I heard reports early in the day about some pretty ferocious winds, especially up top. How were things from your viewpoint?
The word of the day was definitely WIND. Gusts were at least 40 miles an hour and others claimed higher. What made it tough was how sporadic the winds were. Players just couldn’t get a read on things.

Discs were air bouncing all over the place. You’d see drives shoot way up in the air and then drop back down, they’d get shoved side to side. All you could do was gun something overstable and hope for the best. Conditions were very tough, for sure.

What was the highlight of the day for you?
There were a few actually. First was watching two players in the grandmasters division, Rich Rentz and Sammy Juisto, barely miss aces on back to back holes. Rick nailed the tray on hole 15 at the Bear course. It was just inches low. Then on 16 Sammy splashed chains dead solid center. It rattled around and dropped out. We got both shots on film so that was probably the highlight of the day.

Another one was watching Markus (Kallstrom) park a 390 foot uphill shot that was playing about 500. It was a huge tug even for someone like Markus. As he walked off the green I asked him what he threw. He simply flipped the disc over and showed me the underside. It said “I throw far.” He smiled and walked on…

Markus looked very, very serious. It was obvious just how important winning a World title is to him. He wants it as much as anyone.

Who else is looking solid after day one?
Mike Randolph. The A Pool is about to have a serious player to contend with. His mindset is right. He is as relaxed as I have ever seen him. He was already focused on Saturday, as if to be envisioning how things would go in the finals. Don’t be surprised if he’s in them. After today, I will be surprised if he isn’t.

What the most popular chatter among players so far? Probably pooling and scheduling for day one. Groups stayed together for both rounds as opposed to being sorted by score after round one. Ken (Climo) in particular was not too happy. Most players are generally cool with playing with almost anyone for a round. But after that they want a sort. They’ve got business to take care of. I’d say 70% of people were not happy with that decision.

What’s up with the ladies?
Well, Des (Reading) was in good spirits despite getting off to a slow start. She said she shot about 12 strokes worse that what she expected. Her practice rounds were much better. That puts her all the way down to 9th position.

I did see her and Jay (Reading) sitting on a bench later in the day, just hanging out letting it all go. They were enjoying the views, talking and relaxing. I think you will see her make a move back up pretty quickly. She is probably the strongest and most experienced female player here. And I know how much she wants another title.

Val (Valarie Jenkins) is suffering from jet lag pretty bad. She made the trip to Japan too and just hasn’t recovered. You just gotta pull for Val. Hopefully she’ll rebound and get things going.

How about Climo? You think he’s going to tack on another one?
To be honest he was about as mad as I’ve ever seen him yesterday. Several things are bugging him. But Ken is one of a select few who can channel that kind of emotion and use it to his advantage.

So what’s bugging him?
Most of it’s personal stuff. The pooling issue really did have him hot though. Looks like to me they may have woken up a sleeping dog. He was pretty fired up and looked like he was ready to go.

Give us a parting shot…
Today the open players have one round on High Bridge Gold. That’s the monster. Conditions are perfect this morning so veterans know that today is a huge opportunity to distance themselves from a lot of other players. At the end of the day I think we’ll be looking at the top 12, one of which will go on to win.