Disc Golf: April 2008 Archives

The group checked out the new disc golf course near the Benbrook subdivision in Leander. The course is brand new. And it shows. They are still working on clearing out trees. A crew had come by earlier, cut some tree branches down, and left them laying in the course.

There is a creek running through the course. Of course, we lost discs in it! You had to cross the creek at different points. Each time, the only way to get across was one thin board. The only problem with that was that one end was usually in the water.

The greens are pretty narrow. And the rough is very rough. It is quite easy to loose discs in the tall grass. If that wasn't enough discouragement, right next to the rough is an impenetrable wall of brush and trees.

I had a couple of good throws. But I tried to generally play it safe. Can you see that body of water in the distance? Well the basket is on that small hill behind it. There is about twenty feet of green around it.

Jon threw his disc in the water. And if I wasn't spotting his throw for him, he would have never found it. It disappeared into the muck without any trace.

Apparently Jon stirred up more than just muck in that pond. An aggressive water moccasin started swimming around in it after he left. It went back and forth towards people. Can you spot it just past the green pond scum?

That wasn't the only time you had to throw across the water either. The tee for seventeen is on the other side of another pond.

The meetup group met at Old Settler's Park for the winter variant. There were a lot of people that showed up including two new people (Jim and Tyler). The only problem was that there was a charity walk going on at the park. Oh well, it makes for a target rich environment...

The is another mound in front of hole two from the dam project. It was a damn, damn mound that sucked up a lot of discs...

Fortunately, my disc went around the mound.

But, unfortunately, we could not convert it into a birdie. Jon was off of his game today. And I blamed him, of course. Its never my fault!

There was one amusing incident on hole 10. A couple and their child were taking pictures in a tiny patch of blue bonnets. John, who definitely does not want to include hitting children in his list of accomplishments, went down to protect them. We threw discs down to the basket and John would try and knock them down when they got too close. Finally, they got the clue and walked off...

I practiced a little bit around the hill again at Old Settler's. I saw John's vehicle but no Gravitt. And, then on hole 12, I hear "four" and notice John's disc hit the ground close to me.

I had a couple of good initial first throws. But I couldn't convert them into birdies. John did throw a thumb on this hole this time. He considers it a safer shot. I just he is afraid of these trees...

I didn't stay that long. I wanted to take some pictures during sunset. The sky is nice and cloudless and there is going to be a full moon out.

Well it looks like the Meetup group finally took a trip down south! Today, we played at Circle C. Thanks to one of our new members, Jason, we actually played doubles. And we played at the shorter tees. This made for a much more relaxed and enjoyable experience. Gravitt was kind enough to car pool Jon and myself down to Slaughter Lane. We left ungodly early though. When I asked him why, he responded:

Contingency, practice, taco. It takes longer than you think.

Unfortunately, I had a Sobe Power Fruit Punch with my breakfast taco and the Taurine or the Guarana gave me a pounding headache. I could feel it build up at hole one. And I was miserable during almost all of the round of golf. Sigh.

We stopped by the south Twin Peaks for lunch. The tall mugs were frozen. And this iced up our beer. For some reason, our waitress was not very friendly. She never sat with us or talked with us.

Gravitt took this opportunity to teach Tichu to Javier. Javier was nice enough to play along with us. I don't know if he will play again though. It was amusing that he was on the opposite team from mine. Yet he kept asking what the special cards were. I tried not to use that knowledge. It was just a friendly learning game.

Today I practiced Old Settler's Winter holes around the hill. There are six holes that you can play that center around the small hill next to the water park. And if you play them three times in a row, that would make a round of 18.

It seems that I kept running into a group of people. At first, I thought that if I waited for them to finish a hole, I could be rid of them. But I discovered that, like myself, they were playing holes out of order. At least I was doing a sequence of holes. They were just jumping around...

Since I was colliding so often with these people, I wandered off across the street. It looks like the damn improvement has left yet another obstacle for me. There is now a hill of dirt on the left side of hole 2!

Gravitt, Ken, and myself played disc golf at Wilco. However, I had a headache come on around hole 8. So I aborted and went home. So sad.

I went down to take pictures of the southern 9 holes of Zilker park and put them up here. While I was there, a video and camera crew was also there. I saw some strobe lighting and there was one guy with a Canon 70-200mm lens. They were filming a guy talking and holding a couple of discs. I wonder what it was about?

Afterwards, I stopped to eat lunch at Flip Happy Crepes. I missed getting to eat here the fist time we went to Zilker. So I had to go by myself. It was very good. And it was packed. The line was long and slow. I don't think that there were many burners in that tiny camper.

I stopped by the water park at Old Settler's Park and practiced for a bit. There are six holes around the hill right next to the water park.