One Grand Disc Golf Tour

08-02-10

Make that 449 miles today. Again, I passed several I wanted to play because they were either too far off of I-75 or I just wasn’t ready to play when I went by them.

I pulled off the hwy to play the Joshua Franklin memorial course (#1053) in Albany, GA.  I had been there twice before and hadn’t played because I had run out of light once (the park manager likes to talk as much as I do) and it rained like crazy the other time.  Finally got it in.  I played with some locals and shot something like -21 for 18 holes by getting 2 or 3 eagles.  The course par is set for newbies, which is smart as it won’t intimidate them.

The course has very nice signage, good tee pads and the front 9 is pretty solid.  By the time the designer hit the back 9, he was running out of room and started laying out fairways with some pretty sketchy flight lines.  Overall it’s a nice course worth the effort.

I continued south to play the Heritage Lakes course in Moultrie, GA but it’s a temp course (In Step targets) that is in transition.  A crafts club was working on a patchwork project at the church but had no idea about the layout or a map.  They gave me a number to call, which lead to 3 more calls to find the right guy.  Eventually, I just had to hit the road without playing it.

Finally pulled into Camp Kulaqua around 10:30 pm and was in bed by 11:00.

Tomorrow: Kids disc golf clinics

08-01-10

Last night, after a celebratory dinner at a local Mexican restaurant, I got back to the hotel at around 9pm.
By 9:30 I was out.

I awoke at midnight,  took a quick shower and keyed out the blah blah blah’g. I was about to lay down for round two of my greatly needed snooze-fest when I heard muffled voices outside my door. I opened my blinds to see a couple of guys glaring into my van trying to see what was in there. I made a big display out of letting them know they needed to move on NOW and called the front desk. The desk person was useless, so eventually, since they hung out in the parking area for another 3 hours, I had to call the cops because the last thing I need is to have my car broken into on a road trip.

The car seemed to be unscathed in the AM and it took over 2 hours to repack the van with the addition of the beauteous new mach 5 I acquired yesterday.

I swung by the clinic where I got my stitches and they said they were supposed to take them out in a couple more days. I told them I could have it done in Florida and she said she’d rather take them out now. I guess it’s illegal to transport stitches across state lines. Good to know. I didn’t even pick up my anti-biotic prescription.

I had intended to play a course today but I got a phone call, which distracted me and I missed my exit to the 1st one. The second one, as it turned out, was private, and the 3rd I had already played. I could have played more in Chattanooga, TN but disliked the ones I played before and figured they would be more of the same, so passed on them yet again.

Rolled out 635 miles today with roughly 350 to go tomorrow.

Tomorrow: See above

P.S.  The newly crowned PDGA World Champion, Eric McCabe, and his recently acquired DGA Mach 5 trophy basket.

07-31-10

Last night I went to bed feeling confident about the morning’s semi-final round on the blue course. Which is the first reason that things got stressful quickly. We were to play the RED. While the RED course is pretty and has well defined rough, the fairways aren’t always that well defined. A few too many trees in the fairways.
Feldberg said that he liked the Red course the best. And I say, that’s because he was weened on Coldbrook (aka: “Coldsore”) That course just has crazy amounts of stuff in the way. As does the Red.

Noone in my group played well because it had rained all morning and well into the round before it stopped. I shot a pretty lousy 56 and gained a stroke to go –7 into the final 9.

The Finals:
Our final 9 started on Blue #2. They extended the hole by putting a tee mat back 70 or so feet. I thought the hole had been a pretty good challenge for us, but they had it reconfigured for the Open Pros, so we all played it. We all parred.

2: Blue #1-335’
I did a 360 spin-drive up the hill but put it a bit too low and landed 35’ short and missed the putt. Tim bombed one up the other side of the fairway and parked it within 12’. He gains a stroke.

3: Blue #15-375’
Tim, up first, throws a wide arching lefty hyzer and ACES the 380’ down-sloped hole! I try to smooooth it straight at it. It was more like smoth. My extra “o”s were wasted when I released and said “Uh Ooooh”. Nearly OB, I was too far away to hit the putt. He gains TWO strokes. (3 in 2 holes)

4: Red #4-285’
Slightly uphill and a bit left, (not easy for a lefty, given the low branches) Tim parks it. My drive is exactly what I wanted to see…for the 1st 7/8 of the flight. The last 8th was a wicked skip left into some light weeds which were enough to constrict my movement on the 30 footer. He gains a 4th stroke in as many holes.

5: Red #5-255’
Now only 3 away with 5 to play. Tim delivered a sweet drive right at the basket, which was a problem because one of Red’s trademarks is to have a few too many trees on the way to these baskets. He caught one about 50’ short. I delivered a hyzer shot to the right side looking to come in outside the fairway trees but under the schule trees, and delivered it pretty well…or so I thought. I clipped an inviso branch and rolled off into the deep schule, from which I escaped and took my 3. Mercifully, and unlike many earlier holes, Tim failed to bag his 50 footer.

6: Red #13-320’
On the third day, I rolled a road runner on this hole that would have gone waaay into OB had the pole not gotten in the way. It hit solid enough to stop within 8 feet. Feeling the need to back off a bit, I threw a Stingray roller, but didn’t get it turned over and stayed on the low side of the fairway at about 70’ left.
Tim, with a desirable hyzer angle, parks his drive within 12’.
Knowing that I had to stop the bleeding, I dug down and found what it took to sink the 70 footer. (I’m now calling it the “turnaquet” putt). No score movement.
7: Red #14-538’
Probably the coolest hole on the Red course. A downhill tee into an open field with OB left and schule to the right. At about 400’ the schule tightens in from the R and a few trees on the left form a perfect tunnel to another open field with the basket perfectly visible from the tee. Tim throws a long lefty hyzer that lands dead in the middle of the mouth of the tunnel, but skips into the rough on the right. I threw a bit shorter and landed with a straight 200’ shot right through the tunnel. I delivered a perfectly straight line with a beat Roc but was a bit too pumped and blew just past the basket to 50’ long. Gallery movement got me to back off my putt and my 2nd attempt hit low left chains and it dribbled out the back. Tim gets out of the woods and then up & down for a 4. No score movement.

8: Red #18-615’
Tim’s lefty turn-over out of the woods got some good glide. I slipped on the pad, clipped a little bit of leafage on the way out of the tunnel and got out of the woods well enough to be about 15 feet past the OB on the left. My upshot from about 320’ parked within 15’. Tim’s parked within 10’. No score movement

9: Blue #10-670’
Tim’s lefty hyzer got up the hill and left a low ceiling shot. My 360-drive got around the big tree and landed in the right side of the mouth, only a few feet from where I had landed in the earlier blue round.
Tim’s upshot landed 100’ short. I was at a decent enough angle to go for the green, but with OB very nearby on the left and a 3 stroke margin, I lobbed one around the corner with exaggerated angle and got close enough to lay-up. No score movement. I reclaim the Pro Grand Masters World title!

Tim played incredibly well. I didn’t mention Jim Myers much, but I very well should have. He was crashing HUGE putts all week and throwing very strong with his beloved Star Road Runner.

This was a big year for me, winning ALL 3 Grand Master Majors that I played. This was the culmination of my goal to win all 3 in 2010.

Don’t forget to check out worldchampiondiscgolfdesign.com (wcdgd.com)

Tomorrow: Long drive contest. (See how long I can stay awake while driving back to FL so I can do some kids clinics for the Seminole Tribe of FL at a church camp course that we 1st installed as a rental and later replaced with permanent equipment)

P.S. Those of you clever enough to read this in HTML might see that the trophy photo is ‘IMG_1987′, which some of you may know holds some significance for me as well.

07-30-10

I was feeling pretty lousy this AM. My stomach was very ill-at-ease.

The Gold course was tough. I played very well on the holes with realistic fairways but there are a couple with trees in the middle, one of which kicked me into the woods and I ended up taking a 6. The next hole, I was in a ravine putting up for a 3 and hit 2” low and rolled away, taking a 5.

I hit the flag in 2 on a 600’ footer and got a smokin’ 4 on an 1100’ hole back to back. 2 holes later, I strung together a killer 3 on a 750’ hole.

I won the front 9 by one but lost 3 on the back to the group who shot identical scores on the front and the back. All gained 2 strokes on me to narrow my margin to 4. This was also my first round of the tournament rated below 1000.

We had a picnic type of dinner at the back of the park and after dinner a did a bit of freestyle with Dave Greenwell by putting water on an Ultra-star. Even with the “dry” disc I still finished with a 2 3/4 spinning inverted flamingo catch.

Tomrrow: Semi finals on my least favorite of the courses…Red. And then finals.

07-29-10

After another round on the blue, I increased my lead to 7 by shooting another 49 and lost one on the next round on the red, which is my least favorite course because it requires a LOT of luck. I don’t mind luck as a result nearly as much as a strategy.

Tomorrow: Gold course

07-28-10

Only 1 round today for Grand Masters. We had tee times on the Silver course. I started by deucing the first 4 holes and leveled out after that. Jim Myers played solid, hitting a couple of BIG putts that kept him nipping at my heels.

The 2 of 3 putts I missed within my high percentile range were #16 & 17, with a video crew documenting my inability to hit a 20 footer twice in a row. Hole 18’s primary route is a hyzer that really isn’t a good bet to take for the likes of me. I went straight at it through a small tunnel and blew past it and into the woods, from where I straddled out to finish with a 48. (Don’t recall how that sits according to course par)

I gained 1 more stroke on Jim to go 2 up for 3 rounds.

I’m in my van waiting out a rain delay. Though I’m done for the day, probably half of the field has more holes to play.

The Fly Mart was last night and I managed to pick up a nice disc from 2008 Worlds with the champ’s signatures…including mine.

I purchased a pair of Keen “Targhee 2”s last week. They felt odd at first but I’m throwing enough well in them.

Tomorrow: relax…breathe… ching!

07-27-10

I figured a –6 would put me on the lead card on the woodsy Red course.
Despite 5 (count-em) right-side chain outs, I managed a 50 (Only 1 booger), which, to my great surprise, tied for the lead the GM division.

Round 2 on the blue course was longer and more open. A little more breathing room, (and only 1 booger again) gave me a 49 and gained me the lead outright by one over Jim Myers.

Tomrrow: Silver course. Tee time 9:50am

07-26-10

Got a lazy start on the day with plenty of time to shop for groceries before going to the course for skillshot and mini golf.

Along with my other groceries, I picked up 2 bottles of wine (red, of course, for the anti-oxidants). The cashier wrapped each in a plastic bag and the put them both in another plastic bag. I picked up the main bag,  the handles stretched and broke.

Juggler that I am, I caught them on the way down. However, the bottles clanked together on my left shin and the bottle broke against my leg. I scrambled for another bag to put the leaking bag into. Once contained, I walked back and got another bottle of wine. After getting through the the checkout line, I was about 10 steps away when someone asked me if I was OK. I thought nothing of it and said “yup”.

I looked down to see blood streaming down my left leg onto my sandals. Oh, Turns out there was a fairly sizable gash in the shin. We had to fill out a report and they gave me some anti-bacterial cream and some patches to stop the leak.

I guess red wine isn’t all that good for you after all, unless you subscribe to medieval medicinal blood-letting. I’m all out of leaches anyway.

I went back to the room and got my groceries in order trying to decide if I should go to a walk-in clinic to see if I needed stitches. I didn’t want to be an idiot just so I could play mini golf.

There was a walk-in clinic a few hundred yards from I-65 & hwy 30. It took a long time to be seen, but once the doc came in, he confirmed that I would, in fact, need stitches. 4 to be exact.

I made a call to let the TD know that I would be late and they extended the time frame by an hour. I raced back and got my mini round in, finishing the last few holes with a group that I had caught up with, getting 2nd in the Senior div. I missed Skill shot altogether. (I had the highest score of anyone in 2008, and they gave me the Senior title even though I had no intention of playing senior)

I had 2.5 hours until the player meeting, so I went around Silver/Gold by myself. Spent a LOT of time looking for discs (found em all…whew!) and had to bail out after hole 13.

I was a few minutes late to the meeting but I made up for it by being the last person to leave the parking lot.

Tomorrow: Professional Disc Golf Association World Championships- day 1.

07-23-10

Silver & Gold

Took my time getting there. Played the Silver and Gold course (an overlay of Silver) on the same round, usually throwing either one from each tee or two from one tee to two baskets.

Watched two DVDs that I’ve owned for at least a year while going through a massive amount of photos from Fly Boy etc.

07-24-10

White & Blue
Caught up with emails in the AM.
Again with the late arrival at the Lemon. Decided to play the (Lemon Lake) White course (#1052) just to get another course in and to warm up slowly since it’s a shorter course. Bart tagged along and we duked it out for a dollar. We both sort of swilled it up a bit,  but had fun.
Hole #16 has a basket sticking out of a bathroom tub, which was full of dirt and a nice head of grass in it.
I tried a scoober roller on #17 and ended up bogeying, which tied us. Bart called CTP to finish and edged me out for the coveted dollar… which I didn’t have on me. So now he waits…

Once it became overcast and cool, I went out for another shot at the blue course, which rained on me a bit but not enough to bail on the round. I was a great Mulli-golfer. My 2nd shots were perfect, while the 1st throws were pretty nonspecific.

Ate the 2nd half of my sandwich while watching Feldberg school some young pups playing “d-i-s-c”, hitting 50 footers as if they were parked.

Back to casa de la Zandstra to do laundry and get lost in a couple of unimportant, but sleep reducing, projects.

Tommrow: Probably moving to a hotel so I can spread out and do what I need to do to be ready to play.
Although I did like the water bed at casa Z.

07-22-10

Woke up in KY (it’s slippery here)
My cousin got my cooler running again last night, but in the morning, it decided it didn’t want to play nice…again.
So, I thought I was going to be able to return the fan that I bought for it AND the new cooler. But I just caved and plugged in the new one. So there. (whiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrrrrr)

As I headed out, it occurred to me that I should probably just get my narrow butt to Lemon Lake so I can practice the courses. So, I passed a chunk of courses around Lexington. I passed a butt-load of courses in Cincinnati. I blew by a bunch-o-courses in Indianapolis and finally just got outta the car long enough to play Fly by Faith dgc, (#1051) a 9-hole church course about a half mile off the interstate. Twas mostly open but had some challenge to it. Two rubber matted tee pads per basket. I only played the front 9 since it isn’t a full 18. So there.

I got into Lemon Lake and went around the red course with a Cali guy named Mike. I was going to call it quits when they put together doubles and Bart, my host for the next few days, was playing. So I played. My partner was a lefty, always a good thing for balance’s sake. The game tightened up, especially the putt. We shot better than the –8 (blue course) we somehow carded, but it was enough to take the spoils. So there!

On to a bar to order food where Bart completely stumped me in a game of pool and then home to Casa de la Z for zzzz’s.

Tomorrow: Several course records at Lemon Lake. (or at least practice, anyway)