The Tale of the Wood Nymph

One can see some pretty interesting things out on the disc golf course... in my neck of the woods it's usually things like women's underwear (hung proudly on display in some sapling); destroyed discs (I even found a chunk of one that looked like it had been through a fire), not to mention other peoples' lost discs; a set of keys; plastic pill boxes; the occasional activity of local birds of prey; and I'd bet you folks could add aplenty to this list. But the most surreal thing happened to my brother Kenny and I out on the local course the other day...

Thursday morning, North Water Tower Park in Sarasota. The day was lovely, but threatened to get hot. On the back nine we had just come off a rather lackluster attempt to par hole #10, and hole #11 is a relatively short yet tree-ridden straight shot. Bright light filtered down through the treetops, creating patches of light and sun all the way to the basket. Kenny had stepped onto the tee pad to set up while I was making a comment about something to him. Suddenly, he spins away and off of the pad with a big grin on his face, shaking his head. While I was trying to figure out what was going on he stepped back up and teed off, hitting a tree not far down the fairway, somewhat typically for us. I was still trying to get out of him what had happened, and he only told me to get on the tee pad and I would see for myself.

When I did I first glanced down at the basket, but then what Kenny saw caught my eye, and I too had pretty much the same reaction as he did.

About 40 ft. down the fairway is a large oak tree to the left, and it has large branch that sticks out into the fairway to a significant degree. This branch dips down a bit and then back up where it starts to split into smaller branches. One of these branches sticks out towards the tee pad, and - believe it or not - reclining up on that first branch was a woman.

A woman!

We couldn't see her face because of the second branch, but as we looked on we could see her tossing her reddish-blond hair around. Kenny and I kept looking back at each other in astonishment. Seeing a woman in the tree right in front of us was easily the last thing we had expected to find, and we were somewhat rattled by it all. Elements of a fairy story were coming to my mind... two travelers in a sun-dappled wooded glade encountering a wood nymph, at home in her favorite oak lookout, teasing the travelers with her charms. The only thing missing was her being naked, I tell you. It was all quite surreal.

I took my shot, and ended up pretty much the same as Kenny. After all, we didn't want to hit the wood nymph lest she cast a pall on the rest of our game. We walked on past her to resume our round, and as we moved on down the fairway she got down out of the tree and headed off in the opposite direction, disappearing into the distance. No par here for either of us, but as we threw our final putts Kenny suggested that we take a stroke off each of our scores because of what we now considered a unexpected interruption of our game face, as it were.

I hear that.

[Brian Matthews]

No number... I'm married.

[mr ed]

hey now,enjoyable mid summer story.We have played NWTP and some strange things do lurk in your "woods".I'd rather run across the "wood nymph" than the homeless fellows crashing through the woods at Port Charlotte course or the jeeps running the back fairways while you throw.However,there are some "wood runner nymphs" that we have encountered at the course lately.One never knows what will be lurking around the next bend of trees in Florida.Peace,mr ed

[Brian Matthews]

"Negotiable" is right.
And I have no stomach for that sort of 'adventure.' All I need is to rack up some additional medical bills...

[mark ellis]

A wood nymph of negotiable affection?

[Kenny Matthews]

"Nymph", might be a word used to describe magical fairies with glittering, flowing, silk-like wings, but I can assure you, this nymph was an unexpected suprise!!!

Brian, is in fact, my older brother. Not too much older, but he is the senior son. He is the one who got me out to the park in the first place. telling me how cool, peaceful, challenging, and overall a good time this disc golf thing, I knew little about it. He described it exactly!!!

We usually play at the closest park nearest to our home, North Water Tower park. It has some nice wide open holes, but most are littered with trees. I call many of these holes "Oh, This F^@%*@ hole again". Now as nice as this park is, its not nestled in some magical, mystical Eden. Its off the beaten track but not too far away from, lets say, "Where the hookers roam".

Seeing a chick walk by us, looking like she was rode hard and put away wet, is a usual occurrence at NWTP, but we just seem to get our own enjoyment out of the situation.

I walked up to hole #11, having pared the previous hole, with Brian just missing a long putt for birdie. At the time, I had an +3 thru 10 holes, which is outstanding for me. Got up to the pad and was "in the zone" as it were, staring at the basket, checking the ever plentiful trees and just tying to focus on just getting off a decent throw, when just before my windup, BOOM, there she was!!! Never had a clue she was there, never saw her!!! She seemed to just blend in with the surroundings. We both looked down range to the basket and saw nothing. Talkin about getting freaked out!!! I first thought about telling Brian why I just "Went Loco", but I thought, "how much better experiance will this be for him"?? Well it was the weirdest thing that has happened to us out on the course!!! .......

..... Oh, and yeah guys, she was cute, but then again, What the hell is a chick doing, sitting up in a tree, by herself, at 10:30 on a Wenesday morning???? Kenny!!!

[mark ellis]

I must be on the wrong website. I was hoping for a bit more adventure from a story about a wood nymph.

[Jamie 'gr8rocshot' Ruane]

So, ........Did either of you 'lumberjacks' get a number?