Disc Golf: August 2007 Archives

Apparently John Houck is closing the Circle-C course for some improvements. Gravitt announced it on the newsgroup. This prompted me to drive down and take pictures before it closed. And it was a good time of the year to go! With all of this recent rain, the grass is now green and the water is flowing...

Those spiders are out here as well. And their yellow camouflage works well. I wonder if that thing will eat discs?

Hole seven is a tough hole. You are on the left side of a stream. About 250 feet out is a waterfall and pond. Just to the right of that pond is a small "island" where the basket lies. There is a lot of vegetation providing a barrier along both sides. Man, that is really tempting to swim in!

Along the left side of hole 16, there is water. You can't see it through all of the trees and underbrush, but its there. Believe me. But then you really do not need believe, because John's disc found the water. Fortunately, the water was rather clear.

We met up with Jon at Mary Moore Searight park to practice for the upcoming tournament. I had a couple of good throws from the tees. Which led to birdies on 6 and 18.

I went to Wilco again today but limited myself to three discs only: two mid-range discs: a Star TL and a Millennium Aurora Midrange Straight, and my putter, the Thumbtrac Birdie. For each shot, I would throw both mid-range discs. I need the practice. And when I putt, I putted with all three of my putters.

It was good practice. And even throwing so much, I still made good time on the course. Which was packed today for some reason. I had to skip around some holes to bypass the slower players...

John, Jon, and myself played disc golf at Wilco. And boy did I suck today. I have nothing more to say on that topic except to point out this scary spider...

Today was the Ace Race 2007 tournament. There were 12 holes. At each hole, a tee box was marked that was 180 to 235 feet away. Almost every hole was a different approach to the basket from the normal course layout. We then played these holes three times around. You only got one throw. If it went in (called an ace) or hit the basket (called metal), it would count. At the end of the game, the highest number of aces would win. In the case of a tie, the highest number of metals would win. And in the case of a tie, a "closest to the pin" round would occur.

For a twenty dollar entry fee, we received two mid-range prototype discs, a hat, and a marker. Which was a pretty good deal. The only problem was the rain and the wind. You could only throw those prototype discs. Which gave everyone a level playing field. But the wind was the randomness in this game. It was hard enough to throw a brand new disc. Throwing it into the wind was even harder.

John tried breaking the discs in by throwing them on the concrete tees. I don't know how much that helped, though.

We played with Damon Neth and his son, Spencer. Damon owns the Disc Nation store down in South Austin. He was a nice guy and very friendly. Luckily, I was able to hit basket number 1 on the second time around. And I was the only one in the group to do so. Unfortunately, there were other people who were able to hit metal twice. So a play-off round was held. My group was impatient to wait for the finish and they went off to the Tilted Kilt to eat.

John and I practiced for the upcoming Ace Race 2007 tournament. Tees are placed around 200 feet from the baskets. Only aces or hits of the metal basket count.

The stubby pecan tree was looking pretty ripe. Ripe enough to warn people off.

I went out to Wilco a little bit late today. At least hole 5 was a birdie...

I went down to Mary Moore Searight Metropolitan park to take some pictures. With a new camera and a new lens, I just had to take some more course photos.

The weather was brutally hot out. I worked up quite a sweat walking around the course. As hot as it was, there were still people playing out here. I don't think that this course is ever empty. Afterwards, I played a round of disc golf. And I even had to take a break or two in the shade to cool off.

I played through a rather large group. And, wouldn't you know it, but I played badly that hole. My disc hit a tree, I cut my leg getting the disc out, and then I missed the put into the hole. Sigh.

But then on hole 6 and 7, I had back-to-back birdies. I ended up 3 over par.

Next, I went to Circle C. Disc Nation was kind enough to print me out a course map. Unfortunately, the course was far too overgrown. Almost every field was full of waist-high grassy shrubs. I was real careful in throwing discs. And, even then, I would sometimes have to search a while to find where it landed.

I did have one birdie on hole 4.

Hole 15 was unplayable due to the really high level of Slaughter Creek. And it was fun making my way across the creek balancing from unstable rock to submerged rock. At hole 17 (out of 21), I finally gave up. It was no fun trying to find your disc in a sea of green. And I eventually found the hike and bike trail and made my way out of the park.