Disc Golf: September 2006 Archives

The group went down to Pease Park today. I can see why they want to close Pease down for disc golfers. There is no grass anywhere! The millions of people that have walked around here have destroyed all of the ground cover. And with all of the trees, the slow growing grass does not have a chance get grow back.

This is the first time that our group has played singles. Curt suggested it and noone disagreed. Oh, and Curt brought his dog, Mingus, with him as well.

Rehana lost her disc up in the tree in hole 2. We called out for our super-hero to save us. Unfortunately, no one responded! I wonder where the masked man went to? "Stick Man" Adam was forced to rip off a branch from a poor unsuspecting tree and knock the disc down.

And on this hole, we had our first animal hit and run. John threw his disc, the disc hit the ground, skipped up, and hit a dog. Who then whimpered very loudly and ran to its owner. It was inevitable I guess. Too many people walking their dogs around here.

My best shot was within range of hole 3. A birdieable putt for sure... but, sadly, I missed....

We went to Hula Hut for lunch afterwards. Good food, but still lacking in spinach. John brought out a deck of cards while we were waiting and we played one hand of mini-bridge. I had the most points (in AKQJ cards) so I was the declarer. Rehana put her cards down and showed me KJ09 and some other diamond cards. I had the Ace and Queen so of course diamonds were trump. Mini-Bridge is interesting and all, but I don't think it will replace Tichu in its greatness.

John didn't play with me today. He said that he had to work today. Work?!? What's that? "Work at home", I say...

On hole 6, I had some pretty far throws. My second throw landed within sight of the goal. Too bad I missed...

There is this tree at hole 14 that is birthing a baby Lorax. I wonder how long the gestation period is?

Unfortunately, plants only seem to think about giving birth to more plants. And my body is getting more sensitive to pollen. Welcome to the allergy capitol of the world.

The group went out to Cat Hollow to play disc golf today. Nick brought out his brother-in-law, Eric. John and myself were on one team. And we were playing pretty good today.

My best throw of the day was at hole 12. I was also the farthest that I have thrown it here. Within site of the basket. But my partner was able to throw even better and land it on that ring of rocks that define the putting "green". Way to go pardner...

At Old Settlers, I was waiting for John to show up, so I practiced by throwing some discs. Unfortunately, I almost lost one. I must have spent twenty minutes looking for it. I mean, how hard can that be? You would think that it would be easy to spot a bright yellow disc in the middle of a green field while standing on top of the hill. But it was not where I thought it would likely be. Finally, out of desperation, I walked along the river and found it. If you squint hard enough, you can spot hole one off in the distance...

John finally catches up to me on hole three. And he shows me his birdie beads that he bought to help him keep track of the score. Unfortunately for him, I was beating him by a stoke a hole. He eventually ran out of beads after hole 6 and gave up keeping score...

A front was moving through and it was really windy out. It was hard controlling our discs. The wind would rotate the discs during their flight so that they hit the ground at an angle. They would then start rolling in a curving direction. The last time we were in high winds that were blowing against us, the discs would turn around and roll back past us. This time, the wind forced one of John's discs to perform a U-turn on the road. Very amusing...

I had a good first throw on hole 9. Close enough to be within birdie range. But with this wind, it was really hard to putt. We stopped on hole 15 due to time running out. On that hole, I putted three times trying to get the disc in the hole. Tough putting indeed...

Today we took a road trip and went to a course out in Lago Vista that was new to us. John, myself, Mike and Jon carpooled there (meeting Jon at Starbuck's of course). We arrived early, so we practiced a bit. When everyone else arrived we chose teams. But, instead of our usual process of flipping discs, John got out a deck of cards. We had decided to have three teams of 2, 2, and 3. I imagined that he would use sets of cards to distinguish the people like Clubs for team 1 and Hearts for team 2. Or, perhaps, he would use the rank of cards like Aces, Kings, or Queens. But he was determined to be different. The black Aces would go together, the red Aces would be a team, and the three Kings would form the last team. Okay. And after all of that, we still rearranged the teams...

Man, the lake is low! No possibility of water on our course.

Seven people is a lot to play with. But we played quickly today. Perhaps it was because the course was shorter than usual. Or the fact that we were the only people out there today.

On hole 5, they had tied together with bailing wire a large vine that had been cut apart. It made an effective obstacle since the majority of people hit it.

It seems that hole 6 is no more... I wonder why?

There are an aweful lot of deer around here in Lakeway. Unfortunately, none of them chose to be targets for John when he was throwing discs. They stayed away from the course while we were there. Perhaps the Elk warned them...

Curt was having problems with his foot today. So he took his shoe off and played with out it. It didn't prove to be any handicap.

I had a nice throw on hole 18. The tee is at the base of the hill and the basket is on the top. The basket is protected by cedar trees.

Adam looks like a Cheshire Cat, don't you think? We went to a restaurant for lunch. And on our way home, we decided to take a detour to check out another close course in Leander. However, it was quite the adventure to get find it. The directions are truely atrocious: "Directions: At the corner of Osage Dr. and Bagdad Rd. West on 1431, go 1 mile past 183 and turn right on Bagdad. The park is 4 miles down on the left at the entrance to the subdivision."

It didn't help that John's odometer doesn't have tenths of a mile and I used it to measure out four miles. Eventually we gave up and turned around and started looking for parks. Not many people have heard of disc golf, so the general public turned out to be no help at all. We drove around some subdivisions a bit and eventually worked our way back to the corned of Osage and Bagdad. Of course, after all that effort, I finally noticed that the park was visible from that intersection.

The corrected directions should say: "At the corner of Osage Dr. and Bagdad Rd. ... The park is ... on the left at the entrance to the subdivision."

The park is really tiny and crowded with residents. It is perhaps 200 feet on each side with a gated swimming pool in the middle of it.

Jon managed to throw out of bounds into a condominium. Mike then proceded to throw his disc into the side of one of those buildings narrowly missing a window. He ditched that disc.

Oh yeah, now you tell us that this is a private park.

At our weekly game at Old Settler's Park, we came across some weird signs. Perhaps they were for a tournament. Four groups of people who switch against each other at each hole? Strange.

On hole 1, I had my longest throw yet. Right in line with the hole. Just way off to the right. It looked like it was going for the lake. And I was not even trying my hardest.

This week was a repeat of last week! John and I were competitive at first. But I pulled ahead. John made a run for it on the last three holes. However, I remained in the lead at the end. Good game, John.

The group went out to the Rivery today. All the usual suspects, and one long-time lost player: Michael Chapel. I guess the pendulum swung back the other way... I think it has been 8 months since he played last.

I wonder what caused this? High winds, lightning, lack of water?

We split up into groups and I teamed with John. We got into some trouble today. Like the time when we were deep in the trees. The best group of the day was Jon and Adam.

Mike had been here once, but that was way back before they changed the course around. So most of the course was new to him. We introduced him to the holes and he introduced himself to a cactus. A nice, large, friendly cactus.

Update: Adam had a quote "that was entirely sock and shoe oriented" but as the mists of time advance, I can't figure out what that was about... teeing off?

I forgot my wallet and phone so you are saved from the blurry photos. Today, I was doing pretty good. Well, better than pretty good. John and I were keeping neck and neck in scoring. But then I started pulling ahead. On hole 10, I threw my farthest shot. So far that it sailed past the hole. But I was able to birdie it on the next shot. I stayed in the lead as was able to win three shots ahead of John.

It also felt cooler out. And the grass seems to have sprung back thanks to a couple of rainy days. We were able to play the course really quickly (within an hour). And when I was driving to the Mexican Ice Cream place, I look up to the temperature gauge and saw that it was 90 degrees out. It was surprising just how acclimated I was to 103 days to think that 90 was cool.

For Labor Day, we went to a disc golf tournament. This was our first tournament since the other one that we tried to attend was rained out. It was the inaugural Blue Skies Over Texas Tournament. We met at Starbucks on 620 at 7 am to carpool down. When we got there, Jon realized that he forgot to transfer his bag of discs to the car! Doh! So he bought a new bag and some discs and borrowed some more.

We entered the novice division. And luckily, I was grouped with John and Jon. It seems that they used alphabetical order for the groupings (Gravitt, Grimm, Hamzy). We were grouped with "Nacho" who was a pro and who was also our guide for this round. He was laid back and fun to play with (and also quite the mary-jane smoker).

Each hole had sponsor signs by the tee box. Beware the Blair Keebler Project!

John lost his disc in a tree. So we invoked Jon's super powers and got him to climb up the tree. Unfortunately he was not able to quickly get to the top of the tree and we were holding up other golfers. So he dropped down. Luckily, the next group was able to knock it down and gave it back to John.

After we were finished with the round, we went and ate lunch. They provided us with hamburgers and hot dogs. And after that, was the ring of fire. The ring is a contest where everyone gathers around a goal and putts at the same time. Whoever's disc makes it into the goal gets to putt again. Until there is one putter left and that person wins a prize. Sadly, I did not win any prizes...

After that we still had an hour before the next round of golf started. So we played a game of Tichu and introduced Curt to the game.

For round two, we played the course backwards. They had reversed all of the tees and goals for the course. This created a challenging and completly different experience. Fun! This time I was only grouped with Jon. It seems that they used the scores to create the new groupings.

That tomatoey plant is still there at the Cat Hollow disc golf course. But it is blooming now. Strange. It looks like it has fruits but it is flowering... Doesn't the flowering come first?

I was teamed with Jon this morning. And he threw a good first throw at hole 6! We were on fire today! According to my records, we birdied five holes! But were were only partly on fire. Jon was not putting well and the weight fell on my shoulders. Unfortunately, me missed a couple of putts for pars or bogies.

Interesting. They moved a hole! A new house was built next to the existing hole and the metal fence was like ten feet away. Needless to say, I bet they got some discs thrown at their new house. So the home owners must have complaned and moved the hole. Well, duh! Don't build next to a target!

Another course improvement: chairs. Let's get the party started...

Curt lost a disc in a house's yard. He left afterwards to go retrieve it...

More disc golf at Old Settlers Park. I was surprised to see some new goings on. There was a lot of white, spray painted, lines with flags stuck in it. They were all around the holes for the disc golf course. But it is hard to guess what they were for. Construction? But what kind? They kind of look like they were following the contours of the ground. But not really. Time will tell...

Do they lead to gold??? If so, I'm diggin'!!!