I’d like to blame the wind, but 2 other guys in my division shot under par and another shot par. The truth is that I made some poor decisions, and my mid-range game totally abandoned me.

Interestingly, on the one hole that proved to be the most challenging (and to my mind basically pointless), I shot par on the first round and a bogey on the second. Better than some others. It’s small comfort.

I’ll let you imagine the finer points of playing 144 holes of disc golf in under 14 hours. Here are some random observations:

• Two themes emerged on the day:
  1. What do we play? Team Golf. Throughout the day, Ken and I complemented each other’s weaknesses nicely. When I’d throw a drive into a tree, Ken’d have a nice clean shot. When Ken yanked a putt, I might put one in. Neither one of us had to carry the other for long, and both of us needed carrying at points.
  2. Long putt for two makes a tip-in for three. We quickly established a pattern of having 15-20 foot putts for 2. As long as one of us kept it close the other could run at it. We didn’t always get the deuce, but we gave ourselves chances.
• I was surprised at how NOT tired I was late in the day. It wasn’t until the 7th course that I started feeling some fatigue. I chalk this up to constant intake of water, gatorade, and Clif energy gel. Also, the drives between courses provided enough time to rest without getting stiff.
• I’m very glad I started working out at the Y. We had to sprint the last four holes, and there’s no way I could have finished without the working out. Not that I’m in the finest shape, you understand, but the cardio work made the difference.
• Positive talk will save the day. At any number of times–say when the skies opened and rained on us for four holes–it would have been easy to get negative, which would have slowed us down further. But Ken kept talking positive things (even when I knew his thoughts were quite the opposite). It’s amazing what a difference that makes.
• God bless the creators of UnderArmour.
• God bless the creators of Gold Bond Medicated Foot Powder.
• SHOCKING development of the day: I won a putting contest! While waiting for scores to be tabulated, the organizers held a “Ring of Fire” putting competition. 30 guys put at a basket simultaneously until only one person makes the putt. I won a nice Innova Starter Bag and a disc. That’ll never happen again!
• GPS units are wonderful. Ken and I were able to split the driving, and he could relax even though I didn’t know the way to the courses thanks to the nifty Garmin.

Results

• Number of Discs Lost: 3 (Ken)
• Number of Consecutive bogeys: 0
• Number of Trees Todd Hit on Tee Drives: Too numerous to count
• Number of Holes set straight through tight trees with a slight anhyzer bend: Same as number of Trees I hit
• Number of Participants: 46
• Number of Doubles Teams: 21
• Number of Intermediate Doubles Teams: 12
• Ken and Todd’s score: 402 (-35)
• Ken and Todd’s place in Intermediate Doubles: 3rd
• Number of gallons of Gatorade G2 I drank: 1
• Number of 1 liter bottles of water I drank: 8 or 9
• Pairs of socks used: 4

So there it is, we didn’t die, we finished, we placed. I call it a successful event.

This year, tournaments and my schedule haven’t been lining up well, but I found that I could play Vienna again. So, off I went. And…well, the same story, only worse. I shot a +5 on the first round, which I was pretty pleased with. The course has been re-configured in the past year to make it more challenging (read: they’ve grown enamored with wild, sharp-turning blind holes surrounded by man-eating brush that only a frequently-playing local has any chance of hitting). +5 put me in the money for my division, and (it turns out) shooting a 841 rated round which is above my current rating. So, I started the second round feeling pretty good…until the wheels came off. I’ll spare you the gruesome details, but the final result was a +11 round that was every bit as nasty as that sounds.

I fell from 8th to 13th and right out of the money.

Sigh.

Highlight of the day: A thumber tee-shot through the woods that hit the bottom of the basket pole and skittered about 7 feet away for an easy deuce.

Lowlight of the day: Hitting a tree three feet off the tee. 2nd shot, foot slips on rain soaked grass, drive goes to the right down a stand of trees about 20 ft perpendicular to intended flight path. 3rd shot goes deep into brush. Finish hole with a 5.

Non-golf-highlight of the day: An amateur radio club was having an event in the park. One gentleman had constructed an antenna that spanned several trees. I overheard him having a conversation with someone in Italy; the sound was as clear as any landline phone call I’ve ever heard. Comment from someone in our group: These are the guys you want to know when the world ends in an atomic war.

There were about ten fewer participants than last year, but I think we can chalk that up to the horrendous weather: temps around 38, 15-20mph wind, occasional rain/snow. Just the ticket for a miserable day. Despite that, we still had participants from Oklahoma, North Carolina, Michigan, West Virginia, and, of course, Ohio. I thought I saw a Kentucky car, but I’m not sure.
I started off the day shooting a personal best +3 in the first round. I didn’t do anything flashy, but I also didn’t have any horrific breakdowns either. The worst was hole 14 where I yanked my DX Eagle into the swollen Rock Creek. On the upside, I had a beauty of an uphill, into the wind birdie put on 14 that was entirely a result of my windblown putting session earlier in the week. At any rate, I was quite happy with my first round, and sat around during the lunch break antsy to get started.

For perhaps the first time, I found myself starting the second round on the lead card of my division. The leader was 4 strokes ahead while the other three of us were all within one. I quickly created separation between myself and the others…in the wrong direction. In the first nine holes, I shot two fives and a six. One of the fives and the six I might be able to blame on the wind and wet, but there was one five that was all on me. So, I ended up +14 on the day, dropping me from 2 to a sixth-place tie. That was enough to cash: DX Destroyer, folding stool, and a keychain. And I’m thankful.

I was also thankful to get out of that bonechilling weather and home to a hot shower! Overall it was a solid start to a new year of disc golf. Can’t wait for some better weather to toss some plastic.