One Grand Disc Golf Tour

08-29-08

This was what Johnny Carson would have called a “Slow News Day”. Then he probably would have said “However, it was so HOT today…”

To which you, the audience, would reply “How hot was it?”

“It was so hot, I saw two fire hydrants fighting over a dog.” (Love that joke)

Anyway, the last day of the 1st leg of the tour, a rock hit my fender then the windshield, putting a star in it that looked nothing like the Innova Star. I’m pretty sure it didn’t come from the car in front of me since they were about 150 yards ahead to me. Probably some miscreant kid in the bushes. I should have just slammed on the brakes, slid sideways and started shooting blindly into the bushes. But, noooooooo.

I figured it best to wait until I got home to fix it. However, the FL Rec & Parks convention was eminent and I put the windshield on the back burner for a couple of days, which gave the star time to turn into something substantially longer. The fix-it guy couldn’t get to me yesterday but made it out today… he had been working on the van for 20 minutes before I heard him pounding on my door again as I exited the shower.

I had planned to leave this afternoon for Floral City’s “Labor Day Luau” tourney, but I still had stuff to do and hadn’t lined-up a place to stay tonight. So I just figured I’d stay at home and drive over in the morning. Since I couldn’t practice the Floral City course, at least I could do a course at home. I drove over to Barnett park and played a pretty strong round of speed golf, shooting a –12/42 in 16:33. My PB on the Barnett short tees is either –13 in 15:04 or –12 in 14:35 (after kicking out a room mate that was a black-out drunk and an 82 and 0 street fighter. Trust me when I tell you…THAT was a delicate conversation)

Actually, I just checked my records on the Barnett Speed rounds.  I had forgotten but when the baskets were all short (probably for a big fat ace fund) I shot a -16 in 16:11 in May of 2006 when I was a young man.

After I got nice and sweaty, I put some time into putting with a small stack of Sonics then headed toward my Chiropractor for a tune-up, got the mop chopped and hit a buffet for some BULK food!

Once again, apologies are in order for my tardiness. I suppose this is getting redundant but I’ve been running at least a day behind in the blah’g since I’ve been home, and I’ve probably lost some of you. When at home there are more things that need to be done than when on the road with the sole purpose of hucking plastic. (new courses or tournaments)

Tomorrow: Labor Day Luau tourney in Floral City, FL.

08-28-08

Honestly people, I have NO IDEA how you do it!

I just played 117 disc golf courses in less than 2 months, driving over 7000 miles, played in several tournaments, finishing the last one and speed golfing 5 more courses that day before driving all night to get home! I got home feeling tired but otherwise GREAT!

I spend two days at home at my desk working on bills etc and my back feels if someone has been chipping away at it with dental tools! How the heck can anyone work at a desk for more than two days in a row? The less I move the worse I feel. Dunno how y’all do it.

Photo shows Hogan coaching me with my putting–>
Most of the bills have been paid, though I still haven’t braved the stack of mail. I’ll be making more stabs at sponsorship from outside the dg world. I must say that those of you that have purchased the CFR and INN-color discs have truly made it possible for me to get through the first leg with ANY intention of finishing it off in the next couple of weeks.

You may have noticed that I don’t have new courses to report on right now. That’s primarily because, with the exception of one, I’ve played every course in Florida that I’m aware of. OK, TWO actually. I assisted with a course that went into a prison near here but I’m not sure I can get back in to play it without a viable exit strategy. But, I will try! (Has there ever been a recorded incident of someone breaking INTO prison?)

Speaking of prison… Believe it or not, I have a date (to-be-announced) to play a new course at a very well known prison in the not-too-distant-future. The date is pending and may not even fall in line with the 2nd leg of the tour, but it should be news worthy! (If I am ever to be heard from again)

I’m keeping this one short so that I can catch up. The windshield folks couldn’t get to me today.

Tomorrow: More domestic junk, windshield replacement, warm up for the Luau, snap crackle pop.

08-26-08

The convention hall opened up to exhibitors at 8:30 to prepare for a 9:00 am start. I arrived at around 8:50 with a jug of joe and belly full of Perkins Country Club Omelette. Gudstuf.

More schmoozing. Some folks who had forgotten or run out of cards dropped some by. I had been working on a course, getting 14 holes designed when the park manager moved to another park system. I had to start all over with the new guy. However, this morning I ran into THE two ladies who would be most influential in the approval process. The new guy came back to the booth later and told me that I had made a good impression and chose the right ladies to talk to. Cool!

If I get to do this course in Mt. Dora, Florida and I get to use the existing design… Y’all are going to have some fun!!!

Sun King and I started talking about ways to stream line our efforts, more or less deferring certain tasks to each other. We both enjoy the promotional end of disc golf but he’s more the sales guy and I’m more about putting the courses in. So, we’re working on details to play off each other’s strengths in hopes of getting more courses in the ground and keeping them running afterward.

The show broke at noon and we tore down the booth. Ryan took us out to lunch. We ended up at Friday’s by pretty much the same method as I chose my health insurance. I gotta start wearing a cup!
One of our wait staff was taping red crepe paper to the other side of the window by our booth, thus casting a shadow and looking as if she was doing a little Friday’s teaser shadow dance for us.

Ryan had to catch a flight and Mike had to head back to Brooksville to get ready to run this weekend’s “Labor-day Luau” tourney. MB and I drove down the notoriously dangerous Hwy 192 (tourist alley) to get this shot…located about a half a mile east of US 27 on hwy 192. –>

For the first time in probably 3 months I didn’t have anything pressing to do for the rest of the day…OK…other than catch up on my blah blah blah’g. I did work on it, but the cable internet guy couldn’t make it by today because I was still at the convention center when he had planned to be at the house. Plus, I was awaiting photos taken by A. Raye from Winder, GA.

Even though the web-mail program is unbearably slow, I went through my deleted email files and ended up finding her shots (As seen on 08-24, which you should have read by now), which I had inadvertently deleted, not recognizing the address.

Though I was trying to catch up, I fell asleep in the lazy-boy shortly thereafter… kind of like my snoring, slacker cat…Hogan

…which is why I didn’t get the post up on Wednesday.
SO THERE!

Tomorrow: Cracked windshield, more bills, more blog work

08-26-08

I neglected to mention the stack of bills and letters that I came home to yesterday, didn’t I?  That’s OK.  I haven’t had time to look through them anyway.  I pretty much know how much I owe and to whom.  They don’t let you forget.

The big one was my health insurance.  Through a series of miracles no less spectacularly lucky than my semi-final round at “Cold Sore”, I have managed to keep my individual health plan active in spite of the (perfectly legal) 20% raise in each subsequent year’s premium.  I had to study my options, which may as well have been written in Klingon.  I closed my eyes and stabbed the options page with a dart until I hit upon an option that had a lower premium and told them that was to be my new plan.  I probably shouldn’t have had the options page sitting on my lap.

I had to run my AT&T 3G USB adapter to the AT&T store to have them replace the SIMM card.  This I did while simultaneously running “DISC WARRIOR” on my Mac Book Pro in the car.  Afterward, the two started playing nicey-nice with each other again.

I quickly emailed the text tweaks to Chadly from the parking lot.  I went home to clean up then drove over to Chads and got the files on my flash-drive and headed to the Kinkos nearest my house.  I got them to print the job mucho pronto and headed to the Coronado to meet with Ryan Baker of Innova and Mike “Sun-King” Barnett, who was also in attendance at our booth.

This year’s show was much smaller than previous years.  We may as well blame the fuel prices since they have affected nearly everything else around them.  But we established and re-established some very good contacts.  I got a lot of biz cards and handed even more out.  People are far more knowledgeable about disc golf than ever before.  As little as 5 years ago, we had to tell most people what we were about.  Now, people are walking up to us ready to tell us THEIR disc golf stories.  This is a very good sign.

I love giving people this statistic… “In the year 2000, there weren’t even 1,000 courses in the ground.  Now, only 8 years later, there are well over 2,500 courses!  That’s over 2.5 times more courses than just 8 years ago.
A steady 15-18% growth EVERY YEAR for the last 20!!”  Good stats, huh?

The unfortunate side to that stat is the number of courses that are being installed by people who are not yet up to the task.  I won’t belabor the issue since I’ve made such a point of it the entire trip.

The show was over at 9pm.  We got out of there shortly thereafter.  I drove the 40 minutes home and was too sleepy to do anything but shower and go to bed…

Soooooo, that’s why I didn’t get the blog posted on Tuesday.

Tomorrow:  FRPA-Day 2…start time…9:00 am.

08-25-08

I have a few things to do at home during my pit stop here in Orlando.
1st is prepare for the, Florida Recreation & Parks Association convention, at the Innova booth which starts tomorrow at 6 pm.

My Michigander transplant buddy, Chad Greer, who also did the art work for BOTH of my 1kdgt discs, is also doing a web site for the Florida Disc Golf Design Group so that we can have higher quality courses in and around the #1 tourist destination on the planet.  You’re welcome!

Since I rolled in just after dawn, I slept until around 1pm or so and headed over to Chad’s place with a brain-full of caffeine and ginkgo to make some additions to the FDGDG site and also did some tweaks on the new FDGDG biz card and 1 page teaser.

While I was laying tracks around the country, my room mate ordered a “bundle” deal with AT&T (TV, home phone and internet) however, it was more like a “bungle” when the tech failed to pay attention as my roomie instructed him to connect the TV to my room without disconnecting my road runner internet cable. So, when I got home, my high speed cable was essentially NO SPEED AT ALL!

Wouldn’t you know…My AT&T USB unit that had posted all of my previous blah blah blah’gs from the road decided it had had enough and failed to find a signal here at home.  I was sans-internet altogether.

Eventually, I had to get on my room mate’s computer to look at the new FDGDG site to finish text-tweaking, which took me to around 1:00 am. I didn’t have the photos needed to post from his computer that night…

Soooooo, that’s why I couldn’t post on Monday night.

Tomorrow: Florida Recreation and Parks Association convention at the Coronado Hotel at Disney World.

08-24-08

I’ll explain as we catch up…

We last heard from our hapless hero on Saturday at the GA State Championships…

We join him once again on Sunday morning…

Got some decent sleep for a change. Vickie made me breakfast (obviously, now in contention for the “best hostess” of the tour) The wind was down considerably from yesterday, but still a factor. Practicing the new hole #23 my freestyle “jam” nail raked across my thumb pulling the skin back and giving some capillaries a chance to release some pressure. I had just enough time before the round to wash my hands, and put on a band-aid™ brand flexible adhesive strip.
The “two-minute” warning came just as I stepped up to the tee so I didn’t have a chance to throw with the band-aid. Third off the tee, my first throw came out of my hand about a day and a half early and hit the ball field fence directly to my left. Off came the band-aid, which had been on for all of 3 minutes. Then I had to rub the adhesive off of my thumb before throwing. I parked my tricky upshot (the 15-foot drop starts down pretty much at the backside of the pole) and proceeded to shoot another –9, though it was 24 holes today. Kevin (the real McCoy) also shot –9 and easily walked with the State title and a week’s vacation package at a resort location of his choosing.
I’m glad he won the package because, Courtney (his woman) really wanted a nice honeymoon and if I had won it (I’m just guessing here) I would have probably had a hard time getting her to go with me.

Craig Gangloff and I share the record for holding the most open disc golf titles in different states at 5 apiece, which is the primary reason I went ahead and played open on this one. Before the tourney I told John (the TD) that I’d play whatever division Brad wasn’t playing. But I signed up before I found out he was coming. Of course, I knew we would not finish the tournament without having an intense moment that had to be blamed on me. I edged out Brad for 2nd place, which paid a bit more than 1st in Masters.

Huge thanks to the Nisewonder family, who took me in, fed me, ran a fun event and had everyone at the event sign a GA states disc for me in honor of the tour. How cool is that?

I had planned to exit early and head home to Orlando before it got too late…yeah, right. I found out there were more courses nearby so, I had to investigate. The first stop was in Maysville, GA at The Grove Fitness center (#942), which has a rudimentary course starting at the tennis courts and winds around toward the front of the property. I parred the first two holes and deuced out from there, starting the run on the 380’-ish downhill #3. The tees are granite markers flush with the ground, so you have to look for the bald spots in the ground to find the tees. The course itself is nothing special but just across the parking lot (and I’m assuming owned by the same company) is a stunning piece of property with fantastic hills featuring a GROVE of large shade-trees and a pristine lake near a church. I would kill to have a shot at designing the 2nd nine holes on this piece of land!! If that were to happen, I believe that this course would be a “destination” course. (whoops! I forgot… “Thou shalt not KILL in order to build a course”)…but…wouldn’t you??? —>

It was late on the Sabbath, so no one was around. I took one more look around at the lake and grudgingly departed. Just south of Maysville is Hurricane Shoals State Park (#943).

The directory lists 18 holes. There are now 27. The front 9 are wide-open meadow fairways with tall grass surrounding the mowed fairways. The back 18 are very wooded holes that are mostly short (to be fair, I played the red tees in order to conserve day-light) and a bit too wooded for my tastes.
As I was finishing the front 9 I met Chuck Smith who claims a whopping 3,000 hours invested into building and maintaining the course. He said that he has sold 6 courses in as many years in the area. Chuck had only played 4 courses prior to building HSSP dgc. He is very enthusiastic and sung a familiar tune when he said that he’s pretty much a one-man-army when it comes to working on the course. The design could definitely use some help but I’ve seen muuuuuch worse on this trip.
He told me that there was a private course only 200 yards away from the HSSP main entrance. I asked to see if I could get on to play it. He attempted to reach the owner while I ran the rest of his course.

When I finished, he said that he had reached her and I was free to come visit.
I loaded up into the van as he pulled out on his “hog”. He sat at the entrance for about 5 minutes as I tried to get the key to turn in the van. For whatever reason, the ignition locked-up and the key would not budge.
As it turns out he is a certified Chrysler technician! (There’s some odds for ya!) He disconnected the battery to allow what he guessed were 6 different computers within the van to reset themselves. Once the battery had been re-connected…well, it still didn’t start.
We yanked the steering wheel around a bit for another 5 minutes until the key finally turned and it started right up. (???!!!) Sure enough we exited the park and pulled into the 2nd or 3rd driveway, leaving my van parked “nose-out” just in case the Mr. Hyde side of the van decided to rear its ugly head after this round.

Oak Grove Studios (#944) is owned by Raye Baldwin Her photography studio is located on her farm, where I was brayed at by donkeys and barked at by dogs. The course is normally 18 holes, but 3 baskets were out on loan, so I played 15 of the holes as fast as I could considering I had just finished 24 holes at the GA states, played 9 holes at a smaller course and ran another 27 of speed golf at HSSP. She broke out her little mini-cam, which had me commenting on what a sophisticated piece of equipment this professional photographer was using. –> (Photo by R. Baldwin)

A couple of the holes behind the fenced-off back of the property border a creek. There are a few wooded holes but most are pretty open. Water comes into play a few times with the pond and creek. There will be a tourney this week on the property. Events on private land have their own special appeal due to the relaxed, informal atmosphere. There were a hodgepodge of different baskets, most were of the less expensive portable sort. My utilitarian DX Eagle with the Gran Canyon hot stamp found early wood on an early fairway and sustained a stability-altering injury that placed it permanently on the inactive list. I signed the disc, thanking Raye for the chance to add her course to the list, and cranked up the Anti-Chrysler mk 3 with no more drama and continued southeast toward the two courses in Winder, GA.

Fort Yargo State Park (#945) has a very nice 18-hole course with shiny new DISCatchers and mulched paths. The transition to hole 3 isn’t what you’d call tricky, but if you’re playing hastily as I was, the next tee I saw turned out to be #10. I found this out after I had parked the long narrow downhiller. Hole 9 paralleled 10 back up the hill, so I just went over, threw that, jumped back on 3 and made my way huffin-n-puffin (or puttin) through the woods. Most of the fairways were generous enough to allow a well- executed shot to count but, as with most wooded courses, a few required more scrutiny than I had time to invest. Shot a –5/49 in 21:29. Two bogies. One because I didn’t know where I was going, and one because my hands were wet.

There was very little light left, so I nearly dove back into the van and raced back out of the park to Victor Lord park (#946), which was just a few blocks away. The first tee I saw near the entrance was #7. Again, to conserve daylight I parked close by and started there at a trot. Since the directory states that “all 18 baskets should be in by fall 2008”… I’m going to guess that we haven’t reached that point yet. Many of the ones that HAVE been installed should be pulled and relocated. I soon lost my momentum as I stumbled around to find the correct fairways and next holes. I saw two #8s, and probably two #10s, one of which travels over the park road and parking lot from the long tee. I got lost looking for 11 and up. I started back at one and played through 6 as it sprinkled on me in the waning light. I may have to return after the course is fully installed to get a better impression.

I wandered around for a few more minutes to try to find more disc golf holes but what I still had for energy, I lacked in daylight and patience. Thus endeth, the first leg of the 1kdgt!

I picked up a sandwich and lots of caffeinated beverages and started the drive back to Orlando at around 10pm. I had to put a couple of major action DVD’s into my cockpit computer just to stay awake for the 7+ hour drive. I hit my turnpike exit at dawn and was in bed within a half hour of being home.

Sooooo…THAT’S why I failed to post this blog on Sunday night.

Tomorrow: (OK 5 hours later the same day) Prep for the Florida Recreation and Parks Association Convention

BTW…apologies to those who faithfully log-in to my bloggin, for the length of time it has taken to catch up since I’ve gotten home. I’d clone myself but my clone probably wouldn’t be earning much money or dating either. No sense in both of us being broke and horny!

08-23-08

Since I missed posting an entry on Thursday, I stayed up on Friday until 3:20am pulling a double blogger to catch up.

Saturday morning the alarm went off at 6:15. Within 15 minutes, I was following Vicki (Ms. TD) to the tourney site. I got the chance to run around the course but only played holes 1 & 2 at Stephens County Park dgc (#940). I was experimenting with a 170g Sonic as a putter and having some pretty good success. I like the stability level of the Sonic and it is less effected by the wind than I would have thought. I ended up shooting the best 1st round @ -8/46 in winds around 25-30 mph since Hurricane Fay is whirling around just a couple of hours to the south, dumping in excess of 30 inches of rain on my area.

The Georgia skies, however were not dumping buckets of rain on us. Quite the contrary. A bit overcast in the morning and sunny in the afternoon.
Kevin McCoy was 2 strokes back after the first round at 48. The second round however was quite a different story. The wind seemed milder at times but still substantial. I had two in a row that bounced back out of the chains. The rest of my round had a similar flavor. Kevin McCoy improved his score with a –9. I guess with less than 3 hours sleep, my edge was slipping. Once I supposedly knew what I was supposed to do out there I ended up shooting a +1.

Brad Hammock moved up into 2nd and I’m two strokes behind him. Tomorrow we play only one round of 24 with 6 holes we didn’t play today. Well, maybe I’ll at least play those well.

I had enough strength in me to trudge the nearby Liberty Independent Baptist church (#941) 9-hole church course, which was starting to succumb to nature on a few holes->.

We went back to the house on 13 acres in the woods for pizza and more of that cream cheese desert.
I was lights out around 10 (without finishing today’s blah’g)

Tomorrow: GA states finale heading south toward Orlando just in time to help clean up after Hurricane Fay.

08-22-08

Dave’s guest room has a mattress called the “Gibralter 5000”, suggesting that it’s a large rock. I think it has some “memory-foam” on top of that because I was out within moments of laying down and I slept like a baby. And by that I don’t mean that I cried all night and wet the bed.

I slept right up until the point I wanted to leave. Dave yelled me outta bed and I hastily packed up my stuff and a cup of his joe and hit the road. I have a cousin in the Lexington/Richmond, KY area and had hoped to at least drop by for a quick howdy but I couldn’t reach him on the horn. In order to give him more time to reply before I blew thru town, I stopped at the Dixie Magnet School (#937) to play their course.
I rang the doorbell at the school to let them know that I was going to play the course. The faceless voice on the intercom knew nothing about it and although perky, she didn’t seem to want to be bothered even though school was not yet in session. It took quite a while to connect ANY of the dots (tees to baskets) None of the cement tees were marked and only a couple of the baskets were marked. A few tees and baskets seemed to be missing. How do you misplace/steal a 4×6 cement tee pad? I’m hesitant to list this one because it is so poorly maintained and is barely playable but since I drove there and threw a few shots from the pads to where I thought the basket should be, threw a few shots from where I thought the pad should be, and I actually found a couple of tees and baskets that looked as if they were intended to go together…I listed it and moved on.
For any fledgling course designers in the Lexington area, there’s a good opportunity to come in and fix that thing up.

It took me less time to find the Waynesville dgc (#938) from the highway than it took to find the 2nd tee. The second hole was across a public street, over a bridge and in another section of the park. No arrows or directions of any kind.
Wdgc is a prime example of what NOT to do…or more to the point…where NOT to go! This is a multi-use park with pretty much NO extra space for disc golf. And yet they installed 18 holes which brings into play a walking trail on at least 2/3 of the holes, a parking lot, the public road leading to the park, a dog park, a rodeo stadium, another parking lot, a railroad track, a horse shoe pit, 2 tennis courts, a softball field, a running track, a football/soccer field, a 3rd parking lot, a different walking path and a bridge.

Tom, the guy who works on the course was just happy they have a place to play. Yeah, I actually do see his point. But, for anyone who learns to play at a venue like this, it will be forever perfectly acceptable to build more courses like this because that is what they were weaned on, hence it’s “normal”.

Imagine my surprise (or complete lack thereof) when I found out that this was another Eagle Scout project. I think it’s GREAT that ES’s are getting involved with disc golf. But how many more of these liability-laden ES-projects-gone-bad do I need to report on before the DGCD group steps in and lets them know that they must have guidance? Designing a course is NOT simple! If you think it was easy to design a course, chances are…you weren’t doing your due diligence.
Are we all just eagerly awaiting our first big lawsuit? I guess when you are desperate to get the first course in your area, none of that stuff matters. It’s all a matter or perspective I suppose. Like Chris Rock said, “If Bill Gates only had Oprah’s money, he’d jump out the window with a noose around his neck and shoot himself on the way down.”

I guess I was so amazed to see the Innova Star that when highway 23 took a zag, I missed and probably didn’t realize for about 30 minutes. I took a “short-cut” that no doubt saved me miles but not time. I did however get some killer scenery in the form of a creek just off of the Blue Ridge mountains. When I realized that this navigational blunder would mean that I wouldn’t reach Toccoa, GA in time to practice for tomorrow’s rounds, I stopped by another course along the way just before dark.
The random selection turned out to be Apple Mountain Resort (#939) in Clarksville, GA, which has one of the more acclaimed golf courses in GA. I was excited to see that this resort had disc golf when I pulled into the golf course. As it turned out, disc golf was on the other side of the road around the resort. It was nearly dusk when I pulled in but the over-cast sky made it near dark. I ran the course throwing light colored discs.
The first 5 holes were in the open, the next 4 were a bit wooded, the remaining 9 were in the deep woods. It was mostly short, but had a couple you had to crank. On the longest wooded hole I got stung 3 times by something I hope I killed before I just threw forward with no real regard for its trajectory, and kept running.
The girl at the concession stand was astounded that I returned so quickly. I had told her earlier about my quest and she bestowed upon me a heartfelt, “Dude, that is so awesome”. When I told her that I finished the round in about 20 minutes and got stung, I thought she would get all woozy. “Woah, you are hard-core” she replied. I was afraid to tell her that I just won a world title because I wasn’t sure she could handle it.

It took a while to get to John Nisewonder’s (GA states TD) place in the woods south of Toccoa. Once there, his wife presented me with another big tasty dinner and some cream cheese pastries that were so dee-lish that a nearby pan of perfectly good brownies went untouched. Again, fat-n-happy, it’s bloggin time!!

Tomorrow: Georgia State Championships

08-21-08

I don’t spring for a hotel often but I really needed a good night’s rest after playing 6 courses today (4 of which were SPEEEEED golf)

Heading toward Louisville, I checked the Disc Golf Course Review page for nearby courses and set my sites on Buffalo Trace dgc (#935) in Palmyra, IN. As I was trying to stretch out a guy by the name of Terry pulled up and offered to show me around the course and before we could finish hole #1 a guy named Scott joined us.

The front 9 starts in the open by the lake, but moves quickly into a stand of maples, poplars and pines. Some rolling hills give the course a bit of personality. The difficulty level is on par with the demographic you might expect at a camp-ground. All in all a fun course to play, though I would like to see how this course would play if Greenwell had been able to design/build it as was originally intended.

I had intended to play another course in Edmondsville (or something like that) close to Louisville, but since had just I played a regular speed round (because A: I had company and B: my muscles felt like rusted antique bed springs) I didn’t have time and blew it off. I dropped by Greenwell’s house and he drove us over to the highly acclaimed Charlie Vettener dgc (#936)

The first thing I liked about the course wasn’t actually on the course. The circular drive that brings you by hole #1 surrounds a green space that is roughly the size of a football field. In this space are two warm up baskets that give ample warm-up room for those who wish to throw or putt. The baskets are at different levels, giving you the chance to work on up, down or flat putts.

Vettener is NOT a course you’re going to figure out on your first round. It demands many types of throws and offers several options on most holes. A great mix of open and wooded tunnel shots with terrain changes on nearly every hole. Risk vs reward is the hallmark of the high-caliber course and Vettener has it in spades. There are NO poke-n-hope holes. A well-thrown shot WILL be rewarded. And on the tighter holes, a poor shot WILL be penalized. Pretty much EVERY hole provides ample opportunity for score movement in either direction without bringing luck into it. <- Note the complete lack of rogue trees in an already tight fairway.

Course designer David Greenwell stated that the strategy on this course is to collect birdies early because the back 9 will strip them from you!
The Charlie Vettener dgc is the result of 10 years worth of fighting governmental red tape. The current configuration is the 3rd design and location.

As the days on tour wear on, I have to say that it is making me a bit uncomfortable that Ben is not listing the number of courses he has played. But I expect that is in direct proportion to the disappointment he is feeling that I’m out here doing this. I don’t believe that either one of us intended for this to be a race, per se. I’ve had my sites on 1,000 for quite a while. For the longest time, I thought I would reach 1,000 first by natural progression of just playing courses while I travel. But when I heard that Ben was OTR with that in mind, it lit a fire under me for sure. So, please don’t think that I’m only doing it because Ben is doing it. I’ve wanted that mark for quite a while and had been running at nearly half of permanent courses for much of my dg career. Keep in mind, this was when courses were very spread out unlike today where there are now HUGE concentrations of courses.

Man I love scoping out D.O.T. landscaping especially in KY and areas with great topography. I have gotten many fairway design ideas from daydreaming about course design while driving to play another course.

We were joined by Scott, (a different one) Dave’s protégé, so the round took a while since neither Dave and I were on our best games. We passed on the showers and went to a friend’s house (who has the coolest basketball hoop ever) for a really tasty dinner consisting of flank steaks and vegetables from his garden. Doesn’t that look GREAT?

After I got fat-n-happy we bailed back to Dave’s, showered and I powered up my computer to finish this blog. The date at the top of the page is as far as I got… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Tomorrow: More in KY?
Big drive to GA for the GA states over the weekend.

08-20-08

It was late by the time I got to Alan Pier’s little sanctuary in the woods, but that didn’t stop us from talking for a couple of hours, going through some of his collection, scoping out the store in his huge barn, getting a mini tour of the house and having a huge meal courtesy of his mom who just happened to bring over enough for Alan, his wife and an extra plate without having the slightest idea that I was coming over.
He cut up a tomato that one of his neighbors brought over and I can safely say that this is the first time I’ve ever eaten a tomato that was so tasty that it made me believe it’s a fruit
Oh, let’s not forget the apple pie!

So, Alan has a hot tub on the upper back deck. After playing 4 dg courses, I couldn’t resist. He told me to sit in the “therapy” seat. When he turned on the jets I had to brace myself to keep from being pushed to the other side of the tub! I wish I could stick around for the “Pieradise” tourney this coming weekend but I need to be in Florida next Tuesday to share a booth with Innova at the Florida Recreation and Parks Association so that I can promote course design.

Alan had to work this AM but he called his friend Jim to show me chauffer me around the Pieradise dgc (#929). Tee 1 goes off directly from his back porch and into a stand of tall trees. Private courses are a bear to keep up but much of this course is manicured far better than many of the parks. Alan’s “Spider-3” baskets are widely believed to be the best basket out there.

I worked my way down to Noblesville, IN to play the Morse Park and Beach (#930) course. 9 dual numbered DISCatchers each with 2 tees which alternate long and short to balance the front and back. This compact course is the perfect set-up for the “going-to-the-beach” mentality. It provides some light challenges without asking too much.

Dr. James A Dillan park (#931) is a wide-open brand-new park in the midst of an also new high-end neighborhood. Red and Blue tees, shiny new DISCatchers, multiple pin placements, water, woods, open spaces…with some maturing, and maybe a few more trees in the open areas this will be a nice course.

And the prize for the most irresponsible disc golf course design goes to… Northwestway Park (#932) in Indianapolis, IN. Most of the fairways, especially the back 9 travel directly down or across the paved walking trail that surrounds the park. There are large unused wooded areas and meadows, but the designer chose (literally) the path of least resistance instead of putting the course where they wouldn’t be constantly throwing at bikers and pedestrians! Mark these words…unless someone redesigns this thing soon, someone is going to incur a serious injury. And it won’t be the fault of the disc golfer.

At some point, it will have to come down to the manufacturers of targets to insure that we don’t have this kind of frighteningly dangerous courses being installed. The Disc Golf Design Group is filled with some of our sport’s best and brightest, but at this stage of the game, a good course design is no more than a suggestion. We are only put to use if the park WANTS to use us. Last year, Innova set a precedent by canceling a shipment upon receiving word that a course design was just too dangerous. Short term, this might slow down business but, in the long run, the overall quality of the sport will improve dramatically.

Jumping off the soapbox and driving west to Avon Township Hall (#933). The front 9 is mostly open and the back 9 is mostly without openings. I would guess that the front 9 uses about 3 to 4 times the land as the back as the wooded fairways nearly share (un)fair-ways. Once again, someone takes the time to build a course but won’t take the time to tell people how to get there! The directory gives you the Town Hall address but hole 1 is at the back of the park at another entrance, which I didn’t have time to track down because I wanted to reach Indian Springs Golf Club (#934) in Trafalgar, IN before dark.
The route I needed to take had a bridge out and I had to find an alternative route through some very slow rural roads. I made it to ICGC at around 8pm. The proprietor knew I was coming and why I was so insistent that I get this round in. She grabbed a cart and I strapped my bag down and RRRRRIPPED around the 9 holes (playing the dual tees and baskets) in less than 40 minutes!
I love playing disc golf on golf courses! Beautifully manicured grass, big booming shots and golf carts. If you get the opportunity to play it…do. It’s out in the middle of nowhere but it’s a place you’d like to be. If you feel as if you’ve taken a wrong turn along the way to the course, you’re probably right on track.

Tomorrow:
Buffalo Trace-Palmyra, IN
Garry E Cavan-Georgetown, IN
Charlie Vettiner pk-Louisville, KY

more probably