One Grand Disc Golf Tour

11-27-08

Thanksgiving Day.

I for the ??th year in a row, I went over to my roomie’s brother’s place for Thanksgiving day dinner.
Before dinner we all stated what we grateful for. It occurred to me pretty much as I was saying it that I am extremely thankful to have so many friends around the country. Granted, some “friends” I have only just met and others are friends by association. It doesn’t really matter does it? What matters is that the spirit of friendship that made Frisbee so great when I started in the 70’s still lives in the hearts of a great many of today’s players. (The rest of you SHAPE UP!!!)

What I’m NOT thankful for is that the blasted anti-Chrysler is acting up yet again! Today’s featured mechanical foible is the heater core. Tis leaking.

“But G-Ho…You’re in Florida! What possible need could you have for a heater?” Ah, my naive northern frigid friend. I have plans to LEAVE Florida again soon and once you step foot out of Florida it becomes a blizzardy tundra this time of year.

That footage of me and Ben playing at IDGC??? Johnny B should get an academy award for digitally removing the 9 foot high snow drifts that were ACTUALLY on the course. OK, I’m off my meds again. All I really wanted to do was say thanks and look what happened.

Anyhow…I DO have plans to go to Charleston, SC for a tourney and maybe play a few more courses but a leaky heater core means I shouldn’t use my HEATER or defroster. It also means I’m gonna have to start thinking about either getting rid of the van or getting rid of this lifestyle. I’ve already retired once. Of course I was back in less than 3 months (probably sooner)

Anyway, after I got back from T-day dinner, I put in a DVD and started scanning batches of film. This went on for about 8 hours. It’s a really slow process. I’m still working on scanning batches from 2001.
Once they are scanned, each scan needs to be separated into individual photos, cropped, color adjusted and saved with a name to reflect the photo batch and number on the roll as well as the content of the photo.

The only real way I know of to make money off of these photos is to do live shows with them, which I’m not really doing right now. If you have any ideas on how to make money with my photos let me know.
(frivolist@cfl.rr.com) I’ll invite you over to my mansion that I bought using your ideas.
Meanwhile, I have to stare at the inside of my eyelids for a few hours.
Dddddddddddddddddddssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

Those d‘s & ss’s were not put there on purpose. It’s late and my ring finger gets heavier than my eyelids when I nod out.

Tomorrow: More scanning.

PS: Did I forget to mention that I’m thankful that I’m not a turkey?

Thanks to everyone who supported me on the “ONE GRAND DISC GOLF TOUR”.  Believe me when I tell you that it ALL made a difference.

The future of this blah blah blah’g is uncertain.  To be sure, it is a very time consuming effort.

I took a week off after doing the blah blah blah’g nearly every day since July 4th.  Frankly, there has been a bit of a let down after hitting the goal.  (What am I going to do with my life now?)

Here’s a recap of this past week…

Wednesday, 11-19-08:
I left Augusta around 7am (stockpiled with the complementary breakfast vittles from the hotel) and headed down a bunch of back roads toward Albany, GA to check out a course for Innova.  The Joshua Franklin memorial disc golf course at The Parks at Chehaw obviously has some very strong local support as the course was paid for by all volunteer efforts.

Joshua Franklin and his family had an outing at another Georgia park that featured disc golf.  He and his family played a round on the outing before Josh headed for home.  Joshua had a fatal car crash on the way home.  The family wanted to do something to commemorate Joshua and disc golf was the last thing they did together as a family.  Thus planting the seeds for the huge community effort to allow Joshua Franklin’s name to live on through disc golf.

To begin, there is a wonderful fence and gate leading to the 1st tee area.  The map at the kiosk is one of the nicest graphics I’ve seen on a course.  Currently, golf discs are on sale at the zoo gift shop but eventually park manager Ben Kirkland plans to deck out a nearby 1800’s cabin as a full-on club house.

The course itself looks pretty clean with one major exception.  Several of the holes are currently unplayable due to their annual Christmas light displays.  These holes will not be playable until the first or second week in January.  Some might not consider this a design flaw, but I do.  It is all too easy to drop a course into a multi-use area without consideration of how the other activities will affect play.  I am anxious to play the course but didn’t even try, partially since I wouldn’t be able to play ALL the holes and partially because I didn’t have time anyway.

I kept driving south and made it to the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park with about enough daylight left to walk the new 9 holes.  Wow!  This is an ambitious design.  There are several par 4’s with twisty fairways through the thick woods.  Granted it is still very new but there are several large trees in the middle of some tight fair-ways while some dead trees were left to overhang other fairways.   Those of you who know me know that I LOVE epic courses.  I enjoy playing disc golf at SOSMP (I’ve won every pro event so far) but I don’t see this course working for the intended demographic, which is recreational festival attendees.

This course will be the site for Juliana Korver’s “La Vie en Rose” womens disc golf tournament.  I ran into the park manager and he vowed that the course will be be far friendlier by tournament time.  Unless someone offers me bucks to be elsewhere, I plan to be at the tourney to assist.

Again, I didn’t have time to play the new 9.  Besides, I have already counted the course on my list even though the new 9 wasn’t yet a part of it.

I headed down more pitch-black country roads to Crystal River for the PDGA Major; the Players Cup.

Thursday, 11-20-08:

It became obvious that I had been too eager to get on the course when I yanked a muscle in my upper back on the 2nd tee.  I hadn’t warmed up properly and paid the price.  It wasn’t even remotely as bad as the USDGC muscle strain, so I continued to play and tried to be smooth rather than powerful.  That didn’t work out so well.  But, hey…it’s practice!

I planned to lie down in the van (my hotel room) for a while afterward, but someone said they were going out to play the mini course. Pass on mini golf? Me? NOT likely!

As usual, the drives were adequate but my putting stunkified.  I held down a mediocre +2 score and figured that might be enough to make the cut but had no interest in trying again to better my chances.

We had the players meeting and banquet, where tournament director Mike Barnett informed us that, Cindy, his co-TD and wife was celebrating her birthday during this huge event.  Either by luck of the draw or not requesting a specific tee time, I was slated to be in the first group off at 8 am.  Mike Barnett is known for his willingness to work with people to resolve issues, but I definitely tested that quality tonight.

My body NEEDS a 3 hour head-start to get up, eat, warm up (run), stretch out, throw, putt and focus on the task at hand.   Scott Papa heard that I was hoping for a change and offered up his spot at 10:10.  I gladly pounced on it.  Though he stipulated that if I made more $ because of it, I owed him an unspecified percentage.  (That’s a bad contract to enter into, which I didn’t)

Another night in the van wouldn’t have been so bad.  My futon is comfy enough.  But the temps dropped into the low 40s.  Fortunately, I have an old ratty Coleman sleeping bag that has kept me warm in Colorado at 17 degrees…well, all but the top of my head!  Brain Freeeeeeze!!

Friday, 11-21-08:
I was incredibly thankful to NOT go off with the first group at 8am.  It was freakin’ cold!!  Not to mention the dew on the ground, which makes rooster tails when you deploy a roller.

As is tradition at the Player’s Cup, I started my day at Grannies Country Kitchen.  Lots of good food, fast & cheap.  I did all the running, stretching, throwing & putting that I had time for before starting the round.   The first fairway had a tail wind so I threw a less stable Wraith on my 360 delivery, which promptly turned flat and went long OB.  As I was readying to attempt my 3rd stroke, a golf ball landed a few feet from me.  The first fairway borders the driving range and even though it was closed today, someone insisted on hitting balls anyway.

I waited until SOMEONE ELSE approached the guy to let him know what was up.  I got up and down in 3 on the par 5 to take a par with a penalty.  The rest of the round was sort of bland.  The Red Hawk course has plenty of birdie opportunities for the big guns but I really have to choose my battles out here.  Those battles that I did choose were pretty much a draw.

The Plantation Golf Resort is such a suweeet venue for a large disc golf event!  There is an old world charm about the plantation-style hotel, which borders several inlets of crystal clear spring water.  There are villas that literally run along the first hole of the disc golf course.  So we can sit on the back porch of the room and watch people practice putting or go off of the first tee.  There is even another set of satellite villas down the road, which are across a lagoon from 17’s basket and 18’s tee. The 18-hole disc golf course runs roughly along the lines of the 9-hole “Lagoons” practice course.

This year’s layout had a few changes.  Hole one has never been the same two years in a row.  This year’s layout was a par 5 and the pin was back near its original position.  Last year’s experimental “Bun-Crs” were revised into standard OB’s marked by orange flags.  As usual, all tees, sand traps and greens on the golf course were OB.

The only real controversy on the course was the change to one of the signature holes, #14.  Traditionally, this hole employed a long open drive to set up for a tunnel shot.  The target had been moved back and to the right to allow people to go around the woods to the right bringing a golf green into play.  Unfortunately, since this route was more open, it took the tunnel (and any finesse) almost completely out of play.  It became pretty much about power.

To “fix” this, OB lines were drawn behind the hole (too close in my opinion…maybe 15 feet) but left other areas that were much worse throws completely safe.  It was still a par 4 but played more like a 4.5.  It would seem that I played it as a par 5.

Ironically, Scott and I both shot even par 66′s  on our first rounds.  So we ended up paired together on tomorrow’s round along with (another amusing irony) two other pros from Sarasota (my home-town), Bryan Moore and  Fabricio Abdala.

It was a great day to be a Jenkins as Avery absolutely CaaaRUSHED the course with an –11/55 and Val’s –2/64 gave her an 11 stroke margin over 2nd.

I went out to dinner with one of my longest standing friends (whom I’m determined to get into the Hall of Fame) Tim Willis (co-founder of the Fab FL tour and the Sarasota Sky Pilots with 500+ members) along with Steve Slasor (winner of the very first PDGA tourney) and Randy Beers (a strong GM who usually plays master)

Another freaking cold night that dropped well into the 30’s.  The sleeping bag did it’s job…eventually.

Saturday, 11-22-08
Yesterday’s bland even-par round still moved the tee time to a little later.  In spite of the cold, windy conditions, I had a great time going around with Scott, Bryan and Fabricio.  Scott and I stayed neck & neck for most of the first round but Scott found some trouble on the back and I managed to fend off mistakes.  For the second day in a row, I was safely over the green in two on the “green monster” par 5 #13.  This time however, my putter failed to miss the chains.

The next hole WAS the signature #14.  I had a killer 360 roller that went straighter than any I’ve ever thrown there, which set me up for a perfect shot down the tunnel.  I got my 2nd shot perfectly down the tunnel…by last year’s standards. Too bad the basket wasn’t there anymore.  By THIS year’s standards, I was still 35 short with OB 15’ behind the basket.  I made a trepidatious attempt, but we all know how those usually work out.

Despite the lack of birdie on that hole, I managed to find a few others while keep the bogey-man at bay until the last hole where I went OB, re-teed and HIT THE POLE, ending up with a –4/62.  This turned out to be the 2nd best score of the day and moved me from 28th to 16th.

Gregg Barsby has the tools necessary to win this event.  Namely a strong backhand and sidearm.  Both of which play heavily into navigating the Red Hawk course successfully.  Today’s –7/59 combined with yesterday’s –5/61 placed him on the leader board heading into the finals.  As for Val?  Still commanding a huge lead.  But at least I shot a better round than her today.  Hey, I’m at the age where I’ll take those small victories.

I went out to play a little mini golf and found that I HAD made the cut,  it all went back to scratch and the finals were starting in about 10 minutes.  After 9 holes I shared the lead with 1 birdie and no bogeys.  Feldberg started with a 5 and had 3 birdies.
Climo and Linc were also on or around –1.  The back 9 wasn’t so forgiving.  I bogeyed 10 (sidewalk OB) missed a short putt on 11 & 12, caught some OB that I wasn’t even aware of on 13 (I think they just made it up on the spot), parked 14 with a hooked thumber using a wham-o mini, narrowly avoided OB on 16 then missed an easy putt and it fell through the side of the basket when I placed it in.

Meanwhile, Climo, who, originally, hadn’t even intended to play, was 2 strokes behind Linc Morgan with 3 to go…deuced the last 3 holes to win by one.  Another Classic Climo finish.

This was followed by another fun-filled night in the casa-de-Chrysler.

Sunday,11-23-08:
Finally, we get a break from the cold.  I know you guys up north are laughing at we Floridians, but a humid cold day can penetrate right through you.  By my 11:20 tee time, it was warm enough to shed the “hoodie” jacket.  My tee time had moved up into the ranks of some big players, Kevin McCoy, Kim Scott Wood and some young buck named Nate Doss.  (05-07 PDGAW champ and current USDGC champ)

The old man started off with 2 consecutive birdies.  It was after the well-executed drive on #3 that he (I) realized that his all-purpose utility original CE TL was mysteriously absent from the line up…GULP!!
Whether it was a mental crutch or a physical need, NOT having that disc cost me dearly.  Feeling the pressure of having to make up my strokes elsewhere, my putting also became a bit shaky as I watched the dust from Nate’s solid –6/60 round. I lost my concentration near the end, bogeying 3 of the last 4 holes to finish +1/67.   Kim Scott and Kevin also bettered me on the round.  I fell back to a tie for 21st with the young gun Will Schusterick, with whom I also tied at the Augusta Classic back in September.

Again, Val (damn this girl is good) had a better round than I with an even par 66.  At least my total was better.  I learned a few years back with JK that getting beat by a woman isn’t always something to be ashamed of.  (Not ALWAYS)

Gregg Barsby put together another hot round of –10/56 but it was not enough to best Eric (Mr. Twisty) McCabe’s tourney best round of –12/54.  St. Louis’ Nikko Locastro also put together a world class round of –12/54 to come within two strokes of the lead, finishing 3rd, one stroke behind Barsby.

Last year’s 1st place payout of TEN large was a great advertising point but left 2nd on down feeling a bit left out.  This year’s payout was much flatter and rewarded more players for strong play.  In fact, I received more $ for 21st place this year than last year’s 12th.  So you KNOW I’m not complaining (about this year).

Cindy and Mike Barnett, along with the many Florida volunteers did another magnificent job despite the fact that the Plantation Inn has some new management that wasn’t familiar with our history at the venue.

One very cool feature of this year’s PC was all players had their picture taken on Thursday night, the photos were electronically sent to Discraft, each player had their photo put on a full color Buzz and they were express mailed back in time to be distributed to the players at the awards ceremony.  Had I known they would turn out so nice I might not have been such a goof.  Nah! Who am I kidding?

There is talk among those who schedule the tour that the Players Cup may move to May to become the first PDGA Major on the calendar year rather than the last.  So, that would probably make Sarasota’s Pro leg the week before the PC.

After a boisterous celebratory dinner with Avery, Val, Nate and Zeppe to name a few, I gladly made the 2 hour drive home to sleep in my (warm) bed!

Monday 11-24-08
Bills, bills, bills.  They do have a way of stacking up.  Especially when the (OLD) recipient relies on traveling to disc golf tourneys to pay them.  Apparently, I played only as well as NEEDED in order to win what was necessary to pay the regular bills.  (We won’t get into the outstanding doctor’s bills at this time)  It didn’t help that I had checked out a few DVDs before the road trip and didn’t get them back on time.  The “library police” charged me $1.00 a day EACH for late fees on 4 videos.  Combined with some other vids that I had failed to get back on time last week, my library fines were up to $26!  So much for the concept of free video rental, huh?

Another future comedy booking cancelled, but I got a couple of checks for the last two Diz shows.  So, bottom line, the “pressing” bills are paid, including the big bad muthah of all bills, my extortion…uh, health insurance premium.

So, thanks for continuing to wade through this blah blah blah’g.

The question at hand is… Where should I go with it now that the 1K dgt goal has reached?
I’ve always wanted to start an advice column.  But right now my email I so screwed up that I couldn’t possibly field the questions even if only a few of you responded.

I like this venue for showcasing bits of my pix collection.  But I have literally THOUSANDS you haven’t seen and they’re used in a way that can’t be shown in a blah blah blah’g.

I’m trying to jump back on a cruise ship for a while so that I can save some $ and invest in getting my web presence fixed.  I currently have 5 websites…
Onegranddiscgolftour.com (you’re reading it NOW)
Jugglist.com (for the comedy juggling act)
Frivolist.com (for Frisbee stuff)
Floridadiscgolfdesigngroup.com (self explanatory, but I will go outside Florida…hint hint)
Laughterbation.org (and .com, .net-still under construction) with Lynn Warren, where we hope to showcase ways to make yourself laugh)

I’d like to consolidate these sites into one blanket site that has a few different sub-sites.
This takes time and money…oh and let’s not forget knowledge that I do not currently posses.

Please continue to check in…the posts will be less frequent until there is a new goal or intent.
The good news is that I expect to be writing full-on articles for a disc golf publication in the future.  Details are still pending.

Tomorrow: working on ways to get more courses in the ground instead of working on what will make me money, like my show.

11-17-08

I had intended to pack the van last night but I ran outta steam. I stayed up long enough to fold the clothes and buried myself in my ultra cool Frisbee quilt for the night.

In the AM, I checked the fluids and air pressure. Then I went out to check the van too. D’oh! I got out of the house at around 8 but it took about an hour to get outta town. From there, it was easy drivin’.

I got to Hardeeville, SC’s “Sergeant Jasper Park” by 1:30. After a long chat with the British lady running the park I started the round at about 2pm.

“The Sarge” (#999) started out with a multi-route hole, either a short hyzer over a corner of the crystal clear lake or an anhyzer along the trail through the woods with it ending heading toward the water. Most of the subsequent holes were very tight, wooded holes.

Today, I confirmed something I had suspected all along… “Carolina” is an old Native American word meaning “Narrow Line, huh?”

Over the years I’ve tried to become less critical of new courses because, not unlike a baseball glove, it takes quite a while to wear them in. Although, if this were a baseball glove, it might have 6 fingers. I 3’d nearly every hole because there was usually one too many trees in the middle of whatever line I chose to attempt. Again, though… time has a way of opening up fairways once considered “too tight”.

Nearly all the tees are natural or mulch. I’ve never been a fan of mulch tees because you never get the same footing twice. But I certainly understand the budgetary considerations of mulch vs cement. One of the tees had a 4’x4’ cement square in the middle of a bridge, which I thought was pretty innovative.

Hole #15 is a beautiful but treacherous par 4 that bends to the right with an OB rope line all along the right side for those who turn too early (like me). I fished my disc outta the muck and proceeded to throw another turnover properly this time. And by “properly” I mean I made certain that it was absolutely lost this time by turning it too hard again and landing it in a much deeper lake. Oh well, it was a free disc anyway, which I found brand new back in late July or early August…no name…it’s a keeper!

Speaking of which I just found a USDGC CE Roc (nearly brand new, no name on it) at the tourney in Clearwater. So, rather than put it in lost and found where any old schmo could just pick it up and walk with it, I stood it up on my dashboard for all to see, figuring that if someone recognized it they’d say something. More likely, they probably think I steal people’s discs and I’m not smart enough to hide them.

Heading toward Augusta for tomorrow’s 1K round, I nearly ran out of gas traveling a 40 or so mile stretch with no gas stations on a road going through the Savannah River Site. It’s a government site and I’m stating publicly that I DON’T HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THEY DO THERE. All I know is that apparently it doesn’t take consumer grade petroleum to do it. Otherwise I might have found a station without sweating bullets about running my tank dry. My fuel count-down gauge is notorious for moving very slowly until it gets on the low numbers and it suddenly plummets. Just another product of Lee Iococca’s twisted sense of humor.

Brian Graham and I went out for some outstanding seafood and talked about everything disc golf, including some cool juicy stuff that you aren’t allowed to know yet! Neener neener neener!

Tomorrow: ONE THOUSAND!

11-16-08

We had burritos for dinner Friday night, for lunch at the tourney on Saturday, and again Saturday night.  So it was only fair that I had a Micky D’s breakfast burrito on the way to the course this AM.

After Saturday’s rounds, Brad lead by 3 and I was tied with Billy and Mike.  I put together a pretty decent round, getting a 3 on all of the multi-shot holes, but… I had a deuce putt at the tough #5 with a big drop off behind the basket.  I had to straddle it and missed the ONLY putt inside the circle for the round.  The putt got legs and ran down into the water costing me 3 strokes!  Had I hit it, I would have gained two strokes on Brad to come within 1, but instead I lost another stroke on the round to go 4 back.

For the 2nd time today, we started on 13 and, again, I started off by deucing 13, 14, 15 and a birdie 3 on 16.  In fact I deuced 17, hit a birdie 3 on 18 and 1!  Things slowed down considerably after that.  I waaay over drove #2 and blew by on the approach and had to make a crazy air-bounce turn over putt around (under really) a tree to save par.

No progress on 3 or 4 and had a very similar putt on 5 again but this time for par, which I hit.  I figured that after my hot start we should be pretty close.  I don’t like to check on HOW I’m doing compared to other players because I feel as if it distracts me from just playing each hole to the best of my ability.
(If there is a substantial risk v reward at hand, I might check. But I don’t play any holes at Cliffy differently based on my standing)

I birdied #6.  Brad got 8.  I got 9.  Brad got 10.  We both had a chance on 11 but the wind made it tough.  I didn’t realize that we were tied for the lead going into the last hole but I knew it was close.  Brad sawed off his hyzer drive and weaved through the trees to end up about 15 left.  I swung wide around the tree and caught a bad skip and dribbled into the lake for my ONLY bogey on the round.  End game.

Some very interesting side notes.  Val Jenkins winning the women’s division wasn’t a big shocker.  However, Nikko Locastro besting the current PDGA World Champ and the best player of all time on his home course is cause for some chatter.

Geoff Bennett’s participation in the Moccasin Lake Open brought his 2008 tournament total to 54!  The Player’s Cup should give him the record outright.

As is tradition, the MLO is also the final event for the Fab FL Tour.  Garrett “Double G” Gurthie was the overall points winner for the 08 season and he got a nice bonus check for it.  I tied for 4th in the Masters with Steve Slasor, but I end up missing a lot of events.

I don’t know if I even SHOULD mention this but some folks from EA sports (makers of Tiger Woods Golf video game) called me and want to play a round at Turkey Lake.  There was no actual mention of plans to make a disc golf video game but I got the impression that that is where it was leading.  I tried to steer them towards Climo since he’s pretty much OUR Tiger Woods and he plays the crap outta that game at home.

Drove back to Orlando to unpack, repack and head out again in the morning.

Tomorrow: Sergeant Jasper Park in Hardeeville, SC enroute to IDGC.

11-15-08

The first round started off slow but I birdied #7 through 11 before finishing on 12 for a –6 to lead Brad by one.  Mike Paulette and Billy Seaman were just behind us.  I had gone back to the Sonic as a putter and hit some verrry nice putts.

The 2nd round felt as if I was throwing fungo discs filled with lead.
I was throwing really hard but the discs really weren’t going very far.

Only two of the holes had the same score as the first round.  I was putting OK but I wasn’t getting close enough to have a reasonable putt.  Maybe I should start throwing max weight discs as hard as I can throw on  every hole!

Brad put together another decent round and passed me by 3 while Bill and Mike tied me.

I need a nap.

Tomorrow: MLO Day 2

11-14-08

Rearranged the van, finished packing and headed toward Clearwater around noon.

Normally I play the pre-tourney dubs but I was seriously feeling the need to just find my body’s level.  I played a multi-shot round in an attempt to tune in.  “Attempt” being the operative word.

Murph and I did a trade a while back, he gave me a nice 71 mold from the 87 PDGAW and I had to dig out an 83 PDGAW “Shuttle Puppy” (same shape as a puppy but it was made by DGA)  I told myself I would go looking for it on Thursday but I stumbled upon it on Wednesday in a place I would NOT have looked.  The disc is perfect!

After the dubs round I gave him the new addition to his PDGAW collection and dropped by his and Kathy’s place for Shawn Herrigan’s Irish burritios.  The couch was comfy.

Tomorrow:  Moccasion Lake Open

11-13-08

We had a pretty good meeting with the lady from the City of Orlando Parks dept.  From the notes she was taking it sounds as if she’ll actually take the efforts that we’ve expended into consideration.  However, I am afraid that we may still have to move blue tee #2.  If that happens my future plan to possibly expand hole #1 into a par 4 will be shot.

If the head of parks doesn’t see things our way, we may have to change as many as 3 holes, thus becoming yet another disc golf course that has cleared land (that they had no intention of touching) only to have them recognize how well THEY could put it to use and we get shuffled to the side after doing much (most) of the work for them.

I like how those 3 holes are working right now.  18 Original is one of the best holes in the park. It pretty much brings you right up to T2 #1 tee (red and blue) And T2 blue #2 provides a perfectly do-able shot that rewards accuracy and punishes greedy drives for people trying to bite too much off on the drive. (which is why the hole is named “Greed”)  I don’t know that I will be able to recreate that sort of challenge from another angle.

I’m probably NOT going to be able to invest the sort of time into the course that it will take to change it with the same kind of flow and challenge.  I’m going to have to concentrate on actually earning money for a while.  I understand that goes a long way toward having a decent relationship as well.

After the meeting, the ODGC president, James LeBaube and I strapped on our bags and headed out on the “original” course looking at how to play with a new layout for holes 4, 5 & 7.  Naturally, we had two different ideas for how this should be done.  I wasn’t as excited about his suggestions as the ideas I’d like to implement but they would satisfy our basic needs, which is to eliminate a lousy hole and get more out of the land that is available to us.

The great thing is that we have extra baskets and carpet that we can put in place to experiment on this area until we find the magic formula.  It’s an oddly shaped piece of land but it has some dynamic possibilities.

Tomorrow: To Clearwater for the Moccasin Lake Open A-Tier

11-12-08

It was pretty exhilarating to get out and jam again.  I was amazed at how well the body held up and actually felt better with each combo.  This confirms what I’ve known all along… the more I move the better I feel.  It has always been that way.  But it is getting harder to come back from an injury.

Tonight I did a beach party for HP at WDW’s Beach club.  Early rain forced everyone inside for the first half of the party.  So I did some freestyle in the hallway.  It’s always a bit awkward trying to control the disc while glancing around 360 degrees to make sure I’m not going to clock somebody with my double spinning crescent kick (under the leg pull) just before setting up the trick.  I’m proud to report, nobody took a size 12 Nike to the face on my watch.  “Hey…why does his face say ‘Ekin’?”

I’ve auditioned a freestyle pairs routine at Disney with Dan Yarnell.  They liked it but, of course, they couldn’t think of a place to use us.

Billy Crump did an interview with me in Melbourne a couple years back.  One of his questions was “What are your disc golf plans for the future?”
I said “I’m not going to stop competing, promoting, teaching, designing and building courses until I’m inducted into the Hall of Fame AGAIN!”  (Was that pompous?  I can never tell these days)
Right now, I feel very differently about that.  I’m soooooooooo tired of the ignorance in and out of the sport.

Here in Florida, it is nearly impossible to SELL a course.  If the park wants a course, they’ll go ahead and get one.  And they’ll often either try to design it themselves or let a local guy do it.  But to actually convince a parks person that it is a viable activity that has the potential be the most successful recreation venture in the park… I may as well be trying to sell left-handed crescent wrenches.  The hardest sell is getting them to actually do it properly.

I’ve given my services away for nearly 20 years because I had hoped that people might notice the difference in quality.  They don’t.  It’s there but they don’t often see it.

We did 13 “Have Course-Will Travel” events about 10 years ago, which involved contacting a park (system) gaining permission to run an event, designing it, setting up 18 holes the day of a tourney, running two rounds and then tearing it down.  All this in hopes that they would come out and see how it works.  Only one park system got involved but NONE actually moved forward with disc golf.  The only course we got from the HCWT events was the Gran Canyon, which became one of the greatest courses in the world.  Now, it has gone away.

One of the events that we did was in Manatee County between Sarasota and Clearwater.  Afterward, they “allowed” us to put 18 wooden posts in the ground with no tee signs.  Well, surprise!  Nobody came out to play it.  Now the parks director is absolutely convinced that disc golf is not popular because he tried it and it didn’t work.

Forget that dg has grown by 15-18% every year for the last 20.  Forget that 15 miles south, Sarasota has a club with over 500 members!  Forget that Pinellas county, directly to the north has SEVEN disc golf courses.   Forget that the Fabulous Florida Tour was called “The Best State-Level Tour Going” by Brian Hoeniger.

When I spoke to the director of the State Parks system I was told point blank that disc golf goes against their mission statement because they don’t put in amenities where something can be thrown.  Yet I see baseball/softball fields.  He told me that disc golf isn’t passive enough…yet more than one of our state parks features mountain biking trails where people RACE!!!

I’ve probably lost about 7 disc golf projects in the last 3 or 4 years.  (3 to the SAME parks director in 3 different parks systems)  Parks people are just NOT willing to put money into this game unless they personally play the game.  My last install was just north of here in DeBary, and that, pure and simple, was done because he had played and he liked it.

I wish I could take every parks person in Florida out for a round of disc golf, but I can’t.  Until that day, few of them will EVER get it.

Tomorrow: Another meeting with another parks person about another disc golf project that will take my time and lose me more money.  But the course will be nicer, thus enhancing my resume, which the parks people will continue to ignore in favor of the local am player with no experience who will do it for free.

Sorry to be such a bitter old fart tonight.  Going broke doing something you love has a way of doing that to a guy.

I’ve been talking to a couple of people about starting a program within Florida Disc Golf Design that offers 9 disc golf holes for 9 months.  Maybe take $500 to cover site evaluation, hauling targets, design, installation etc.  We’d have to have a clause saying that if they accept the trial baskets and eventually decide to get their own baskets they must buy them through us.

Chad and I met at the north course to discuss it.  3 other guys showed up for the round.  Then two more joined us in mid-round.  We played “Wolf” for $0 per skin since a couple of the guys were playing for the first time.

For the first time in weeks, I actually felt as if I could deliver a solid drive.  Obviously, I need to have my practor romp on me more often.  Just can’t afford it.

Chad and I went back to his abode to continue the discussions of how to offer parks a chance to try it out without screwing ourselves in the process.

Another disc buddy called and I bailed out to freestyle with him.  We started off slow but I managed get the body moving after a few minutes.  It helps that I had FOUR Icy Hot patches on…1 on below each shoulder blade and 1 on each hip/glute.  I felt much better than expected today, I just hope I can expect to feel better than expected tomorrow!

Tomorrow: Diz Beach!