One Grand Disc Golf Tour

04-05-12

Kendall Indian Hammocks Open-Day 1

It’s difficult to concentrate on your round when your brain is irrevocably committed to working out the magic formula that ultimately gave the Kendall parks folk the ratio of 1 toilet per 4 baseball diamonds…which is the actual (men’s) ratio at the baseball complex next to the disc golf courses.

This sort of contemplative ciphering carried over into the design of the two fuster-cluck courses that comprise KIH. The following will no doubt, but is not intended to, insult any local players currently living in the area…but… the Kendall courses flat out make me spit!

K1 is a poorly designed layout that brings roads into play as well as encouraging people to throw over fences etc. It is a safety nightmare.

K2 is far worse. Several fairways that MUST throw down the road for a realistic chance at a birdie or even par. Many other holes have very little that resembles a fairway. Still others that could be far more interesting as solid dog-leg, par 4s, combining 1 hole and half of the next by extending around a corner. Then, the next straight shot, a par 4, could go back to being a par 3… but both holes are currently dead straight and aren’t making use of some wonderful land features. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Cranky course critiquing aside, today’s rounds were run smoothly by the Miami Wind Dummies dg club. As with most Fab Florida Tour events, Tim Willis was on the scoreboard, making sure all was posted properly. Lunch was plentiful and tasty.

I decided to try a different pair of shoes because the pair I had been wearing for the previous year…although durable, water-proof and fantastic off a concrete tee pad… the rest of the time, I felt as if I was wearing wooden shoes and my legs would get disturbingly fatigued and very achy at the end of a round.

Friday eve, I wore the shoes that I usually don for speed golf rounds and was pleased to find that I could get off the tee feeling fairly confident in practice. So I continued the trend this AM. I don’t think it was the shoes, but I pretty much stumbled all over myself in the first round, only mustering a meager +2 on K1, 2 off the lead in the GM division.
(I had signed up for Masters but there were only 3 of us and one didn’t show, so one of us unwittingly moved up to Open and the other down to GM) The Master’s div used to be HUGE in FFT events…what happened?

Round two started off in stark contrast, as I deuced my 1st SIX holes. Naturally, I managed to whittle that -6 back down to –3, but gained 8 strokes on the previous leader.

In the Open, Ricky Wysocki (last year’s Rookie of the Year, whom I tied the 1st round last week at Clearwater’s Fun-n-Sun) shot a –8 on K1, breaking Climo’s record of –7 (with the aid of a new shorter hole #1) for a $100 bonus, which he followed up with a –9 on K2 (If you look at actual par, it was closer to –11, for another course record (I believe). As with many courses, there are two solidly par 4 holes, but they’re just called a “3” for simplicity’s sake. I think this mindset puts players in the wrong frame of mind for strategic disc golf. (Notice I said “players”, rather than “competitors”)

I’m staying with a buddy who lives a mere 6 miles from the course. Last night in a bed, but this evening, a married couple is staying over, (she, fresh out of the hospital), so I relinquished the bed so that they could sleep together. I’ll pull the Anti-Chrysler in the back yard and sleep in it… probably with the doors wide open since I will have a full fence around me. Nice night for it.

09-26-12

KIH Open-Day 2.

Last night was a glorious night to sleep outside… a full moon, cool Atlantic breeze, no mosquitos…. But there were other pests… I had forgotten that it was May 5th. For you Gringos, you may have heard a Hispanic type refer to it as “Cinco de Mayo”.

The pests to which I refer were the (too) nearby and almost assuredly NOT Hispanic neighbors engaged in competitive talking, rather than strategic, until the wee wee hours of an increasingly annoyed night.

Despite my brush with slumber I maintained enough competence to muster par and gain 3 more strokes to increase my GM lead to 11. (Had I played open, I’d have been somewhere near 18 strokes out of 1st)

The final round on K2 gave me three more strokes to win by 14… My 114th win!
For those of you SCREAMING… “Sand bagger!”…
1: I’m in my 4th year of GM (Masters is the Motrin division. Grand Masters is the Morphine division.)
B: (I’m not good at indexing) Like the Fun-n-Sun, I would have tied for 6th in the open and, unlike the Fun-n-Sun, which was full, I would have been out of the money instead of actually earning more than 2nd place in the open division by playing GM. Screw pride! It was a sound business decision!

There was a final 9 among the top 4, most of which I missed because I was throwing juggling clubs around with Joel Poppert, a former member of “Above Gravity”, a comedy juggling team.

When I finally trudged over to the field, I saw some great disc golfing. However, I don’t believe that anyone’s score was close enough to anyone else’s to challenge anyone. The TD should have declared the tourney over after round 4 and had em pitch 100 of their own money back in for skins!!!! Yeah!
(Easy for me to say, since I wasn’t involved)

I didn’t leave Miami until well after dark, leaving a 4-hour drive to a tired but pleased old huckster.

Tomorrow: I have lots of important things to avoid, which I probably won’t.

04-28-12

Fun-n-Sun, day 1

Some highlights:

An older player, who had a seizure a couple weeks back and wrecked his scooter, was backing into an open parking area at NE Coachmen park, when his bright yellow PT Cruiser suddenly sped up violently, glanced off of a tree, hit a truck and shoved that truck over into another truck, thus pinning one player’s hand between the two trucks and managed to pin another guy by the pants, while the drive tires kept spinning for what one person described as a minute and a half.

There weren’t many Pro Masters, so…eventually we all ended up defecting to Open Pro.

Scott Scholten putted his way to a –15 on the 24 hole layout, tying Climo. Paul MacBeth shot a solid –13 (?) and I tied Ricky Wysocki with an –11.

In round two, Paul MacBeth was the only one to park #11. The rest of us hit the same tree and were 50-70 short.  Wysocki steps up and bags his 70-footer. I do my walk-up putt and hit my 60-footer. Climo routinely sinks his 55’r and Scholten proceeds to bag his 50’r.  Naturally, MacBeth has no trouble with his 10 footer to card a rather unlikely star frame.

The last 4 year’s Fun-n-Sun tourney has featured 6 extra holes but not for the same reason as some of you Michiganders. They had to create new holes because 6 of the holes had flooded. No floods or even a sign of rain on Saturday.

Hole “F” was 396’ with a low ceiling. I had deuced it in the first round by bombing a 360 drive with a Proto Boss and hitting a 30 footer.  In round two, Wysocki absolutely drilled a screaming sidearm shot down the fairway, which skipped just left of the basket and proceeded to jump a 6’ fence about 35’ away.  Gulp!

I’m thinking that I’m the last of the 2^nd round lead group to bogey by missing a 12’ turbo putt because I misjudged the negligible wind…by giving it a 2^nd thought

It took John E. McCray a bit to warm up, but his 2^nd round caught and tied me and bumped me off of the lead card for tomorrow’s round.

Tomorrow: Fun-n-Sun, Day 2. May swing by Picnic Island again for some time with my baby.

04-29-12

Fun-n-Sun, day 2

Some highlights:

Paul MacBeth eeked out the 1-stroke victory over a 3-way tie with Climo, Wysocki and local Scholten.

I was somewhat uninspired today and lost 4 strokes to John E. McCray, but gaining on the rest of the 2^nd card for a lackluster 6^th place finish…buuuut, still in the $$.

Obviously inspired by yesterday’s parking lot mishap, someone backed into a tree with an Anti-Chrysler similar to mine, thus depositing his back window into the unpaved parking area.

I headed over to Picnic Island and toyed with some ideas for future work on the course and stuck around until dusk for some photo ops.

Tomorrow: Catching up on some greatly needed work on the biz.

04-21-12

28 degrees Fahrenheit.  Not what you’d call ideal conditions for a Floridian.

Toddler and I got out of the house a mere 20 minutes late. Not bad by normal standards.

We stopped at a convenience store for the obligatory heavily creamed coffee and sugar-laden pastry-like food.  Yesterday at Carly’s was far too much time working and not enough note taking. Today was a double-anti-inflammatory kind of day.

The Kenwood Heritage-parkside course is very heavily wooded. Fortunately, it’s not very long. The fastest disc I threw all day was a speed 9 (Road Runner) 90% of the tee shots were with a Star Mako or Champion Stingray. I started off hot, deucing the 1^st 3, then leveled off a bit. I carded a –9 and was back by two going into round 2.

Jeff Keule (sp?) pulled double-duty as TD and competitor. Both he and Zack Vaughn started off hot and quickly pulled ahead. I didn’t change strategy from the 1^st round, which was to just play smooth and not too aggressive since many of the holes didn’t have much, if any, of a fairway.

Jeff was putting very well, which gave him the edge. We both shot a –10 on the 24 hole layout, which allowed him to maintain his 2-stroke lead through the 2^nd and final round. I took my 3^rd consecutive 2^nd place finish in 3 different divisions.

I won some cash and a cedar tree sprout, which I’ll probably plant at Carly’s Playground.

As soon as I finished the tourney round, I walked across the street and played the Kenwood Heritage beachside course (#1119), which used to be just posts, but now has Chainstar baskets. This has heavily rutted natural tees and no numbers on the baskets, so I had trouble figuring out which basket to aim for. This is not much more than an over-flow course for people to play while we play tourney rounds.

We headed back north, stopping off in Kingsley to have dinner with Toddler’s parents at their farm. Todd gave me a tour of the 150 acre plot of land I and was absolutely drooooling at the incredible disc golf possibilities…especially further back, beyond the creek.

Tomorrow: Official work day at Carly’s Playground

04-19-12

Up north

I love non-stop flights. I was able to sleep in till a bit after 8. Finished packing and headed to the Sanford airport around 10. It’s a small airport, which I love. I can arrive within an hour of my flight and not have to rush or worry about making it. I wish I could find a decent rate on a flight to Traverse City but that landing ain’t cheap. So I have to fly into Grand Rapids. (GRR).

Todd Lewis picked me up and we headed to Cadillac, MI to practice the Kenwood Heritage parkside course (#1118) in the cold rain… without an umbrella or rain coat…24 holes.

KHP is extremely wooded and only marginally adorned with actual “fair-ways”, many of which were short and straight. My hands were too wet to throw with ANY degree of confidence that the disc would fly in the intended direction. We found a way to shave off holes 10-14 and got back to the car after 19 holes of soupy goodness.

Toddler headed back to TC with me in tow.

04-20-12

Back @ Carly’s Playground.

We met Toddster’s son for breakfast so that we could borrow the all-wheel drive Subaru.
There were plenty of downed trees and standing dead ones to rip apart. But since it was still drizzling, I wasn’t interested in using the chainsaw.
I went to the back of the Subaru to open the lid and it wouldn’t open. I went and unlocked it and tried it again, still locked. I went back to the driver’s side door and it was locked too.
Todd had to get a ride home to get his other siet of keys… so I just busted hump on a new path from #2 Blue Pin to #3 Pink Tee. Once TL got back, we walked & drove the course to take notes for the work day.

I would like to say ‘all we did was take notes’ but we took names and kicked some butt on the course improvement projects. Insuring that I would have a solid case of hammer-hands going into tomorrow’s one day event in Cadillac.

Tomorrow: Northern Waters Series-Cadillac

04-15-12

I understand that many people want to get out of a tourney early on Sunday so that they can get home in time to be ready for work on Monday, but I’m not a big fan of starting EARLIER on Sunday, when there’s only 1 round.

That said, the earlier start, 9am, did give us calmer conditions, which I managed to take full advantage of. I was –6 after 13 holes with no bogies.

Before the tourney started, I talked with some people involved with the tourney about the new mando holes all over the course. All but 1 of those mandos were for safety reasons. The one that I did not agree with was # 17. It was there for no other reason than to create drama.

I parked the long drive on 17 three feet behind the pin, but had missed the double mando in doing so. That unnecessary mando, merely for experimentation’s sake, cost me the tournament. I had a hard scramble to make a 4, even though I had parked the throw so close that I wouldn’t have had to let the disc go to place it in the basket.

The next hole sealed it, when I failed to shake-off that ridiculous stroke of poor luck and went against my instincts and didn’t throw the flippy roller, got into some junk, threw a perfect release, again, against my first instinct and got pushed by the wind and hit a tree and then made a poor upshot on a par 4.

Later in the round, I pulled it together, and reeled in a pretty impressive 3 on a 699’ hole with an absolute thread of a needle from 350 or so and made the 20’ straddle for the birdie. Then followed up on the final hole to win it by 2 over Matt Peckham…. Or so I thought.

Tallahassee’s Mike Paulette had shot a “blemish-free” round of 66 to tie me.  By the time both of us found out we were tied, we were both eating the lunch supplied by the club. I sat my lunch down and we went to the 1^st hole for a play off.  Mike absolutely parked the long hole # 1. My drive was short and my aggressive run at it went about 70 past. Mike took the win and $250 more than 2^nd.

When I got back to my food, someone had kicked dirt all over it.

Driving home I caught almost every single red-light, which wouldn’t have been all that annoying but since my transmission is now clunking every time it down shifts from 3^rd to 2^nd, I like to try to avoid that.  I finally get home and someone is parked in my space. She moves and I start to unpack and find a HUGE cat turd on my floor, which actually turned out to be a hairball.  So everything turned out fine.

Tomorrow: Tampa to see how Picnic Island is progressing.

04-14-12

Slept great in Carl & Michelle’s extra room. One of the better sleeps in recent history. But it didn’t really translate to great play. I could only muster a –2/72 in the first round of 24 from the long tees, primarily because the wind was whipping and swirling.

I managed to hold the last spot on the 1st card going into round two from the short tees. I only managed to shoot 3 strokes better, even though the course is probably 1,000’ shorter from the red tees. Matt Peckham had driven down from Rock Hill and took advantage of the many left handed opportunities on this course. After 48 holes on Saturday, he and local Bill Giroux (who has a surprisingly smooth and strong sidearm) shared the Master’s lead, 2 strokes ahead of me.

I wanted to go straight to Ron Russell’s place for the party but had to go to Carl’s place to shower and grab some stuff.

I zipped to Ron’s waaaaay on the other side of town. Ron’s back yard is starting to look like a few of the resorts I’ve stayed in while doing shows; beach volley ball, large slabs of decorative stone for walkways, a fire pit, a bar and hot tub etc.

I ran into a player named Jerry, who is spotting for the event. He wanted to pick my brain about the 360 (turn-around drive) I used frequently in this tournament. While he had very likely been drinking, he was respectful (possibly a bit too respectful) and although young, he seems to have a handle of the early days of disc sports.

On the inverse, Jerry and I were both blindsided by a rail-thin, drunkard whose voice resembled broken glass in a blender, as he blathered on about points that had no bearing in our disc-ussions. Each time I would attempt to side step him, his initial instinct was to reach out and try to nudge me back into the conversation that I was desperate to leave. After the 3rd time, I told him that he needed to stop touching me.

A minute later, he cornered me again with his incredibly annoying vocal rasp and conversation devoid of wit…or any actual merit. When I made a move toward my water, he reached out and nudged me again, this time with a cigarette in his hand.

“Dude! Stop touching me every time you think you’re losing me. You’ve lost me. I don’t want to hear what you have to say and you’re really pissing me off when you try to stop me from moving around. Stay away from me.”

Drunks.

That was as good a sign as any that it was time to leave the party.

So I made the drive all the way back out to Carl and Michelle’s. But I was so pissed about this asshole, who had not the faintest clue about how annoying he was being to everyone around him, that it took two and a half hours to finally doze off.

Tomorrow: Jax- day 2.

04-13-12

Did you know… that the acronym for “July, August, September, October and November” is… J.A.S.O.N.? Gotta wonder if any of the dooms-day preppers are preparing for HIM!
(Ch ch ch ch, ah ah ah ah)

My day was just as exciting but spread thinly across my day.

It took a while to finish packing & exit the abode, but got mobile before lunch, heading north for the Jacksonville Open, which will be contested in some north Florida town. I met my biz partner, Chad, at the intersection before my I-4 on ramp to drop off some office supplies and tools. Hadn’t seen him for a while. He’s got some serious bearding going on.

I met Kim, the lady who manages Springfield park, (#1,115), in Jax a bit after lunch. If I was on a paid assessment to decide if this property were conducive to disc golf, I would have to think long and hard before I could make that call.

I hear that the red and blue tees were designed by an Ultimate player, who hadn’t yet played on a real course. (I believe everything I hear) and the gold tees by some local disc golfers.

There were far fewer glaring issues with the course than I expected. One tee invites some disc vs. windshield action. I mentioned this to Kim. She said, “Yep. I’ve played it 3 times and twice it went in the road.” I love it when a possible client makes my point for me.

Given the grounds they had to work with, I found the Blue tees to be engaging. Then again, the wind was whipping around pretty hard, so I had to stay engaged.
I shot something like –7 with two 3-putts. Naturally, one of which was on the final, wide open into the wind, 370’ hole.

I thought I had seen TWO baskets on #14, driving to the parking lot, and I was right. They couldn’t make a longer tee on the hole, so they put in a longer basket. I like the idea, but it may have been an idea best used on another hole. Again,  the long pin may have seemed more friendly with a calmer breeze.

I took the looong way around the city to reach district 2 regional park for a practice round. Matt P of Innova started to join Randy Beers and myself for a round but hole two was already crowded, so we turned around and zipped over to the back 9.

The breeze was no less a factor at Fore Palms. Despite the daunting winds, I had a few nice drives followed by some wankers that went, O.B. I had some nice solid putts and some 3 putts. I’m not throwing very comfortably right now. My medial meniscus isn’t allowing me to push off into my drive. The all-important initiator of hip rotation is missing. My upper body has to work harder to achieve the expected length.

I called it quits after fishing my disc out of the lake on hole 9 and headed over to a buddy’s place. A couple years ago, I stayed on their couch the first night of a tourney… and they had a party until around 4am, so I didn’t sleep at all and ended up just leaving the tourney because I was just too tired to make well executed shots.

Tonight, they offered a nice bedroom and made me a wonderful meal. So, as luck would have it, I was about to finally take a shower after getting side tracked 4 or 5 times. The bathwater was running. I reached down and grabbed the shower switch. I began to stand back up, but before I could start pulling the shower switch, the back of my head hit the ceramic tower holder, which lifted off the hook and plummeted to the ground shattering into more than 50 pieces and less than 2 billion.

The shower would have to wait. They have two small children, so I didn’t want to take the chance that one of their feet might find a chard or two while I was scrubbing my parts.

I collected the large chunks and chips by hand and looked for a towel. I had to make a call as to which “nice” hand towel to use. I would have preferred a rag, but dad had worked his ass off and was asleep. So no asking him where the vacuum cleaner was.

I swept up the floor dry and collected the debris. Then I got half of the towel wet, and ran the floor again. Then once again with the dry half. Sure hope I got it all. Now I have to find them another one. That should be fun during a tourney weekend.

Tomorrow: Jacksonville Open- Day 1

04-08-12

I could be doing something worthwhile right now. But I chose this instead.

In a recent “gang-golf” round, there were maybe 10 people playing in a group. Stiff winds provided some bizarre entertainment. I had a 25’ putt with a big funky wind coming in at around 10:00 over a rise. I popped my polecat on solid line toward the chains. It rose just a bit, and, at around 5’ from the pin, it dropped straight down out of the sky as if it had been bitch-slapped by Zeus.

Purty entertaining, as ‘missed birdies” go.

**

So… I got an invitation to join a facebook page called “Trash Talking Disc Golfers”. Absent-mindedly, I joined, thinking it might provide some amusement.
The next day, I got an email reporting that someone had posted a comment, which read, “Get off my box, bitches”
I immediately responded “Bitches? YOU’RE the one with the box!” … send. And watched it post.

The next day I checked for follow-up comments and my comment had been taken down !!
Did I not play fair?
Too Trashy?

**
I’m planning for a trip to Tampa to check on the progress of Picnic Island and from there, I’ll probably drive up to one of my ongoing projects…in northern Michigan!!.

EGads, man!!

I may be insane with these gas prices. That and I have to have the Anti-Chrysler’s transmission rebuilt before I go to Traverse City for the big WORK day at Carly’s Playground on April 22. I don’t know how much we can get done in a day, depends on how much we NEED to get done vs. how many people we have + how well we break them down into groups and manage them thru each task.

Ye Olde Grade Openning will be June 9 & 10. Am tourney on 9th, Pro tourney on 10th. Todd “Toddler” Lewis, reports that he already has 350 people signed up to be at the Grand Opening, which will have a TON of other activities going on all day.

We’re hoping to pick up some more disc golf projects while I’m  up there.

**

Been watching the Republican race… We are in Deep Mitt.
Vote “None of the above” in both parties and just let us pick somebody.

**

If I protested the new strip-searching law that just passed, I could get arrested and strip searched. Oooh! I see a golden opportunity for some pervs that need a little ‘attention’. Ask for the delousing after the search so that it kills anything the strip-searcher may have passed on. That comment never gets old in their circles.

**

I don’t even have a good photo to post because I haven’t taken the time to download recent ones since…not recently.

OK, I’ve wasted enough of your time for one night.

Tomorrow: EVERYTHING !

04-03-12

2009 PDGA World Masters Champion, Phil Arthur is in town for a couple of days. I invited him to Down Low Doubles yesterday where he played “Cali” and promptly took our cash.

(Photo: Phil eagles hole #12 at USDGC)

Today after work, he and Bill Burbage met me at Turkey Lake, so I could give him the T2 tour.  I shot a –13/ 47!

My –14 in 09 was rated at 1089, so today’s round had to be around 1075 or so.

I have nothing that can follow that.

Tomorrow: Who cares? I shot a –13 today!

03-28-12

During last year’s Florida Recreation and Parks Association annual convention, where my biz partner and I manned the Innova booth, we met a lady from Tampa who said she was interested in building a disc golf course and was working with a local player.

We told her about World Champion Disc Golf Design and our track record vs. local players approaching a parks department. She gave me a card and we put it in our contact list.

We also met another guy from Tampa who eventually called us back and we commenced work on Picnic Island.  He gave our information to the lady in the northern part of the Tampa parks system, at her request.  Bonus!

From everything he was saying, we would probably transition from Picnic Island to her course.  She wanted to have the first course within the Tampa system, but we were busy working on the PI project.  And besides, I had called her FIVE times and never once got a response.

Climo had told me of a rumor about a course project in Tampa near the Hillsborough river, but no one I had spoken to had any knowledge of said project.

Today, I read a post from a Tampa Bay Disc Sports Club member who said he just played the “new Tampa course”…and it WASN’T Picnic…because the targets are not in yet, even though they’ve had them for months.

I looked it up in Disc Golf Course Review…no listing.

But the PDGA directory DOES have a listing.

Apparently, the lady went with the local player to design it and didn’t tell other people in the parks department that it was going in. My parks guy knew nothing of it and was rather miffed when he found out. As was I, since we had figured that this was our next project.

It is listed as 18 holes, all but 3 of which are over 400’. (avg 416′) The lone review (by the listed designer, whom I don’t know) started out by thanking the park system and then said “What a surprise…” as if he had somehow stumbled upon the course…after he had designed it… and then complemented himself by saying it was “very creative” and “fun for all, but long throwers are rewarded.”

He went on to say it could use concrete pads and directional signs. Then named the course after himself and gave the course a 5-out-of-5 review.

And people say I have an ego.   Geez.

I hope the course is at least a decent representation and not just another hastily installed course that only considers power throwers.

Meanwhile, we are taking the necessary time to get Picnic Island in properly. I spent a couple hours working on a diagram of an elevated green area that looks sort of like a horseshoe.  If properly implemented, it should be a dynamic green that will have uphill putts, downhill putts and may even allow a skip ace or two.

The PI tee signs are completed and, from my understanding, all 27 pin positions (3 per hole) have been placed. The tee frames are in position, and have been leveled and filled . The rubber mats are the big hold up, because it had to go through the bidding process and then follow the procedures to process payment. Sod will be placed around each tee frame shortly.

We are now looking at a May 1 opening.  We certainly hope you’ll find it worth the wait.

Although phase one (9 holes) is not yet complete, we have the approval to submit plans for phase two, which will (hopefully) come about more quickly and with far less headaches than the River City Nature Park phase two…which was promised 3 years ago.  Still waiting.  Though I am very proud to announce that the avid players of RCNP are in full stride in creating a new club, with plans to meet with the City commissioners and parks department and vie for stewardship of the course.

Tomorrow: Desk work. Hopefully, the gym.