03/18/2024
100 players made the 2024 Battle @ The Hills presented by Discraft an absolute success! I have been honored to run this event for 3 years now after Mike Solt brought sanctioned disc golf to Lebanon County some years ago with the same event.
Since I have been playing and involved in this event, the players are usually subjected to some strong, swirling winds. Yesterday was no exception to that. The open temp holes were throwing some players for a loop, especially with the addition of a new island hole, Hole 20.
But one player figured out that island hole in the 2nd Round. Bill Bechtel made the island and crashed the chains for an ace right in front of my card and made $190 with that throw, and also completed the CTP for the hole for an extra $15. Patrick McCann grabbed the CTP during Round 1 on the same hole. The last CTP winner of the day was Rachel Appel on Hole 16 Yellow.
Let's get into the winners for the day:
MP60: Robin Billig (-13 126) took the win by 9 strokes over James Mayes (-4 135). Robin's impressive score would have been good enough to go to a playoff in MP40 and cash in MPO.
MP40: Timothy Wilson (-13 126) takes an 8 stroke victory over Patrick McCann (-5 134). This was Tim's second straight MP40 win in Lebanon over the last 2 weeks, with his win at Red Dead 2 last week.
FPO: The World's Strongest Disc Golfer, Emily Dale (+18 157) takes another win over lone competitor Rachel Appel (+24 163). Emily refused her signature flex pose in her picture because she said she was too cold 😆.
MPO: Josh Martin (-21 118) took the win over some strong pushes from 2 players tied for 2nd at -18 121, Bradley Oberholtzer and Ethan Yawger. Ethan Yawger decided to cash for the first time and join the pro ranks. 14 year old Hans Weaver also decided to do the same, as he placed tied for 5th place. Welcome to the pro ranks! The future of disc golf is bright with some of these players!
MA60: Charles Folsom (+23 162) took a 11 stroke win over 2nd place Michael Borneman (+34 173) in a division of 4 that battled together through both rounds.
MA50: Curvin Stine (+6 145) shot 2 above rating rounds to take a 6 stroke in over 2 players at +12, in Billy G and James Weaver, in a division with 6 players.
MA40: Colin Frazier (-7 132) flexed hard in the first round, shooting 50 points above his rating, earning him a 4 stroke victory over Justin Lyons (-3 136). There's gotta be something in that Prodigy plastic! 😆
FA3: Kailey Betz (+37 176) continues to impress, with over a 50% win percentage at PDGA events, taking the win by 4 strokes over Christine Ratkiewicz (+41 180).
MA1: Youngster Connor Leaman (-18 121) just destroyed his division. Connor took a 8 stroke win over 2nd place Austin Howard (-10 129), who shot 40 strokes over his rating both rounds, but still could not make up ground on the young phenom.
MA2: Evan Dow and Sheldon Martin (both -5 134) needed 2 extra holes to decide a winner, but Evan pulled off the win on the temp island hole to grab his 2nd career win in a division of 17 players.
MA3: Bradley Cohick (+2 141) shot 30 points above his rating both rounds to grab his 2nd career win as well, over 2nd place Zach Rhoten (+5 144). Our MA3 field was the largest of the day with 19 participants.
MA4: Pattern here: youth. 9 year old Ethan Martin (+9 148) shot a 932 rated 1st Round and cruised to a 5 stroke victory over 2nd place Joey Herbert (+14 153).
Congratulations to all the winners, and before I end this long recap, I want to give thanks where they are needed. Thanks to South Hills Park staff, starting work a week early and cleaning up some of the winter mess in the park of branches and trash. Thanks to Mike Dunkle for loaning and setting up 3 temp baskets for the day. Thanks to my business partner Jason Pauley for hauling goods, taking care of sales, and anything that needs to get done. Thanks to some of the JP crew like Tatsuya Hattori, Kyle Kern, Dylan Smith, Meredith-Dan Ansel, Gary Daddario III, Ryan Fisher, and Curvin Stine for all they did from loading and u loading cars, moving tables, taking down OB flags and mandos, shuffling cards during lunch, and anything else I didn't see. That is the definition of a team right there. Also thanks to Christian Pauley for manning the pavilion while me and Jason were out playing. And if I missed anyone that helped, I sincerely apologize.
Next JP event upcoming is Leapin' Lenni on Saturday, April 27th. Details for qualification of the JP Championship in October will be revealed before this event. And amateurs, sign up for the 2024 Lebanon AM Championship that runs from April 19-21!!
Mike Snyder
