot target was given to the putting contest winner. Everyone roared as he sank his five consecutive 40-foot putts to set the winning score at a whopping 200 points! Five beautiful $50 hardwood golf disc replica trophies from Display Your Disc were awarded to First Place division winners. The winner of the smallest division, Novice Master, was awarded an “Ice Bowl”: a $20 plastic bowl you fill with ice to keep your salad cold, donated by the Evil Bastard, James Garcelon. And we paid out al divisions according to the PDGA Pro Payout tables. Cash for pros, prizes for amateurs. $2,320.00 in SweetPlastic.com scrip was awarded, as well as $400.00 in cash. Players swarmed the pro shop, and the staff handled their purchases smoothly and swiftly. They bought Orcs and Sidewinders, Flicks and Flashes. They bought towels, hats, t-shirts, and golf bags. If it was for sale – they bought it! Players gave back prizes as donations totaling $570.00. That represented the single largest donation of our Ice Bowl! This showed how generous and benevolent the disc golf community is, and made me proud to be a part of it. As is becoming tradition, after the event, my friends and I all went out for a big family style chicken dinner at the nearby brew pub/chicken fryer. Famished players and volunteers devoured the jojo potatoes, fried chicken, coleslaw and baked beans while draining pitchers of beer and downing margaritas. We went home exhausted, and having enjoyed what might just be the best day of disc golf during the entire year – Ice Bowl!

said accuspeed 2005.03.08 at 19:19:25 PST