Will the heatwave stop?

Or do you even care?

I realize we did a weather poll not too long ago, but I’ve seen many “excessive” heat warnings for the upcoming week and one of the other writers here offered that kind of poll. So I’m going to go with it.

But first, let’s check in on the poll from two weeks ago and get things wrapped up there.

We wanted to know if you had ever called somebody out for a rule or courtesy violation and the results were extremely close.

Of the 79 voters, 52 percent of you (41 votes) said you hadn’t. The other 38 (48 percent) said you had.

That’s quite close. So, let’s check a few of the responses to try and get a better picture of things.

Justin Allen says:

I think the area I play in, is the only little piece of the world where the rules to disc golf are not enforced or even recognized. Our weekly tournaments are a big jumble of people just randomly throwing plastic at chains regardless of who is furthest out, people throwing from adjusted lies, or just not paying attention to other players. I find it very annoying and try to keep whoever is in my group in line. This has earned me the title of disc golf hall monitor among my peers. I am awaiting my striped referee jersey and whistle.

That would blow my mind.

I am, by no means, a rules-crazed person, but that would drive me up a wall. If people are so blatant in destroying the rules, I’m not sure I could play in that league. There, eventually, becomes a safety factor, too. If people are just firing off discs whenever and wherever they want, somebody could get railed with a disc.

Kevin King says he’s never played in a PDGA-sanctioned tournament, so he’s only competed in small, friendly tournaments.

In the last tourney I was in, the TD let everyone know at the outset that we weren’t going to call guys for having their toe on their mini or stepping past the tee pad, etc. We’re all friends and we know not to take things too seriously, while still maintaining a sense of competition. I’d say that we’ve found a good mix of casual competitiveness.

Personally, I like that. It sounds like a laid-back tournament and it’s nice. Would I want to see people tweaking rules in big tournaments so they can break even little rules? Nah. But in tournaments like this? I like that it’s relaxed. Especially among friends.

Derek O’Neil makes some good points, too.

Absolutely, people playing in a tourney are there to compete, and should then know or be there to learn how to play at a competitive level. Disc golf is all about sportsmanship and courtesy, so when “calling out” someone, it must be done in the spirit of teaching, assuming that the violator simply did not know the rule.

This is fully true, too. I like that when calling somebody out, it’s done to teach. Unfortunately, it can’t always be true. If someone is a repeat offender, it gets a little more tedious and annoying. So I definitely agree to make it teaching, but if you know somebody continually does something, the reaction may have to be a little harsher.

Teebird says:

We played in a tourney and had to call someone out for losing count on their score. Its hard enough to keep track of your own score hole to hole, especially on longer courses, but this newbie kept taking shot after shot and was coming up with 3?s and 4?s at the end. There was no way and something finally had to be said. We weren’t assessing penalty strokes we just wanted this person to be aware of their errant shots in between that they seemed to be forgetting. I would have hated for it to be the difference between 2nd and 3rd place for someone.

This could open a whole new can of worms all on its own. I’ve had to do this as well. In regular ball golf, I once was in a tournament and a guy was shaving a stroke here and there. Being I was competing with him for second place, I started calling him on it. I barely hung on for second and if I hadn’t called him out, I probably would have lost it.

That leads me to the other side of this coin when calling people out — knowing what’s true.

I played in a tournament and on one of the toughest holes, I blew up and scored a snowman. When I play, I keep a mental note of each shot and also mark things down on a sheet to make sure I’m all set.

I was playing with a group of players in an upper flight (which was the first problem. They all teed off on the longer tees and were constantly forgetting about me). As the hole ended, I said I got an eight and one other disagreed. He said I got a nine.

Really?

I then went through each shot. Despite not being able to tell me where the ninth shot was, all three agreed I had a nine and not an eight.

Again, I say really?

I didn’t fight it. If it went to a protest, it’s three-against-one and I’m going to lost. Why get disqualified over that — especially when I was going to be one of the highest-scoring players in the tournament.

My point with this is the person doing the calling out isn’t always right and sometimes it’s better just to keep one’s mouth shut.

Anyway, I digress…

One last one before we move to this week’s poll as this one caught my eye.

Kelly Melton says:

I would love to call out people for drinking their beers and bringing their dogs, but I don’t want to be “that guy.”

I say this — if they are doing it during a casual round, there’s not much that you can do if the park allows each thing. BUT, if it’s during a tournament round, you shouldn’t have to call it out as the tournament director should have noticed at least the dog. As for the beer? Call ’em out. You should. And don’t feel like you are “that guy.”

Before we get to this week’s poll, we like to give something random away to those who comment on the weekly poll. This week’s Randomizer selection is Richard Hatton. Send me an address as well so I can get something from the prize box out to you!

Now for this week’s poll.

How hot is too hot? I’m not a fan of extreme heat and humidity, personally. Personally, I’d be happy if it remained 50-75 all year around. But I know some people love the heat.

So we’re curious…

How hot is too hot?

Can the temperatures get to where you won’t play just because of the heat? Or will you play in any heat? Click your choice and vote and drop a comment!

[poll id=”22″]

Vote away and make sure to comment as we’ll, as always, give something away to a random commenter. You can’t win if you don’t comment here. (In other words, comments on Facebook or other places where this poll might be linked won’t count… it has to be here).

If you have any comments, questions, thoughts, ideas or anything else, feel free to e-mail me and the crew at: pj [at] rattlingchains.com. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook!