The best, the most, the top. USDGC tournament can be described with a lot of positive and superlative words, but still the image of it is not anywhere near the reality at the tournament. Přemek Novák and Bohdan Bílek, who participated in the tournament bring you their view of UDSGC 2018.

At the beginning of november a couple of czech discgolfers Přemek Novák and Bohdan Bílek board a plane that flies through Toronto all the way to USA. Earlier this year there were some unexpected but great events that secured places for both Přemek and Bohdan at the world’s most prestigious discgolf tournament, the 20^th anniversary of the USDGC (United States Disc Golf Championships).

Přemek earned his spot by organizing Konopiště Open, the biggest tournament that Czech republic has even seen. Bohdan earned this spot ath the European championship, where he won junior category, but he also placed at 9^th place which (with a little luck) was enough to get his to America.

Bohdan Bílek, European champion of MJ18

Everything happened so fast. My goal at the European championship was to finish top 4, I didn’t think about the first place and title too much, but the thought was in the back of my mind. However my game improved with each round and my confidence grew with it. Thinking about European championship was stronger and stronger. I refused to believe it until my last putt went into the chains.

On our way back I received a mail from the organizer stating that they forgot to distribute spots for USDGC a tournament which every discgolfer would love to participate in. When I received the mail I didn’t understand why I received it – I placed 9^th and there were spots for top 5 players onlybut then I realized that the top 4 players earned their spots already earlier this year at Konopiště. But there was one big problem.

The tournament was supposed to take place in 2 months and I was convinced that it is impossible to get that much money to be able to go there, so all the adrenaline quickly faded and I quickly began to accept the fact that I will have to wait for few more years for my dream. But I am extremely lucky that Czech discglf community is full of good-hearted and well wishing people. These people decided to join together and contribute to my trip to USA and help me fulfill my dream. 72 166,- were donated overall which I still don’t understand to this day. 2 months went away like water and I am on Sunday 30.9. I stepped right out from the podium with the title of Czech discgolf Chamiopn into Přemek’s car and on Monday morning we are both sitting on a plane heading to USA.

I didn’t have any expectations for this tournament and I didn’t want to spoil the memory with any negative thoughts. In the training round, which we played with Nate Sexton, good and confident, but unfortunately I didn’t much of it in the tournament rounds and I played significantly under my rating. The course is designed to punish every mistake you make. Because I am quite an aggressive player you can imagine why my score looked the way it was. The plan was to play safe and to attack only in the right situation. But to properly judge the right situations I would need more than one practice round. The fact that I played as I played doesn’t bother me because just the opportunity of playing this legendary tournament and feel like a real professional for few days was probably the best experience in my life. However that doesn’t mean that I will not try to outdo it.

Thank you to everyone who helped with fufilling my dream and I hope that I will be able to give back to you.

Přemek Novák, tournament director of PDGA Major Konopiště Open 2018

From the early age I was drawn to sports. I have tried a lot of sports at certain level – skis, aikido, basketball, orienteering runs, athletics. I finaly settled with ice-hockey. Every girl wishes to hear these three words:

I play hockey.

So that’s why. And because it was quite early, at 7^th grade of primary school, I stood up right into the goal. Hockey stayed with me until my graduation. I experienced ice-hockey during the best era of it in our country – Viena, Nagano, the biggest Czech stars of NHL at the peak of their career. Jágr, Eliáš, Hašek. It was incredible I was excited about anything hockey related. I also wanted to play in NHL, in national team, play Extraleague (Czech highest ice-hockey league), but when I started to realize that it is not going to happened I then went to study sports at the university and quit hockey from day to day.

I didn’t miss it, recreology is not an ordinary school. Especially in the first year you go from one sport to another. I normally took up to 3 showers a day. Canoeing in the morning, then quickly to handball and evening rhytmic gymnastics were ultra favorite. There was no time for thoughts about ice-hockey and new horizons and opportunities emerged in fornt of me. Performance sport was pushed aside and what more, I stopped seing it’s purpose. I wanted to bring healthy movement for everyone in the society, not only to the sporting individuals. And then came discgolf and I knew, “this is it!”. A relaxed sport for everyone which has potential to make all generations move.

We began with building courses and after a year we said, let’s do the first tournament and maybe a whole tour – Slovácká discgolf tour. More courses, more tournaments, more doscgolf, first victory, the intoxicationg feeling, more players, more competition and the feeling that I cannot loose when I design these courses… The competetivness from my youth started to show up. It went to the surface and motivated me to be better and better, And then it came. Representation. I was nominated to European Discgolf Chamionships. To Swithzerland, to Geneva. And then one more time two years later to Finland. Representing your country is a beautifull feeling and I wish everyone could try it. And then it started to get more and more complicated as new players showed up. Younger, those who have much more time for practicing. And the representation dreams began to fade. My discgolf guru, Jussi Meresmaa told me “our role is different”, referring to the organization of international tournaments with global reach or building new courses all over the world. And thus I began to accept that these dreams are over.

Cut.

“… representing The Czech Repubic: Premek Novak!” Those are the words of Andy Green, starter at the world’s most prestigious discgolf tournament United states disc golf championships, when he challenges you for a first throw of each round . Well, in the case that you are from Czech republic and your name is Přemek Novák. You hear a short applause and then it’s only you and THE course.

And another 130 players, who qualified at the top tournaments over the whole world. The best of the best. And I should be compared with these players? “no chance”, was my thought, when I first found out that I received a wild card for directing the qualifying tournament Konopiště Open. I cannot spend 50 thousand on a trip to US to embarrass myself. I was determined that I will not go there. But then Bohdan, the man, who we have been supporting in prodiscgolf since his beginnings won the Euroean Championships and also with his great performance earned a spot at USDGC. For the first time in history a normal way, not like me or Lukáš Filandr who received wild card in previous year. Something changed inside me and I thought I wanted to help Bohdan experience the atmosphere of a tournament euquivalent to Masters in Augusta. A that maybe this is my last opportunity to play such a tournament.

And here I stand on the tee of hole number 1 thinking: “Don’t hit the first tree, or the rocks…”

You know well how it turned out, or you can read here. I wasn’t last. I take anything else as a success. In average I played right at my rating so Iam leaving satisfied. Not only that. Iam bringing back a lot of inspiration, experiences and new contacts with me I would like to share some of them with you.

Location

South Carolina is typical america. Wide streets, gigantic parking slots, no side walks . The tournament took place at the Winthrop university campus. And “oh boy!” is it awesome! The course winds around the lake with three fountains, around golf course, baseball diamond, tenis court and a soccer playground. In between all of this is perfectly cut grass, trails and sidewalks. Everything perfectly maintained and used. I’ve never seen anything like this in Czech republic. University is also cooperating with the organizers very well and everything seems to work perfectly. This years USDGC was a 20^th anniversary of this beautiful event.

The course

Described with one word – demanding! And the second word would be – beautiful! And then demanding again. It punishes any imperfection or any mistake you make in your game. OB or hazard are everywhere. On the other hand, if you play your game and you know your limits the course can reward you with a nice result. Par rating of this course was over 1000 points every round. The last overall score taking prize money was +3, you take 440 USD for finishing even.

If I should choose my favorite hole it would deffinetly be hole number 2. The first part of fairway leads under hundred years old oaks with relatively low hanging branches. The hole is slightly uphill so it is necessary to thow a flat bomb or roller. You are attacking the basket with second shot, while a big part of flight is over parking slot (OB) or you can throw from the right side where you risk fading or skipping into OB behind the fence. This is private property and the owners a not big discgolf enthusiasts and ur risking losing your disc forever. And Iam not going to risk getting shot or attacked by guard dog because of a disc. And so my Roc3 is going to stay there forever most likely.

People – organizers and fans

USDGC is a huge event in discgolf community in US. Some fans are camping right on the course few days before the tournament starts to get the best spots. Most fans hang around tournaments center from which you can easily reach holes nr. 1, 2, 3, 5, 17 and 18. My guess for final day attendance is around 1500 spectators. Most of them watching lead or chase card. Their behavior was similar to our Czech fans, very polite, but when someone thew a nice shot they made a lot of noise.

Besides the disc community locals doesn’t seem to be very excited about this. It happened more than one time that a car passing by intentionally sounded its horn right as a player was throwing his disc. But other than that it was awesome. Everyone is greeting you and asking where do you come from. I was quite lucky with my card mates. I played with this years Worlds director, with current amateur Champion and with current Wold Champion Paige Bjerkaas There was a friendly atmosphere in each flight and players enjoyed their participation in the tournament.

Media – media house, live stream

We were so lucky, that our guide was Jussi Meresmaa. He’s at USDGC like at home and I think it was his 14^th event in a row. On the first day he took us to a small stone house, more like a villa where tournament director was seated together with media representatives. Most of them were discgolf media. Thanks to that, we’ve had access to an exclusive internet connection, so we could upload our videoblogs, but also we could have a look at all the preparations for this big project.

And there was a lot to see. If you watched live coverage of USDGC, you know what I am talking about. If not, you can find it here. The realization of live coverage was done by a company with experience from MLU (american frisbee ultimate league), they had an excellent technology at their disposal including a broadcasting trailer with mulptiple displays inside, which were fed with current pictures from cameras on the course. Final decision about which pictures make it into the live stream or not was on Jussi. The whole atmosphere was finished by casters duo of Jamie Thomas and Avery Jenkins. We watched the live stream of 3^rd round on a big screen in the media house. Everyone who was present, including tournament director, Ken Climo and Barry Shultz were excited from the quality of this stream. And I was excited too, it once again expanded my imagination about what’s possible.

Conclusion

I am very happy that I was able to participate in 20^th USDGC. My thanks for that belongs to my family, my colleagues from prodiscgolf and mainly to Bohdan. If he didn’t win his European Champion title I would never go there. Thank you Bohdan! And dont’t be sad from the fact that I played better this time, I have played my best, you took a lot of experience from this and your potential is somewhere else. I believe that we will make another visit here and this time I will be your caddy :-).

And last but not least, I would like to thank Simon Lizzote. After the tournament ended he took us to a top golf (a multi-story driving range where you hit balls to gain scores like in a darts or bowling game), we went to Charlotte together, bought presents and as if it wasn’t enough we played Hornets nests, where Paul McBeth took his 2012 World Champion title. And he took us to the airport.

Thank you Simon!