the delusional disc golfer

So as i mentioned before, I didn't play in the Masters Cup this year- for the first time since 1994, I think. And I was even more bummed to see that the combo of the toughest-yet layout and choppy winds held scores down to the extent that -2 won my division (Open Masters). And from Sunday afternoon to Sunday evening, and I guess even that night as I slept that night, the delusions began to build.

I would have been right there with the lead groups all weekend. My strength is scratching out pars on tough courses in tough conditions. DeLa is MY course. And so it went.

So even though I had an impending deadline on a tough project, come Monday morning I only had one thought: get out to DeLa and play the course I saw giving guys so much trouble all weekend. And so I did. I shot a +3 (with a CTP-worthy birdie on hole 27), which isn't bad considering the layout and the wind. But then, tongue in cheek, I began to make a case to myself that that +3 meant I woulda/coulda won the Masters Cup. Wanna get a window into some real disc golf delusion? Check this out:

• My +3 included two tree OB strokes, one extremely unlikely.
• It also included two double bogeys that - it could be argued - were 5's rather than 4's (holes 13 and 14) if I were not rushing to play through larger groups
• Take away those four strokes, and I shoot -1 rather than +3
• -1 three times is -3, good enough to beat the -2 that won my division in the Masters Cup!

Of course, all that discounts the following tethers to reality:

• I can't play two rounds in a row at DeLa right now, much less three. My shoulder just sorta stops working, pain or no pain
• OB strokes will happen. Truth be told, that round was pretty even, luck-wise
• Playing the day after an NT event on the same course is not tournament golf, no matter how realistically one may try to stick to tourney conditions

My best non-delusional guess that I would have shot +3 at best the first round, +6 at best the second round, and +8 at best the 3rd round. But imagine what woulda/coulda been . . .