Phil Shane › 2023 PDGA Tim Selinske United States Disc Golf Championships presented by Innova May 28, 2023 at 8:08am
Very unimpressed with the abusive spotter/official on hole 17 at Camp Serene today. It could not have been less professional. Completely out of line.
He was a player scoping distances. I understand your frustration. However, this should not reflect on the staff or event organizers. Next time just let a course officially know and they will address it so players can avoid the negative during play. Good to meet you at the event.
It was not just a player scoping distance. He was an official spotter there for the event. The harassment was real, it affected play, it was heard by Bill (PDGA) from as far away as hole 18 and he came to investigate. We lodged our complaint after the round as should be done and I'm not putting ... more
It was not just a player scoping distance. He was an official spotter there for the event. The harassment was real, it affected play, it was heard by Bill (PDGA) from as far away as hole 18 and he came to investigate. We lodged our complaint after the round as should be done and I'm not putting the tournament staff on blast or anything but apparently there were other complaints from the day before and it could have been prevented.
From what I heard, the spotter stopped players from throwing before the previous group was done with the hole, which is exactly what a good spotter does.
We had no problems with this person. Actually had quite the opposite experience than Phil.
The situation was not typical spotting. He was abusive to a player on my card, demanded to know his name for saying the the spotter couldn't assess courtesy strokes which he threatened. He wouldn't clear from the hole when I said we were trying to finish our hole, he said, "I don' ... more
The situation was not typical spotting. He was abusive to a player on my card, demanded to know his name for saying the the spotter couldn't assess courtesy strokes which he threatened. He wouldn't clear from the hole when I said we were trying to finish our hole, he said, "I don't care." As opposed to spotting, when we were looking for a disc he called out, "45 seconds and he was going to start the clock." I asked him to move from my line of sight when I was throwing my birdie putt. Even "Bill" the tall, white haired OG PDGA official came over to the hole from 18 asking what all the yelling was for and said they'd had other complaints from the previous day and day 3. I am all for giving someone the benefit of the doubt and not blowing things out of proportion but this was not one of those cases. He was out of line. He affected play. He chose to escalate during the round instead of address any issue after completing the hole. It was not professional and it was something that should be called out.
I resect Bill Newman as an excellent PDGA marshal, I am sure he dealt with it professionally.