Merry Christmas & Course Records...

Ahh... nothing like Christmas. There's just a different feeling around the house during the holidays. Right now I'm sitting back with a nice honey brown... smooth brown honey lager. My dog, Atticus, is guarding his dog biscuit instead of eating it. I'm pleasantly ignoring an episode of Seinfeld and getting ready to absentmindedly pay scant attention to Scrubs. Can't complain one bit. I love the holidays.

I got what I wanted for Christmas... a couple hundred bucks from the parents for books (spring semester is going to be expensive), some jeans, and my PDGA membership renewed. I can't complain about the ability to turn down the magazine subscription, it put the membership within our $40.00 sibling buying budget.

For the first time in two years it wasn't just my brother and myself reciprocating on PDGA memberships and getting $5.00 off for the family discount. He's kind of grown out of disc golf in a way. He'll be back to it one day, he's incredibly talented. Tall and lanky with a natural putting stroke. He was a 940 rated player when I was still in the 910 range. But this year he wanted something else... I got him a UPA membership and a belt buckle this year. He played pretty good in his first season, we'll see how he improves during the spring season.

So it's been a good Christmas. I went and hit Ottawa Park with Jimmy Bates. He's been hitting Ottawa every Christmas for three years now, apparently. First time I've gone out. We played a round from the longs to warm up and then played something called the "Smokey Safari" course, named after Chris "Smokey" Hoyle who designed it. Over the year plus since it was first played the best score shot was a +2 56 by Pete Wyngaard, a 1000+ rated player out of Ann Arbor.

I went out and shot a +2 56, including a 3 on the 530+ foot wooded hole 16 which was a straight 340 foot roc shot when Wyngaard played the course. Only one other person had shot a +3 57 on the course (Hoyle) and I was one of the few that had shot a +4 58 in the year and a half. Hoyle is actually offering a $20 bounty for a E 54 on it. So for the first time in the short almost-three-years since I picked up a disc for the first time, I can say I hold a tie for a course record. It was only worth $5.00 from Jimmy Bates, but it was a legit money round. I guess all of that putting and field work is making a difference.

I'd love to spend another 15 minutes typing up a full recount of my round, but I'll say this: I missed three putts for birdie from inside of 25 feet and took an OB. Even is possible. VERY possible. Here's the line and hole distances...

1 - 390' - 4
2 - 280' - 3
3 - 380' - 3
4 - 350' - 3
5 - 420' - 4
6 - 380' - 4
7 - 420' - 3
8 - 160' - 2
9 - 480' - 3
FRONT - 29
10 - 330' - 3
11 - 470' - 4
12 - 375' - 2
13 - 320' - 3
14 - 480' - 4p
15 - 230' - 2
16 - 535' - 3
17 - 410' - 3
18 - 450' - 3
BACK - 27
TOTAL - 56

Yays!


-Chris.