Disc Golf: April 2006 Archives

We went back to the Rivery again. Today, I decided to drive down from Dukes to park underneath IH-35. And, wow, was the road washed out! Fortunately, my pickup truck has some clearance and I was able to navigate it. Georgetown really needs to do something about drainage here! Either fix the road or block it off. I don't see it lasting much longer if we keep getting heavy rains that causes flash flooding. The third picture was shot from down in the four foot trench that was dug out from running water.

I wanted to practice throwing some discs in the field. But it was damp from dew (and last night's rain) and was also was overgrown. They really need to mow down here, durn it! But I did notice what looked to be a bat sleeping on the concrete wall in the shade. I got as close as I dared to take a picture and tried not to disturb Mr. Bat.

This course really needs some work. Almost all of the temporary markings are gone. Only a few small signs are left. And only people who played when it existed in better condition could play here now.

One of John's putts was really lucky. It balanced right on the edge of the basket.

A new class of obstacles is the swinging vine. This managed to block one of John's throws.

And I was really lucky today! One of my putts was slightly over thrown. But it hit the tree behind the basket and bounced into the goal! Score!!!!!!!!

Innova discs have this stamped on them, so I looked it up. And this is what they patent:

abstract

A one-piece flying disc formed of a flexible plastic with an annular rim and a central section joined together by an annular shoulder. The rim has a lower edge defining a lower plane of the disc and the central section has an upper zone defining an upper plane of the disc, with the rim having a triangular cross-section with a lower rounded corner forming the lower edge, an outer rounded corner, and an upper corner merging with the shoulder. The outer corner of the rim is located between the upper and lower planes, and the shoulder decreases in thickness from the rim to the central section.

claims

1. A circular flying disc comprising:

an annular rim and a central section joined together by an annular shoulder, and formed in a single piece of flexible plastic,

said rim having a lower edge defining a lower plane of said disc, and said central section having an upper zone defining an upper plane of said disc,

said rim having a substantially equilateral triangular cross-section with a lower rounded corner forming said lower edge, an outer rounded corner, and an upper corner merging with said shoulder, with said outer corner located between said upper and lower planes,

said shoulder decreasing in thickness from said rim to said central section, with the thickness of said shoulder at said rim in the order of twice the thickness of said central section, and with the outer surface of said disc from said rim outer corner to said central section having a continuous smooth curved lifting surface, and

the upper surface of said central section being substantially flat when the disc is stationery, with said central section being sufficiently thin and flexible to dome upwards when in flight.

What was interesting was that it was filed on October 27, 1983. Almost twenty four years ago! This thing should be expired by now (actually by 2000).

Played with John at Old Settlers as usual. The winds were pretty fierce although not as bad as before. We ended early at hole 16 since there were rain clouds above us. And I thought there might be hail around. Although when I got home, nothing was on the radar. Sigh... It got here around 3am in the next morning.

For today's disc golf, Jon, John, and myself took a road trip down to Twin Parks country club which is located in Dripping Springs (south of Austin). It was surprisingly close and we arrived pretty early in the morning (8:05). The gate required a code for entry and noone answered the phone to let us in.

So we looked around at the scenery and spotted a couple goals for disc golf. After waiting a couple of minutes, we decided to head off for breakfast.

We found a packed gas station and headed in. In the back was a grill and a bunch of people ordering breakfast tacos. We had hit the jackpot! I ordered one potato and chorizo taco and one cactus and egg taco. Jon stayed away from it since it was green and a vegetable (or is it a fruit?). It was good and filling.

We arrived back at 9am and this time someone did answer the phone and told us the combo (a surprisingly easy one to guess after the fact). So we headed in. We stayed on the road which wound up a hill and arrived at a house. We figured that it was not where we were supposed to go. So we entered the inner gate instead and found the club house.

The clubhouse was pretty nice and spacious. They had a lot of couches and tables to rest at. And upstairs, they had a pool table and even three rooms that could be rented out. After we signed a waiver, we asked about the courses and were told to start at the upper one since it was hillier.

Each hole had a concrete pad to throw from that was "pointed" in the general direction of the hole. Also, each hole usually had a choice of three levels of difficulty (Champion, Pro, and Ace). The distances are some times drastic. For example, the champion would be 753, the pro would be 606, and the ace would be 354 feet. We decided to only play on the Champion tees (because we are).

One time, we were pretty close together in our throws.

The course had mostly tree obsticles but there was one small lake.

Which John managed to find. Fortunately, it was retreivable...

I managed to lose a disc in a tree and needed to invoke Jon's superhuman tree-climing powers.

The land was around 110 acres. And, besides disc golf, there was mountain biking and paintball on the premises (and sometimes even a wedding). Apparently, the owner has an Ag-exemption because there is a herd of Elk that grazes on the land. And they were spotted on the disc golf course. We humans did not scare them off. So, John just decided to throw the disc. And he almost hit one!

There were gullies around, but, sadly, we did not throw off the edge of one to the other side.

After a break, we played the lower course. And this one was different than the previous one. It was all on flat, grassy land with fewer, larger trees.

The goals even had night-time lighting where solar panels recharged batteries. And there was malibou lighting for the tees as well.

The trees were sometimes used to great advantage. They provided the bounds of where discs could be thrown.

We did have one hiccup. Jon had thrown his disc and lost it. I had seen the disc go off course at the end. So, we searched around for it and did not see it. There was a grain feeder that had a ladder running up it. I climbed up there and looked around on the ground and did not see anything. We almost gave up when Jon finally spotted it up in a tree. Not five feet from where I was looking for it...

We headed back home and decided that, since we were down south, we should check out some new disc golf courses that we would never go to. After searching for a while, we found one course on Slaughter lane. It is called Circle C Ranch Metropolitan Park. Soccer teams we out playing in the park and parking spots were few and far between. So we stopped at the first open spot along the road that had a sign pointing to the disc golf course. It was not well marked but we eventually found the tee for hole one. We threw a couple of times and wondered if we could find the goal. But we eventually found it.

It seems that these holes are sponsored by different groups. Watch out for the Cursed Ronin! Don't mess with that hole!

Even though my mind was willing, my body was tiring out. At hole five, I threw my disc and it veered off to the left. So, I took a penalty and threw again. But this time it veered off to the right! Argh! I gave up. And when we reached the goal, so did John and Jon.

Here are some higher-res pictures of the club house:

Well, I tried taking action shots today. Next time I will throw into the sun and get John to frame the picture better. But the good thing about digital cameras is that memory is reusable.

Another day of disc golf at Old Settlers park. And I'm off at the start. John's second throw is touching the goal and I am a distance aways...

The day was hot and humid. Hot because it is Texas and Spring time. And humid because it rained a lot yesterday. So much so that a small stream was flowing where there would normally be nothing.

I finally got around to tracking down the extra hole. You see, after hole 10, we cross the road and throw from to rocks that are spray-painted red. And then continue to the basket. We have always assumed that this was hole 11, but it was closed when construction for the water park had started. So we have a bonus hole now.

See? The old basket is there... Tricksies, that one is... It decieves us, it does....

And on the real hole 11, my brand new TeeRex was stuck in a tree. Unfortunately, we did not have tree-climbing Jon with us. So we resorted to throwing water bottles at it. Fortunately, John was a good shot.

And while we were in an exploring mood, we wandered down the other side of the dike that we throw discs off across the water. We heard running water and wondered what it was. Apparently, the big drain like contraption sitting in the middle of the lake drains through the dike over to the other side. Too bad lost discs were not strewn across the river. Sadly there is some gate that keeps stuff like that from happening.

Jon, John and I went back to Georgetown's Rivery course. I was afraid that all of the temporary signs would be missing and we would be unable to find the holes. Fortunately, that waqs not the case. We only had problems finding two holes (where we had to use our Jon-Positioning-System). As you can see above, the small wooden signs were still there (although only one spray-painted arrow remained).

When I described the course the last time, I was remiss in describing how cool and interesting this new layout is. It is certinaly different than all of the other courses that we go to. The wooded section provides some holes that need accurate throws (a small hole through the trees) and also general tree avoidance throwing skills (along a 400 foot hole). Also, there are changes of elevation where you have to throw up hill.

We came across some snakes going at it. They quickly fled in a tiny crack in the wall.

The one bad thing about this course is the tough and thorny vines. They will scratch you up as you maneuver around the trees. I even found some four inch high vines devoid of leaves sticking out of the ground. They remind me of caltrops.

Wow. Gruesome damage to Roxana during her first playing of disc golf. And that was just at the speed thrown while putting into the goal. I would hate to get in front of a disc thrown for distance.

I wonder what a Phrenologist could tell us about Roxy's new character...

Another day of disc golf at Cat Hollow. Today, the weather was beautiful out and a touch on the cool side. It is probably the last time we will see cool weather around here. Apparently, there was some sort of Easter party going on for the residents here. There were plastic eggs all over and this train. That has something to do with religion, right?

Another Friday disc golf day at Old Settlers park. And the fire ants are really in season now. They are every where you look. Like every twenty feet or so. I imagine that one day, the entire earth will eventually be covered with ants.

The day was beautiful but a little too windy. Which is a pain if you are trying to avoid throwing your disc into the water. John played with me today. And on one hole we must have spent ten minutes trying to find a red disc in the middle of a green field (an easy job one would imagine). We eventually found it relatively close to the goal.

And it seems that a race will be held here sometime. Some people were out spray painting arrows along the course to indicate where the joggers would run. It also told me which direction to throw.

Unfortunately, I had to leave early (after hole 17) in order to make it to my Pilates class on time. Coincidently, John had lost his red disc again...

Another day of disc golf for me. At Old Settler's park again. As is usual for me, I came early to practice throwing. And was mildly pleased when my long distance throws ended up in the same area. Perhaps I have some level of control?

Today was hot and humid! So much so that I was tired out from the practicing. Roxana played with us, which was cool. And we all wondered why a group of Boy Scouts would pitch a tent in the middle of a disc golf course. Aren't they supposed to be aware of their environment? It didn't stop me from throwing it towards the goal.

After we played, Jon was tempted to escape the heat and go swimming for some discs. But he only waded in and then got out. Afterwards we headed to the Mexican ice cream store to cool us off. I liked it! Their desserts are not as sweet as American ice cream.