06-17-11
To be honest, I don’t even recall the date of my last entry. I’ve written a couple that didn’t weren’t posted. If you don’t have the 1Kdgt on a feed to let you know when I’ve posted, you’ve probably lost all interest.
But, take heart! My current design on the summer is to drive to Santa Cruz, CA to defend my old fart’s title at the PDGA Worlds. So, as one might imagine, this disc golf slut-puppy plans on playing several more courses along the way…with the expectation of surpassing the 1,100 mark. I believe I’m still on track to hit my 2,000th course on my 100th birthday, I’m just not so sure I’m on track to hit my 100th birthday.
Tourneys:
River City Nature Park in DeBary had its 2nd official event, the first PDGA tourney, another Tour Del Sol event. We set up temp holes on the intended ‘next’ 9, which were well-received, with the possible exception of an experimental long pin position on one of the par 4s. I hit an ace on one of the shorter new holes, which, frankly, I didn’t think could be done. It was the very 1st throw of the 2nd and final round, which allowed me to win by 1!
At the last moment, I decided to go to the TDS in Ocala the next day, because I wanted to see how the medium tees at Pine Oaks played. The lengths MAY have been OK but the tees were natural, which meant dry grass and sugar sand. So naturally when I put my plant foot down, I either slid or sunk. This bodes well for neither power or accuracy, especially as the rounds wore on and the tees succumbed the constant pivoting. I could have played in the master’s division, but… in a C-tier? Nah.
Given my lack of interest in playing the two courses offered, I probably would not have gone to the Tallahassee tourney, were it not for the fact that I had a new course design to do a few miles down the road.
Plenty has happened since my last T-hassee visit. The parks department has stepped up and gotten involved and even hired one of the locals to work on the courses on a part time basis. It is cleaner and plays a bit smoother, but the overall theme is ‘big power’. To exemplify my point, John E. McCray destroyed the field by 7 strokes (ahead of 2nd) on the first round at Tom Brown pk! This is the 3rd such course I’ve played in a tourney in a month! People are designing longer holes to accommodate the faster discs but they are making 50% of the holes so long that only the top 5% of players can score on them.
The other course, Jack McLean, is a very linear course with many of the holes running up and back down a hill. Last I played it, it was brand new and seemed poorly thought out. It is cleaner now, but still needs some select thinning-out to allow skill to preside. Some holes that have become far better and some are pretty nice. It has the potential to be pretty good. The real potential lies in Mario and the T-hassee parks dept. Their involvement should improve these courses, tourneys and future projects.
I played a short and poorly implemented 9-holer at FSU’s Seminole Reservation (#1071). The course map is a bit off and some of the holes are hard to find. It is a pay-to-enter facility, but, as it sits, the course definitely does not merit the cost. I’ve offered my services but it’s not a job I expect.
I went west and spent 2.5 days designing, marking and tweaking a new 9-holer on a former golf course being leased by a Baptist church. I’m not well-versed on the Baptist version of morality, but I’m fairly certain that, 10 years ago, disc golf was a sin.
This will be our 3rd Rent-A-Course project and has incredible potential. The mercury surpassed 100 degrees on all 3 days I worked on the course, giving me incentive to seek out whatever shade was available for tees and pins, which was NOT plentiful on a former golf course.
I wanted to accommodate not just the newbies from the church, but also advanced and even pro-level players in the event that they open the course up to the public. So, there are 3 sets of tees on the front 9.
The back, (if we ever get that far) has some incredible potential. My fear about it becoming a public course is BEER and the accompanying litter. Most of us get it. Many of us do NOT. These people cannot be swayed in any way from their proclivities and many a club and course have suffered for it.
On the way home I stopped off in Gainesville to play the private course at Trinity School (#1072). A 4-holer, of which I found 3. The course is no more than an after-thought and wasn’t worth the fuel it took to divert from the highway other than to list it here and as another notch on my “courses-played” list.
The 9-holer at Barr Systems (#1073), however, was interesting if not well thought out. It sits on land bordering a private company that has graciously turned the area into a walking/jogging area with some DISCatchers strewn about. Which is, I think, the proper term for the design. Completely unsuitable for multiple groups, but each hole is challenging.
I have several proposals to write for some possibly interesting projects. The only reason I found time to write this is because my roomy decided to hold a garbage…uh, garage sale and I figured it might be a chance to get some junk outta the house more than make some bucks. I love it when people try to talk you down from 50 cents on an item that was once $20 or more.
Anybody want to buy a box full of broadway musicals on VHS that I’m not even sure how I acquired?
Tomorrow: Not sure if I’ll have the patience to do this again. I’ll probably work on the proposals. Either way, don’t look for a report on my exhilarating desk-work or the intense negotiations to earn an extra quarter.
