I really enjoy reading the post by Lyle and Eric, they are very interesting back and forths, they are written very eloquently and and with allot of Political Correctness....Refreshing
There seems to be a bottom line here in back of everyones minds. And as always I reserve the right to be way off line, but I'll give it a shot anyways.
Is Tom Bass the "right" venue for the Texas State Disc Golf Championship Tournament...
Disclaimer: These are only my opinions
No... Tom Bass is no longer the right venue.
Is Tom Bass the "best" venue we have for TSDGC? Sadly.... it Probably is
Sports in general have a natural progression, as the athletes get better, the equipment gets better, more companies get involved in developing the equipment, the technology gets better, the sport advances and venues have to advance with it. It's natural progression and it never ends.
Many of these things and others have taken their toll on Tom Bass. Hurricanes have changed the landscape, the advancement of both equipment and athlete has marginalized the challenge of the distance Tom Bass provided to the top tier players. The Dragon has been castrated (for lack of a better analogy) and the courses lack the technicality that are now required along with the longer distances needed to keep the courses challenging to the top tier player. Not to mention the Wilmont sits on nut grass that is murder on the equipment needed to maintain it.
However it is a very big park, it has distance and it has 3 courses in one place.
Zipper mentions Spring Valley and Windwood as probably better courses, I believe Cedar Hills at Jack Brooks belongs in that list. All 3 very nice courses, in fact SV and WW are my two personal favorites and Cedar Hills is just to far away from Tomball but I was blown away by it none the less.
The problem with those 3 are obvious. You need 3 great courses together. Windwood is 1 course, Spring Valley is 1.5 courses, Cedar Hills has 2 but Gulf Meadows isn't Championship caliber.
Now TSDGC is in it's 15th year locally. The tourament is huge, prestigious and has earned mad respect and admiration, but in my opinion, it has lost "The Venue" aspect that I'm sure came with it at one time.
I liken it to the NFL. We all saw the Cardinals leave St Louis, the Browns left Cleveland, The Raiders left Oakland, the Rams left Los Angeles and the Oilers left Houston. Regardless of the love and emotional ties there are to many Houstonians towards the Astrodome, Houston knew they would never regain a franchise in that venue. The game had moved on.
In my opinion Tom Bass is never going to be what it once was. Is there still value at Tom Bass? Absolutely.. But I think it's time to look ahead, look to the future and prepare for it. If we don't, The name TSDGC may always be yours, but someone is going to step up elsewhere and put on "The Texas Tournament" that becomes "The Destination". It's natural progression.
I really don't want to see Houston left behind. For those who travel around a little, I think we all know we are currently behind the proverbial 8 ball.