The Wintertime Open, the west coast’s longest-running disc golf tournament, comes back for its 34th incarnation this weekend and next at the Oak Grove Disc Golf Course.  Tournament Director Mark Horn has been around for all of them, and he’s back again providing a challenging layout for the Ams this weekend and Pros next weekend.  The Advanced field is huge, with 30 players pre-registered so far.  Logan Turner, of Pasadena, who tied for 2nd place last year is back to try again, as is former MA1 champ Chuck Powell.  Other top contenders (with PDGA ratings in parantheses) include Noah Politzer (969), A.J. Risley (966) and Juan Lopez (957).  The Womens’ Advanced division is topped by Phikounthong Scoggins.

Anthony Bassett will see if he can continue his winning ways in Advanced Masters, following his victory at the Chavez Ice Bowl.  Another new addition to MM1 is Roger Snider, who finished 4th last year in MA1.  Bill Maury-Holmes, who used to call Oak Grove his home course back in high school (back, back, back…) is the 3rd-rated player in the division and hungry for a win. Dale Ventress, John Babin and Dave Hadder are the highest-rated players in the Grandmaster field.

Intermediate (MA2) players looking to sharpen their teeth for MA1 include Graeme Laudenslager (930), Matthew Hutchings (919) and last year’s Rec division champ Aaron Hagner (912).  Speaking of the Rec division, Michael Hole (879), Steve Rycewicz (876) and veteran Rick Ascheri (875) top that field, along with Indigo Brude (866), who’s looking to give the guys a run for their money…er, raffle tickets.

The W.O. has had its share of rain, rain and more rain in previous years, but the weather looks great for this weekend, and (putting on our long-range goggles) for next weekend’s Pro event.  We’ll handicap the Pro field next week once it fills a bit more, as well as give a recap of the Am results.

The 2011 SoCal Points Series has now been wrapped up, with the champions acknowledged at the year-end banquet held Saturday, Nov. 19th at Prado Regional Park in Chino.  This year’s series had twenty tournaments – the most tournaments ever in the history of the series.  Several of these races came down to the wire, some with only a one-point difference between first and second places.  Many thanks go out to the TD’s and volunteers that made these events possible.  Can we top this in 2012?

Final Points Leaders (# players and points in parentheses):

Men’s Pro Open (37):

1. Bobby Musick (182)
2. Steve Rico (179)
3. Philo Braithwaite (159)

Women’s Pro Open (8):

1. Erin White (103)
2. tie – Suzette Simons, Indigo Brude (90)

Men’s Pro Masters (32): 

1. Gary Sandoval (157)
2. Dan Duron (156)
3. Jerry Goff (151)

Men’s Pro Grandmasters (18):

1. Marcus Cisneros (125)
2. Steve Killian (124)
3. Jeff Nichols (122)

Women’s Pro Grandmasters (2):

1. Susie Horn (49)
2. Vicky Wisecup (15)

Men’s Pro Senior Grandmasters (10):

1. Tom Clickner (107)
2. Derrick Stockhausen (94)
3. Philip Ganshert (42)

Men’s Pro Legends (1):

1. Ray Carr (16)

Men’s Advanced Amateur (32):

1. Kyle Hughes (158)
2. A.J. Risley (155)
3. Josh Marsh (147)

Women’s Advanced Amateur (6):

1. Amber Ivy (78)
2. Helen Wilson (71)
3. Laurie Stroh (50)

Men’s Advanced Masters (23):

1. Rhett Stroh (109)
2. Steve Civitak (103)
3. Chris Carpenter (102)

Women’s Advanced Masters (2):

1. Laurie Stroh (28)
2. Helen Wilson (14)

Men’s Advanced Grandmasters (10):

1. David Hadder (98)
2. Eric Simmons (93)
3. Tim Caldwell (85)

Men’s Senior Granmasters (1):

1. Scot Jamison (16)

Men’s Intermediate (44):

1. Gioachino Ragosta (160)
2. Aaron Hagner (153)
3. Andrew Choate (150)

Women’s Intermediate (4):

1. Rita Nash (66)
2. Karie Fisher (56)
3. Helen Wilson (18)

Men’s Recreational (31):

1. Corey Marstellar (139)
2. Wing Ko (124)
3. Eric Audet (123)

Women’s Recreational (1):

1. Sandy Houston (15)

Men’s Novice (7):

1. Samuel Mary-Holmes (91)
2. Joel Maury-Holmes (83)
3. Mike Ventress (24)

Junior Boys (2):

1. Samuel Mary-Holmes (18)
2. Joel Maury-Holmes (16)