2024 Gulf Coast Tour Challenge Presented by Dynamic Discs - Stop 5 (Maximo Park)

Good Morning Everyone! I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. I am reaching out this morning to give an update on where we are at with the twice rescheduled last stop of the 20 ... show more ›

Good Morning Everyone!

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

I am reaching out this morning to give an update on where we are at with the twice rescheduled last stop of the 2024 Gulf Coast Tour Challenge. As of today, the event is on and the city has confirmed our permit is valid for the 28th, but I still need to review the course to determine if any changes to the layout will be needed.

However, this event was not designed to be played in the shorter days of winter. Specifically, it was created to allow a last tee time of 4:00pm to have ~2.5 hours to finish. Now that the event has been rescheduled to late December when the sunsets at 5:40pm, a last card of 4:00pm is no longer feasible. As such, I will be removing the 3 breaks I normally build into the event (10:30am, 12:00pm, and 1:30pm) and opening those up as tee times. I will also be adding a new tee time at 7:20am and removing the 3:00 - 4:00pm tee time slots.

As of this moment, I am opening up movements of tee times for currently registered players until Thursday, December 5th at 5:00pm. You can move freely to whatever open tee time exists, regardless of your current tee time, by going to the registration page and selecting "Registered Players" and then selecting "Edit" under your name. This will allow you to change your options in your registration, including your tee time.

After this window closes, anyone that is still registered in one of these now closing tee times will be indiscriminately moved to the next closest open tee time.

I will then reopen public registration for the event on Friday, December 6th @ 8:00pm.

Should anyone have any questions or need any additional information, please let me know.

Welp. . . I seem to be the bearer of bad news lately, and I am back once again with another less than ideal announcement. Again, as always, full transparency on what's going on: I met with t ... show more ›

Welp. . .

I seem to be the bearer of bad news lately, and I am back once again with another less than ideal announcement.

Again, as always, full transparency on what's going on:

I met with the City of St. Petersburg on Thursday of last week and they deferred the decision to allow permitted events to each individual park superintendent. Based on the overall conditions of the course, and the park as a whole, the superintendent responsible for Maximo could not commit to providing a safe environment for our group this Saturday and has since restricted events at Maximo "for the foreseeable future" so they can continue their cleanup. I asked for a real timeline and he said "at least a month"

I immediately got on the phone with all other local parks including Taylor, Cliff Stephens, Picnic Island, Cypress and even engaged in regards to Northeast Coachman to try and find something that would allow our event to run as rescheduled on the 26th. All of those attempts ended with a similar statement: All permitted events utilizing outdoor athletic facilities are cancelled until somebody within the county/city can personally walk the property, survey the damage, and confirm there is no liability for safety issues. All of my contacts, who I have been fortunate enough to build a fantastic relationship with over the past 10+ years of running disc golf tournaments in Tampa all said something along the lines of "If there was a way to make it happen for us, they would, but their hands are tied". And with that, so are mine.

Obviously, this is not ideal. However, I am sure we can all appreciate and understand that at the current moment with everything that has happened, it is a logical decision for local government entities looking out for the safety and wellbeing of its constituents.

You, almost certainly - "Ok Cam. . . enough of the talk. What happens to my money, what does this mean for qualifying for GCCO, and what are your plans to fix all the world's problems."

The answer to that is a bit drawn out, but first and foremost, any refund request will be honored in full without issue. We are fortunate to run this organization successfully with fantastic support from our local community, and even if we had to refund every single person their registration, we could do so without issue. No "Bud Hill Masters" situation here.

We will reschedule the event to Saturday, December 28th. . . Yes, that far out. The rest of the month of November and early December are rich with long standing events in the Tampa area that have their spots solidly on the calendar. By then, Maximo should be in great condition for an event.

Unfortunately, this now would put the final qualifying stop for GCCO well after registration will be filled.

As such, this final stop will no longer be a qualifying event for GCCO registration. It will still be an event on the series and will count towards series end points.

The registration schedule for GCCO will be updated as outlined below.

Players who have played 4/4 events will register on November 9th, 3/4 on the 11th, 2/4 on the 13th, 1/4 on the 15th and then public registration will open on November 17th.

Again, none of this is ideal and if there was another way around it trust me I would find it. But it just doesn't exist and I apologize from the bottom of my heart that this is what has happened.

Should anyone have any lingering questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me personally.

As of 10/5/2024, the baskets have been moved to the tournament locations. Please understand, that as of this date, the course has experienced 1 hurricane, and is expecting another. The course is not i ... show more ›

As of 10/5/2024, the baskets have been moved to the tournament locations. Please understand, that as of this date, the course has experienced 1 hurricane, and is expecting another. The course is not in the best shape, but the club and local authorities are working very hard on cleaning it up. The plan will be to use Maximo, so long as it is open and safe. Adjustments may be made to the course that may include removing holes, or using temporary baskets or teeing locations as needed to ensure a safe experience for all players. Any adjustments will be communicated before the event.