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Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun's Blog (46)

2008 PDGA Worlds Am Player Package

This is a great tournament host hotel with plenty of open social space and a nice bar and restaurant.

Garrett and Steve and I drove back roads to Kalamazoo in the convertible. Sheila drove her car via the freeway later in the day. GG and Steve are spending the night in our room and will strike off with friends for the rest of the tournament tomorrow. Sheila and I saw an awful lot of good friends tonight and had a great time: the Hardymans, Doc Harmon, Jon Lyksett, Everett, Avery and… Continue

Added by Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun on August 8, 2008 at 9:30pm — 4 Comments

Double G In the House

Went to the Detroit airport this afternoon and picked up Garret Gurthie and his caddy, Steve McNeill. They're staying with us tonight and we're driving them with us - in two cars - to Kalamazoo tomorrow, for Worlds. Picked them up in Clifford the Big Red Truck and then moved into Cliffy the 1963 Corvair convertible and drove to Bandemer Park for a quick 9 holes.

It was fun watching a 1020+ rated pro pick apart the holes!

On the way back from Bandemer a thunderstorm moved… Continue

Added by Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun on August 7, 2008 at 9:00pm — 2 Comments

Worlds Courses: Robert Morriss Park & Begg Park

I finally got to Kalamazoo today (joined by Tom Blackburn, Richard Tuttle, and Josh Cantor). We played Robert Morris Park and Begg Park. I threw a 54 at Robert Morris and a 52 at Begg. I really liked both courses. Robert Morris is tougher than that, and I'll probably never again throw it that well.

Both courses are, I think, in good shape for the Worlds, with some obvious last-minute signage yet to come.

I have never played Three Rivers, and haven't seen Oshtemo or Kimball… Continue

Added by Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun on August 3, 2008 at 7:30pm — 3 Comments

Waterloo State Recreation Area (Big Portage Lake Concession) Disc Golf Course

I feel like I am learning so much this year about course design - including the politics of it - that I should share things as I learn them. Which means a lot more related posts from me, although I am not sure whether posting to my blog or to the forum is a better way of sharing/learning. (Opinions welcome.)

Sheila and I drove to the Waterloo course today to check out the work the parks people there have done on the first 9 holes, designed by Gunars Nollendorfs and I. The last time I… Continue

Added by Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun on August 1, 2008 at 8:10pm — No Comments

Ohio River Valley Rainforest - Beatty Park, Steubenville, OH

Sheila and I are visiting my relatives, here in the corner where Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia come together. There is a celebration later today for my mother's 82nd birthday. We got up early and, while Sheila headed out for an hour-long walk-jog, I headed down to and over the Ohio River, and back over again, to Beatty Park in Steubenville.

It was about a 50-minute drive, crossing the Ohio River on the toll-bridge only one block from where I grew up, and under which… Continue

Added by Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun on July 27, 2008 at 11:30am — 5 Comments

A Brief Visit to Waterloo State Recreation Area (Big Portage Lake Unit Course, Under Construction)

Saturday, after Sheila headed to Hudson Mills for the Femillz tourney, our nephew, Andy, and I drove to the site of this new disc golf course currently being constructed. My intent was to see what the first nine holes looked like, now that rough clearing had been done, and to try to lay out a few more holes for the park staff to do further work on.

It was a pleasant drive. We took the Corvair convertible, with the top down, and drove back roads, so about 60 percent of the roughly… Continue

Added by Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun on July 13, 2008 at 8:30am — 2 Comments

PDGA Competition Manual

Many disc golfers have heard about the mysterious "Competition Manual," which can be found here (PDF), but many fewer have read it! I suggest that you do as it contains a number of things that function as Rules of Play for PDGA-sanctioned events, many of which you may not already know very well.

It has the same force and effect as the official rules book. See Section 3.1.A for example, "All… Continue

Added by Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun on June 22, 2008 at 12:30pm — No Comments

Remaking Brown Park: Part 1

We are engaged in redesign of a local course and I thought it might be nice to share a series of blog posts about it.

Brown Park was a near-downtown Ann Arbor city park with 18 holes with a large and devoted following of disc golfers. In 2006, after about 15 years of use, the disc golf course was removed (temporarily) due to the Washtenaw County Drain Commission need to reconfigure the entire park so that it did a better job of allowing polluted sediments to settle out in a manner… Continue

Added by Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun on June 10, 2008 at 3:30pm — 7 Comments

Disc Golf Census - Preliminary Work

Just sharing notes with all:

Disc Golf Census

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

I left work an hour early today and spent the time from 4:15-5:15 pm standing by Hole 1 at the Bandemer Park Disc Golf Course. I had printed up (on paper, not card stock) some draft Bandemer cards and was handing them out. I also was asking people questions about their disc golf habits, in order to begin working on the ‘script’ that we’ll be asking volunteers to use when we do the Disc Golf Census… Continue

Added by Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun on May 13, 2008 at 7:00pm — 2 Comments

Visit from Chuck Kennedy

Sheila and I enjoyed a visit from Chuck Kennedy at our home last night. Chuck is one of the more experienced disc golf course designers in the world, as well as a creator of the PDGA ratings system, member of the Disc Golf Hall of Fame, etc. He was near the tail end of three weeks on the road, during which time he had been at the… Continue

Added by Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun on May 13, 2008 at 9:00am — No Comments

Blizzard Hills Disc Golf Course Design

Well, it's exciting to see this course start to go in. Lorie Szyperski and her family are doing the hard work of fundraising and clearing. I get to drive north a couple of hours and do the design work. What fun!

Currently laid out are Holes 1-3, 7-9, and 16-18. They are going to work, for most of this year I think, as the first nine. It's getting a little 'leafy' to be able to go in and visualize the other nine holes.

Lorie and her team have cleared the brush and trees for… Continue

Added by Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun on May 11, 2008 at 6:51pm — No Comments

Trying to Raise Money for a Course? Leverage the Disc Golf Foundation!

I'm involved right now with the design of what will be a great course in Pinconning, Michigan. Pinconning is, to put it mildly, not in the economically most robust part of Michigan, which is itself, not exactly economically robust right now. But the lady raising money for the course, Lorie Szyperski, has raised more than $4,000, so far. (There's even a disc golf course fundraising 'thermometer' on the front page of the local… Continue

Added by Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun on May 10, 2008 at 8:00am — 2 Comments

The PDGA Is Looking for Some Great Disc Golfers for Its Board of Directors

The Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) is the governing body of the sport. It sets the rules and the technical standards. It runs an international and a national tour. It promotes disc golf in many ways. It is so many different things that it has a very difficult governance task. It needs you!

I served for more than 5 years on its board of directors. The task was occasionally burdensome. It… Continue

Added by Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun on April 12, 2008 at 7:27pm — 4 Comments

DGLO Players Party at BRATS by discgolfersR.us

On Friday evening, June 20, we will hold the fourth annual Brats @ the BRATS party. This year it is the official players party of the Discraft Great Lakes Open event and sponsored by a3disc and discgolfersR.us!

We hope everyone will come (6-10 pm), play our course, and enjoy bratwursts and lots of other food. If you are a vendor who sells… Continue

Added by Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun on April 7, 2008 at 9:30am — 1 Comment

Discing the Great Wall of China!

Yesterday was Sheila's birthday. As you may know, we're in China until March 24. We visited a cloissone factory, had lunch in a farmers restaurant (two tables total), and visited the Great Wall. That evening, Sheila accomplished one of her trip goals when we went to the Beijing Night Market and ate a skewer of deep-fried scorpions.

I accomplished one of my trip goals when I made several drives… Continue

Added by Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun on March 6, 2008 at 9:00pm — 4 Comments

More Americans Are Giving Up Golf

Hey, folks. I wrote to The New York Times today. Why don't you?

I wrote in response to this article: More Americans Are Giving Up Golf - note that it is currently the Number One Most Emailed NYT article today!1

Here's what I said:

Re: More Americans Are Giving Up Golf

Dear Sirs:

Environmental… Continue

Added by Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun on February 21, 2008 at 8:50pm — 3 Comments

BRATS Course in the Snow

I spent much of the morning counting who had referred whom in the January "Get A Member" contest, and cooking a great mess of hash browns, bacon, and fresh eggs from a farm neighbor about a mile away. I figured I'd spent the day indoors, but Ben said: "Hey, let's play a quick nine holes."

Well, we did, and took both dogs. We played the back nine and ended up tied at 26. Couldn't leave it at that, of course, so we put the dogs away - Ozzy was being a pain, moving our drives around - and… Continue

Added by Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun on February 2, 2008 at 2:23pm — 1 Comment

Disc Golf In the News

Yesterday, the Ann Arbor News featured disc golf on the front

page of its "Connection" section. The coverage also included a nice

image about it at the top of the front page. Here is a link to the article, titled: It's the right stuff vs. the white stuff Dedicated disc golfers don't let winter spoil the game.

The online version does not have a sidebar… Continue

Added by Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun on January 18, 2008 at 2:02pm — 2 Comments

The 20 Discs Winner from the 1,000th Member Drawing

Shipped by UPS today to the 20 discs winner: Andy Anderton of Knoxville, Tenessee.

White, Innova Star Shark, 179 grams

Pearlescent, Innova Candy Spyder (I think), first-run (from Nashville Worlds, I think)

Pink 161 gram Roc with a Hollywoods Disc Golf Course stamp

Blue, Odyssey from Gateway/Quest, 170 grams

Bright green Discraft ESP Surge FLX with No Foolin stamp, 169

Yellow Discraft Elite X Tracker, 164-168 grams

Orange, Discraft, candy, Elite Z Surge, with a… Continue

Added by Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun on January 11, 2008 at 2:16pm — 3 Comments