Brad Schick wins Open Division taking home $525

JUST THE FACTS:

Pleasant Valley Disc Golf Classic
Fairmont, West Virginia
September 11, 2010    TD Phillip Burton
80 players   $2479 Pro Purse
Seth Burton Memorial & Orange Crush courses
Partly cloudy and near 70
Lead Sponsor: City of Pleasant Valley
with $1000 cash and $500 merchandise

Click here for results

WINNERS:

MPO - Brad Schick, FPO - Lori Merriman, MPM - K. B. Clark
MA1- Shelby Dering, FW1 - Freida Francis, MS1 - Larry Zaccagnini, MA2 - Tim Foley, FW2 - Kim Nemkovich, MA3 - Corey Ellis, MA4 - Zach Taylor, MJ2 - Derek Schmidt, MJ3 - Eric Cappellini

Richard Gladden, 79, meets his goal to shoot his age plus 100. The Seth Burton Memorial course is named after his grandson.

Players had a major test playing both the Seth Burton Memorial course primarily designed by World Champ, Johnny Sias, and the newer, rougher terrain Orange Crush course developed and maintained by the local club. The Crush came in at 63 SSA with PA visitors, Jerry Gotcher and Chris Deitzel with the hot 1000 rated rounds. Brad Schick came back in the afternoon on the Seth Burton with an unofficially rated 1053 on the 57 SSA layout to win Open by 7.

The Seth Burton course goes in a big circle around the sides and top of a large hilltop. It's nicely mowed with mature trees scattered about. The track follows the park road that circles the park so it's a regular challenge to stay inbounds between the road and the woods line. The Crush is carved out of the woods below the Seth Burton and also circles the park. It's designed so the 9th holes of both courses end about the same point so players may play the front nine on one and the back nine on the other.

K.B. Clark demonstrating his Grandmaster flexibility on his approach to elevated hole 1 on the Orange Crush

Clark carried a one shot lead over Robin White into the final hole, the tricky hole 17 on Seth Burton. The primary fairway is straight ahead with a tight line in between the woods and an old set of fenced paddle tennis courts. the pin is around the backside of the OB fenced area. K.B. startled the group trying to drive around the right side of the fenced area but didn't get far enough right, ending up against the fence. He had to recover as shown with a forehand roller over the fence corner.

Robin played the regular fairway safely down the left side but his approach didn't make it around the fence far enough. He took a 4. K.B. got his third shot within 20 feet but his potential winning putt skipped off the nubs resulting in a 5. K.B. did manage to win the Pro Masters division on the first hole of sudden death when Robin's tee shot hit an early tree. Two other divisions went to sudden death where unrated Tim Foley beat Chris Boyer in Intermediate Am and Corey Ellis beat Shane Leiggi in Rec Am. 

Local player Joshua Smith tied for 3rd in Open and wins the West Virginia qualifying spot to the USDGC.