May 3, 2009
Bryant Lake (+5)
Ben and I had been planning to play one day this week, we agreed on Friday. It was supposed rain all day so I was nervous that we were going to get rained-out, but we played! Although, it was windy as hell, it was a totally different game, because you can’t throw naturally, you have to compensate for the wind – I’m sure some people say that this is part of the game, which I understand to an extent, I mean it is an outdoor sport that you play in parks, woods, etc. Either way, I feel like it makes it more of a gamble and a “try to get lucky” game, but I guess if I was skilled enough, I would know how to play in these conditions. I had 3 shots for the day that went at least 20′ away from my target, especially on hole 18, which is on a hill. I was putting from about 20-25′ out, and I could barely feel a wind, so I threw and all of a sudden, half way to the basket, my disc tipped vertically and got blown like the sail of a pirate ship, so far away from the basket that my par 4 which I should have had turned into a double bogie – suck. Ben picked up some Moose Drool, it’s brewed in Missoula, Mont. (Zach’s original home-town, right?) It was pretty good, I’ve had it once before at Scott Rosenthal’s house. Ben had some pretty nice, far drives. He has his form down, that’s for sure. I am still working on my backhand throw, which is far from acceptable, but I need to learn. I have my forehand down, and I can drive the same distance as everyone else, but I want to have both throw’s in my arsenal. Bryant Lake is a really, really nice course. Definitely worth $3, I love the signs at each hole and the 16′ long tee pads, Jake would love them, I think they are somewhat new from last year when they did the re-design. I know I keep talking about this, but I believe that my scores haven’t been as good as they “should” be because I’ve been forcing myself to throw in a new way that doesn’t feel natural (yet), so with this in mind, I’m pretty content with my decent scores. I think I can par the course at Bryant Lake, there are several birdie opportunities. The night ended at Maxwell’s with a pitcher of Surly Furious and some good talks about: politics, friends, people that used to be friends and aren’t anymore, conservative families and spoiled, fat, rich Americans – I think that covers it.
This is nice because it says what’s considered “Out of bounds” and it doesn’t say anything about not having beer 🙂
Yeah, I’ll have a number 1 (under), no pickle and a coke with no ice.
I played yesterday on my lunch break (-1), and I was really happy with my hybrid play, that’s a great way to describe it actually. For those of you who aren’t so hot with the forehand (side arm) throw, you might want to start practicing. Basically, if you don’t feel confident enough to drive with your sidearm on the majority of holes (if it makes sense to, of course) then you have some work to do, just like me, but opposite 😉 I can tell Mark wants to, he was mumbling about how he should try to throw like that, do it Mark! Anyway, playing this round felt a lot more like last year when I would par Rosland without even thinking about it, and I finally had a good drive on hole 6 for a nice bird.
Drive on hole 6 at Rosland, I threw my Star Wraith with my side arm flick!
Acorn (+5) There’s a first time for everything. (for the year)
I got a very nice, surprising phone call on Friday night from a Mr. Mark Nordling. He was calling to ask if I wanted to play disc golf the next day. Ecstatic from his request, I replied with eager excitement telling him something along the lines of “Mark, that’s the best thing that you could have asked me!” Mark was equally excited (I assume), he just didn’t verbalize it in those exact words. I was at the Leaning Tower of Pizza on Lyndale when Mark had called me, Loran and I had biked there and met-up with a bunch of my co-workers. Basically, there were a bunch of unfortunate lay-offs at our company this week, so it was nice for a group of us to get together after this stressful week. Because we decided to bike there, before we had left we were in our garage getting Loran’s bike ready for it’s first ride of the season, we decided we both didn’t need our keys, so I locked mine in our car that was also in the garage. It was a fun night, filled with great company and it was great to ride our bikes in the beautiful, warm weather. The next morning I woke up and did some freelance and Loran went with Hope to the gym for her first experience at yoga. I was finished with my work for the morning early, so since it was such a nice day out, I thought, we should get out to the course while it’s still somewhat early, before it gets busy. So I called Mark and we decided to go to Acorn to play, and I wanted to get a new putter at Fairway Flyerz. So, we agreed to meet there in 45 minutes or so. As I walked towards the door to leave, I realized that my keys weren’t hanging where they should be, and then I realized where my keys were and I how I wasn’t going to be able to get them until Loran got home. This was annoying in 2 ways, first, I was pissed because this is going to hold us up from beating the crowd and getting on the course before noon. Secondly, I felt bad because I have a reputation for not having a very good concept of time and I knew that Mark was going to be annoyed with me calling and telling him to wait longer. So, as anyone would do, I called the gym to see if they could page Loran, but apparently they don’t interrupt yoga classes for emergencies, the lady said it has something to do with meditation and focusing your mind or something, whatever, I didn’t really listen to what she was saying. So, I thought I will just have to wait until they are done in a half hour and get the keys out of the car when Loran gets home. This ended up being OK because I cleaned the apartment while I was waiting. I was finally on my way, Mark called and said he was on Rice St. so we decided to meet at the DG shop. I really wanted to get a Discraft Magnet putter, but then after asking the very knowledgeable man a few questions, I decided to go with something else. My current putter is an Innova Factory Second, basically it’s a disc that has minor blemishes or was misprinted, so they sell it for cheaper. I am pretty sure that it is really comparable to an Innova Aviar. I wanted something that was much stiffer, and not so “floaty” as I describe it. I have been putting with my Roc lately because I like it’s stiffness and rigidity. I realized that the magnet was really similar to my current putter, so I asked the owner what the stiffest putter that he had was. He took me over to the wall and introduced me to the Gateway Wizard. I held this disc in my hand, “Wow! This thing really is STIFF!,” I said. I then went to the practice basket in the store and I sunk my first putt with it. Alright, I’m getting this one I decided (see photos below). I feel like a while ago Jake was looking for a putter and the same guy showed him the wizard, or we realized that Jake’s putter was a wizard or a similar Gateway putter, I can’t quite remember but it was something like that. Either way, since I had a store credit I got my new putter for $2.63 – nice. By the way, this thing is like a piece of iron. It clanks so loud when it hits the chains and falls into the basket – I love it, it’s not gonna be some floppy flipper that the wind takes on a field trip, this thing will fly straight. We got to Acorn and started playing. It was a lot of fun to play with Mark on such a nice day, I had a great time. We were able to talk about how are jobs are going and I was able to get the scoop on all the new Wet Cement development. (Derek’s a biiiiiiiig machine) I have been working on my backhand throw a lot lately. It is still very unpredictable and I can’t get the distance that I think I should be getting. I know that it’s all about my form, I’ve been trying to analyze my throw and think about each step of the process, because I always seem to forget/not do at least one thing which throws off my drive. But, when I do things right, I can tell that I’m learning because it feels so good and the disc actually does what I imagine it to do in my head. I had a few terrible backhand drives/throws on the first few holes, but then I seemed to get a hold of it a bit more. Mark played well for his first time out for the year (at least I think it was), he had a really nice putt on hole 18, and that’s a hard hole to putt on because the basket is on such a steep hill. I had birdie-worthy drives on both hole 16 and 17 but only got the actually birdie putt on 17, grrrrr. I finished at +5 for the round, I was happy with it but I knew had errors and should have gotten a +3. My new putter is going to take some getting used to, I kept having to fight the urge to want to use my Roc to putt with, but I had just gotten a new putter for a reason. I’ve also been working on my putting form, trying to keep the disc centered with my body in between my shoulders, and I have my body perpendicular of the basket so I am looking right at it. Again, just like my backhand drives, I need to remember all parts of the process in order for it to work correctly, but when it does, man does it feel good – CHING!
Gateway Wizard putter. Solid as a Rock.
New putter, along with stretching cat and sniffing cat.
4/14 Rosland (+1)
This morning Zach and I had coffee (thanks to Zach’s house) and pumpkin bread (thanks to Jamie Davis) and banana bread (thanks to Hope). We played at Rosland on a beautiful Tuesday morning, the air was brisk and the sky was clear. I love the feeling of a sip of dark coffee followed by a good backhand drive! (I’m working on these, specifically on the shorter holes.) Zach and I played the first five holes and then some kid named Jack that works at Potbelly’s played with us for holes 6-9. Zach had another fantastic drive on hole 5, I have no idea how he does it, but I am jealous of those skills. I ended up at even (0) and Zach finished at +3. This week at work has been very emotional and high-stress, and I’m pretty sure that my boss was laid off today, I will confirm this tomorrow or later on in the week. So, to help clear my head about this nervous, intense stress, I decided to play dg after work at no other course than Rosland aka “my backyard.” I decided I deserved a 4-pack of Surly Furious, my new favorite beer, it makes me very hoppy. I found out by talking to the man working at Edina liquors that Surly’s brewery is in Brooklyn Park, MN. Anyway, I ended up at the course with a Surly in my bag’s beverage holder, ready to be sipped on a night that was equally as brisk as the morning. I had a terrible drive on the first hole, and I only par’d it because of a great putt (yes Zach, I did keep accurate score.) It was busy and there was a three some in front of me taking their sweet time so I waited for a while. Then I stepped onto the t-box with my Innova Star Valkerie and I flicked that thing… my drive flew, really far. I got up to it, and realized that for the first time ever, I might actually birdie this hole. (it’s the only hole at Rosland that I haven’t birdie’d) Below is a picture of my drive. I had a tough birdie putt, I made sure to center the disc with my body and push it as much as I spun it, so it would stay flat and not float off course. I released the disc, watching it fly downhill towards the basket, CHING! Oh yeah, birdie on hole 2. I immediately texted Zach, but he was busy worshiping God or something at church and didn’t respond. I continued playing and had a sweet backhand drive on hole 5, I felt like I got a really good snap off of it, but right after I released it, it smacked a tree 50 feet in front of me. It “Rick O’Shay’d” to the right, down near the tee box for hole 2 and the volleyball court. My second throw sucked and floated over the pines and landed near the parking lot. By the time I made it there, annoyed as hell about my 2 terrible shots in a row, all of a sudden some kid was putting at my basket, as I am about to. He had headphones on and was just cruising through the course with one disc. He looked at me as he finished and yelled sorry. I bogie’d this hole to bring me back to 0. The group of three was still ahead of me, so me and this dude played the back-half together, I forget his name, he works for a internet marketing company near Zach’s work… He sank a very nice approach shot on hole 7 from like 40-50′ away, I congratulated him but he acted like it was no big thang… did I mention he reminded me of Shrek, but with cooler sun glasses and a deeper voice. (forgive me) We both had good drives on 8, possible but hard birdie shots, when all of a sudden I hear a CHING! I look around, and one of the kids in the group ahead of us aced hole #9 – he then continued to run-around the hole like a European soccer player who just scored a goal. I clapped for him and then thought to my cocky-self, I could do that. (forgive me x2) Loran met me, and I talked her into playing another 9 with me while I told her the news about work. I magically par’d all 9 holes and finished the 18 at +1 (I have witnesses). What a great night of disc golf.
Drive on hole #2 at Rosland. I made this birdie putt – this was the only hole at Rosland that I had never birdie’d!
(-1) Randall Oaks, West Dundee, IL
Welcome to my disc golf blog! I don’t know anyone who would ever read this blog that doesn’t know this, but, I called it Rick O’Shay because one time playing at the Bryant Lake course in E.P., someone’s disc ricocheted of a tree. In response, I believe I said, “Wow, that thing really ricocheted,” and then I believe Zach said, “Rick O’Shay?” And then I replied, ” Rick O’ Shay, Nick Lachey’s brother”. This is how I remember it happening, correct me if I’m wrong. Anyway, I went to a show last night at the House of Blues in Chicago, I then stayed at my cousin’s house. (Loran’s mom picked her up in Rockford, and I went to the show by myself, well… I guess I wasn’t really by myself if you count the 3,000 obnoxious teenagers packed into the venue.) I was going to play one of two 18 hole courses in the same park in Rockford this morning on my way to the Davis’, (Anna Page Park West Course Review) but my cousin and her husband told me about a course that was closer to their place and less out of the way. (Randall Oaks Course Review) So, I woke up, threw my contacts in, said my thank yous and goodbyes and was on my way. I was stuck in traffic as soon as I pulled out onto the main road they live off of, which was weird. I continued my search for coffee and some sort of pastry, I tried looking ahead to see what was causing the hold-up and I saw a tiny little shop in a mini strip mall that just said donuts. I thought, I’m going for it, I don’t know if I’m going to have another chance. I walked in, and I noticed on the door that they closed at 11am, it was 9:45 – when I got in, the employee was putting away all the donuts (only 2 trays). The place was tiny, and there was one old-school coffee pot about 1/3 full, I asked the guy what kind of coffee they have (hoping it was caffeinated) he mummbled something in a questioning way and walked into the back. As he was back there clunking around, I immediately regretted my decision, realizing that this was not the non-chain, gem of a local pastry shop that I was hoping for. The guy came back with a massive economy bag of coffee, it had a name of a South American country on it, I can’t remember what is was, Paraguay? He read it to me and pointed to the word, I just acted like the coffee he was holding was not the random, magical brand that I wanted to hear, so I said, “Ehhh, OK, I think I ‘m going to try somewhere else” and jetted out of there. 15 minutes later I found a Starbucks. (which is usually my last choice, aside from “donut”) So, I was officially on my way with a cinnamon roll in my stomach and a grande dark roast. I was looking for the road I was supposed to turn left on, when what do I see, just like finding water when you’re lost in the desert, a bright yellow Innova basket! I found it, so I turned in, walked around the park a bit until I figured out where hole one was. These photos show a few of the holes, some of them were pretty cool. In general, the course was pretty simple, but there were a fun variety of long and short holes. I finished the 10 hole course at -1, I was at -3 before I got to hole 9, she was a beast (insert joke here). I had to walk past holes 8 & 9 to get back to my car, and I didn’t like that it was a 10 hole course, I’m not used to the butt hole being on #10 – so I played 8 & 9 again and finished the 12 at -3. What an awesome start to the day!
Hole 7 – I got an Eagle on this one thanks to my trusty old side arm flick.
This is kind of an intimidating first hole, especially for a new course and it’s still early in the season.
Lot’s of par 4 and 5’s – a couple of them were a little too generous, I must admit.
par-mitzvah! 