Disc Golf in the Summer.

This can't be said enough at this time of year. Take care of yourselves and remember to stay hydrated during the summer rounds.

I was just talking to a friend and he asked if I had heard what happened at Z Boaz in Fort Worth on Sunday. He told me a disc golfer, had died of either a heat stroke or heart attack on the eighteenth hole. He was about twenty feet from holeing out and had to sit down to rest. Well, he never got back up and by the time the paramedics reached the park, his heart had been stopped for about four and a half minutes. He was a casual player and hardly anyone knew who he was but that doesn't change the fact that it could happen to any one of us.

This will be our third day in a row over a hundred and it's looking like more than a week to follow before we'll cool off and stay in the upper nineties. The heat index last Saturday was 110 and we've already had a couple heat related deaths this year.

Go easy on the beer fellas, and drink plenty of water even if you are ganna have a few beers during your round. Please live to throw another round.

Keep an eye on your buddies too and make sure they're doing ok when you play together, you could save their life or they could save yours.

Also, remember to wear light and loose fitting clothes too, and here's something I do. If you are carrying a cooler, throw a bandana in it, then if someone does get overheated, get it full of icewater and hit the vital points. The wrists, neck, armpits etc to try and bring the body temp down.

If you start getting a headache or light-headed. Just stop or at least take a break, get in the shade and make sure you're ok before playing on.

Don't make this summer your last round of disc golf. Many of you have never had the chance to play a round with me and I look foward to the opportunity to do so.

This has been my public service announcement.
Take care of each other.
Peace.

Nascar Dave

[Nascar Dave]

I played the Oak Ridge Tourney this past weekend and saw heat exhaustion again first hand. The event was two rounds of twenty eight holes and there was five on our card for the second round. Two guys were both struggling the second round but with the ice and water we were able to get through the round. A bandana and ivce water go along way to keeping the head cool in extreme heat.

[Twoputt]

Experienced it personally for the first time this last weekend. 114 heat index and I drank 8 large bottles of gatorade and 1 bottle of water. It still didn't help. Got sever cramps in places I didn't think could cramp with 6 holes to go of a 36 hole round. Almost withdrew but we had a backup with 4 to go and a couple of players helped stretch me out. Finished the event but had to stop 3 times on a two hour trip home due to cramps.
I can't stress enough the importance of not only drinking fluids during the round but especially the day before. Once I got behind on fluids, I just couldn't hardly catch up.

[Bill Burns]

Sorry I couldn't make it to Oak Ridge last Saturday. Hopefully he will open the course up again in the near future.

I had to be on the east side of DFW with a couple hours to kill on Sunday afternoon, so I went out to Harry Myers in Rockwall. Played the long tees, but I tried to stay in the shade where I could. Took a liter bottle that full of Ice cold water. After I got done with hole 10, I decided to skip 11 and 12. Got to 13th tee box, looked at the hole, thought about how much I had left to play, especially that fun, short ,shaded hole 17. Also thought about the guy that died at Z Boaz the weekend before.

I threaded my way across as much shade as I could find to get back to my car.

I am not a morning person, and I noticed in the latest KC Worlds schedule, that for all three days that the MPGs do not play at Blue Valley, there is an 8 AM round. At first I was not too excited about having to get up so early in order to get some warmup in before I start the round, but now I have a more favorable view of it.

I still want to play like I am 25 - wanting to throw only Aeros on holes that are 300ft or less, then only Aviars if the hole is less than 350, and I hate that I can't do that anymore. But since I got the big HC creeping up on me, I guess you gotta make some concessions to Father Time, which includes avoiding practicing in 100 degree heat.

[Nascar Dave]

Right on Bill. I didn't have too much trouble at Oak Ridge Saturday but then I scheduled a work day at Weatherford and we stopped earlier than planned but we all were ready to stop when we did.
As far as another tourney up there, he is working on one foe the fall of this year, probably late October or November, but I'll let you know when it gets closer.