Disc Golf: May 2007 Archives

The group met today at Cat Hollow for some disc golf. Eight people were in attendance, which is definitely too large for my tastes. John surprised me by buying a small seat for disc golf. I had jokingly told him to get one. But I never thought he would actually go out and buy it. With the large bag, many discs, the harness, the shoes, and now the seat, I think that he owns every disc golf accessory.

Notice the blue tooth receiver dangling off of his ear? Even almost losing it last week was not discouragement enough for today.

I got my first birdie on hole 1! I had to squeeze back into a grape-vine covered bush to putt, but that was not going to stop me from trying. And on hole 3, I had a good throw as well, but was not able to convert that one into another birdie.

As well with this shot too. Close, and challenging but unable to follow through.

We ate lunch at Extreme Pizza. And ended up playing a simultaneous round of Tichu and mini Bridge, a round of Mu, and then finally a game of Tichu. Where John called, and made, a Grand Tichu on the first hand. Way to be aggressive, John!

John and I then drove up to Temple to scout out the disc golf courses up there. We heard that there were two of them. Unfortunately, Temple is 50 miles north east of Round Rock. Which puts it about the same distance away as Dripping Springs would be.

The baskets were the professional disc catchers by Innova. They have informative metal signs. And concrete tee pads. All are good things for a course to have.

But we came at a really bad time. With all of the recent and heavy rains, the course was majorly flooded and unplayable. At least Old Settlers is playable when it floods. Notice that tree and brush line on the left? And the wide open space on the right?

Well, John found the tree line. With a vengeance.

Hole two was unplayable. And, unfortunately, we could not figure out where hole three would be since the tees were also flooded. We eventually found hole 6.

We played the rest of the course. Jumping across a raging stream or two. Sadly, both myself and John lost a disc at that course.

One of the roads was closed in the park (presumably due to flooding). But we needed that road to drive to the other course. So we wandered around Temple for a bit. And finally connected up to a road which lead to the other course. Which was much more open and less challenging. So we ditched it and drove home.

After the cruise was over, Jon and I went to play disc golf at Pease Park since it was so close. It seems that the Poison Ivy warnings are up in force...

It seems that they changed a couple of holes here. Hole 13, instead of being a short run up a hill, is now a much longer hole.

And hole 14 is also a tighter run through the cedar trees.

All in all, it was a fun day and it sure beats working.

I seem to be on the outs with the group. They purposely schedule the starting time earlier than I can make. Oh, well. This morning, I only got 5 hours sleep. But I felt fine and up for a ride. I knew that I wasn't going to make the deadline so I opted for a longer ride of 30 miles. I ended up playing disc golf at 11.

As soon as this throw left my hand, I knew it was going to be good: low, straight, and far. And an easy birdie to make.

The group went to Wilco today. We had two new players with us. The first was Traci, who is new to disc golf. And the other was Wayne, who has been playing disc golf for some months now.

Someone spotted a disc stuck on the top of a tree. Can you spot it in this low quality picture? Sadly, Jon refused to climb up the tree to retrieve it. Has he lost his super powers?

We had three teams today and I was playing with the women in the group. One of whom is a pro now after playing in a tournament at this very course! I was throwing quite poorly today.

At hole 16, Traci sat down and complained about heat exhaustion. Nick was kind and rescued her. He stopped playing, went out to the parking lot, drove his SUV (which he bought for 10 dollars or something really low) out onto the course to pick up Traci, and then drove her to Rudy's to wait for us.

On the way out, we came across this tiny grass snake. Who had a paparazzi moment when we started taking pictures of it...

I went to Old Settler's park today for some disc golf and came across this sign. It seems that there is a race going on in the park. And they had these motivational signs along the course. I think that they apply to disc golf as well!

On hole 5, I threw farther than normal. Not close enough to birdie it though. I like this hole. You are throwing blind. There are trees on both sides of the tee box. And, you have to arc it off to the right with a anhyzer throw. Challenging.

There is this tiny water park in Old Settler's park. And, apparently, it is really popular. So they are expanding the parking by digging up the park. Thats just what we need to do: trade grass for asphalt. And, they created this big temporary road up the hill along hole 8 for the construction equipment. Sigh.

On hole 16, I had a great first throw. Which was easily birdied. This is another hole that calls out for an arcing anhyzer throw.

This weekend was a World's Biggest Disc Golf Weekend. To celebrate, Disc Nation held a free tournament called Cinco De Fly-o. It was held at the Twin Parks Country Club in Dripping Springs, Texas which is south west of Austin on 290.

The place was packed with 150+ people. For being a free tournament, they had a lot of perks. There was free breakfast tacos in the morning and a free lunch and dessert. The park was free for the day. And everyone got a coupon for merchandise at Disc Nation for playing. I think that Disc Nation did a really good job with this event. There were a lot of people running the tournament. The only problem was that it took a while to get going. We started at 11 instead of 10 in the morning.

I was not lucky enough to play with John for the event. But the people I played with were okay. There was one nice and talkative person. The other people were rather quiet and reserved.

I finished 18 holes with a score of 77. I had one bad hole where I scored 8. But the rest of them were decent surprisingly enough. And when I saw John again, I learned that he had pipped me with a score of 76.

One of the holes had a closest to the pin contest. I was no where close...

John had originally wanted to go mountain biking afterwards on one of the trails at the park. But had decided against it since our skills were rather lacking. Sadly, although I own a mountain bike, I have never ridden it off road. Apparently, John's bike's tires were rotting. So he had to borrow his wife's bike. And it seems that he did not have a bike helmet as well. He had to borrow his eight year old son's helmet.

We did stop by Walnut Creek Park after a huge lunch/dinner at Pappasitos (We ordered the mixed chicken and beef fajitas for two. Which came out as all chicken. So they gave us another order that had all steak. Four times the food, half the price!). The trail was quite easy, fun, and shaded. And muddy too with all of the recent rain. It is a shame that I have never been to this park having lived so close to it for so long.

I had one interesting experience during the ride. In this one section of the course, it was quite twisty and narrow. You were doing a tight turn after tight turn. So I was surprised when I turned the corned and saw a snake laying on the path! Fortunately, I was able to just miss running it over.

I went to Old Settler's park for some disc golf today. I started off with a good approach shot on hole 3. No birdie though.

With all of the recent rains and the threatening rain clouds around, it was quite humid out there. Probably around 100% humidity. And hot as well too.

Ugh. It seems that the Poison Ivy is growing! It is a shame that I am allergic to it.

My first throw on hole 15 was shortened when it glanced off of a tree. But the second throw landed right next to the basket. Sweet!

And the throw on the next hole was pretty nice as well. I was a little worried when a dog came running down towards my disc when it hit the earth. But I heard the owner yell at it to stop and it turned around and ran back.