Disc Golf: Rankin Lake

So today i travelled out to Gtown for some one on two time with Michelle and Madison. Before heading out I checked the internet for a dg course in Gastonia, and lo and behold! there was one: Rankin Lake Park. It's 9 holes, tight fairways, few trees, with an evil creek and dense marsh. It's not been there all that long, so there's no map or pars to be found anywhere...so I assume they're all par 3, although holes 5 and 6 are rather long. If they ever hold a tourney out there, i'm signing up. It was pretty, fun, and I hit par on all but two holes.

Hole 5 was no joke, long and then crossing the creek on the right before getting in putting range. Of course i threw my Sidewinder into the cool clear water, half burying it in the sand. Not too bad getting it out though, and the course was empty of witnesses save what could possibly have been drug deals or make out sessions in a couple of vehicles that were idling for several minutes in the parking lot. Hey, who am i to judge?

The blue star is where the basket was.

Hole 6 was a bast-tard of a hole. Landing just barely inside the wood on the left side of the fairway, i figured my Valkyrie could still get some distance on the out. It brushed some of the foliage, then i lost sight of it. That orange disc was nowhere to be found. Traipsing through the mud, water, and attacking plants, i was beginning to think i was going to have to give up. I spotted an orange glimpse deep in a thicket, and braved the thorns to get to it. Of course it was just a plant branch with sunlight on it, but it made me think: perhaps my disc landed in one of the bushes. So i began my careful inspection again, this time raising my eyes from the ground to the trees. Three seconds later i found it, staring at me on the boundary of the woods and the fairway. Bugger.

It was a new course, the weather was perfect, and as i began Hole 7 two other dg-ers started on the 1st hole. When i finished i decided to go ask them whether there were any tourneys held here, and just say hello (where else am i going to meet people between work and sleep?). I get out the phrase: "Hey! i got a question..." when i recognize my old softball coach from high school, Mr Buckner. Blue eyes, great smile. He said my full name. (wahoo! he remembers me after 7 years!). Last i heard he was married and had a kid on the way, and i didn't get any personal info from him today, so i assume i still have no chance to marry him and have lots of little Buckners like i wanted to in school. Oh well, you can't win 'em all...at least he remembered my name right?

So that was my trip to Rankin Lake Park, just off I-85, left on Highway 321, first left at the Sizzler and to the end of the road. Gorgeous. To find out more about the park and the course, click here for the official website.

There is no Tenth Hole!

After a long break between blogs, here it comes roaring back with the
Kilborne experience. I have been playing a lot lately with the good
weather, a few times alone, sometimes with friends. Jake Brown, Lisa,
Jake Cordell, Robert, Penny, John...ask any one of them, i played
fairly well. These trips were noteworthy, but nothing compares to the
jaunt i had today. Halt dich fest, we're in for a bumpy ride!

Today was a mild and sunny March day, all the more beautiful because
it's the first of the next five that i don't have to work (wahoo!). It
started out with a leisurely breakfast at Landmark cafe, yes that
Landmark off Central. i give props to the potatoes, and the coffee
ain't half bad either. With my super full stomach and Robert there too,
it was on to Kilborne Park.

I'd heard of Kilborne before, i've read up on area dg courses, but i
had heard it was closed for a bit and it wasn't as good as Reedy Creek.
Basically, i didn't know where Kilborne Park was and was too lazy to
find out when Reedy was just around the corner. So here's the skinny on
the course itself:

Look for the trashcans.

There are double trashcans and a bench with a back at every tee off
(with the possible exception of Hole Ten). Look for these after
completing any hole because unlike Reedy, there are no markers or
arrows to point you in the right direction. Ian, it was like Raleigh
all over again: we spent more time looking for the next tees than we
did playing the holes themselves!

Learn to read badly drawn marker maps.

A few of the holes had real dg maps of the hole/fairway, but many had a
crudely drawn rough pic done with what i can only imagine to have been
a Sharpie. And it's not too late to adopt a hole either, many are just
waiting for sponsors to plaster a sign up and front the dough for a
real map. In the meantime, enjoy the heiroglyphics!

There is no Hole Ten.

This is not to say there is no basket for Hole Ten, there is...there's
just no tee off for it. Anywhere. I dare you to show me. I would go so
far as to double dare you. And yes, before you deem me an iDioT, i did
go back and check the course map at Hole One to see where the tee was
marked on the map, but that was a serious Baloney Tale. As in: it was
not there. Perhaps the giant mud/water hazard right after Hole Nine was
covering it up, but whatev man, we searched all frickin' over and found
squat.

Your score will rock.

The creaters of Kilborne's course were very generous with the pars, so
your score should look pretty darn good if you play here. Granted, a
lot of the fairways are super long, especially in comparison with
Reedy, but still, if you can't hit par here, you won't hit it anywhere.

Bring sunscreen.

Part of the course is pretty open, so you may get a tan. The back nine
are much more woody, and in this respect i give it points over my
beloved Reedy Creek. This course mixes it up. I can't wait till summer
to see how the leaves change the size of the fairway. On the other
hand, they aren't any of them particularly difficult holes. Some are
long, but all the putts are pretty simple. No drop off steep hills like
Hole 14 at Reedy, or curved out of sight slopes either. So i guess it's
a good vacation, but i wouldn't want to live there.

Our game itself was pretty fun, adventurous as we were searching all
the while for Hole Ten's nonexistent tee. It's not terribly far either,
so i would definately play there again. One caveat: it's not in the
best of neighborhoods, so bring a partner or a group unless you are
truly fearless. A small tree had fallen blocking the path of Hole 13,
but this was only a temporary setback, otherwise the trees were pretty
cooperative.

We had driven Robert's car, so we only had his Orc and his son's Wolf
to play with. The Wolf was a cheap disc, not bad for a six year old but
i think we know now why Dustin doesn't throw all that far (ie: that
disc sucks butt). Robert launched it into a tree a couple of times so
now it's warped (congrats Dustin, you're getting a new and better disc
soon!). I'm not used to an Orc, i prefer my Sidewinder, but it was all
good.

Afterwards we went to the Charlotte Museum of History, conveniently
located on the way back to the UNCC area. If you have an hour or two to
spare, you really should go. It's great. And you get a student
discount. It follows from settlement (i know how downtown streets got
their names now), all the way to the present. Charlotte has history,
even if all the buildings get torn asunder and redone every twenty
years.

Now i'm waiting for a plane to LaGuardia, my Delta flight got cancelled
so now i'm on a US Suckways flight. Not checking my baggage, that's for
darn sure. Oh yeah, and it's delayed (big surprise). Even if the next
few days with family are depressing or stressing or (dare i hope?) fun,
at least i had a great disc golf game to kick off my mini-vacation
right.

To find out more about Kilborne Park, click here.

A Jumble of Disc Golf Rounds

So in the last few weeks i went disc golfing several times, and a few had some moments definately worth mentioning...

___________________________

For one, i took my dad to play. He's in his early fifties and has diabetes, so the exercise is good for him but he can't handle anything too strenuous. Disc Golf was juuuuust riiiiiight. A walk in the woods i tell him, it'll be nice. The fact is i'm selfish and i wanted to take advantage of the weather, regardless of what he wanted to do. Luckily my dad was into it, so we both had a great time...We took pictures and fished discs out of creeks and gullies.

That's my dad, Andrew.

Dad was actually pretty good at it, he catches on quick for an old guy (wink wink). He did enjoy throwing the Cheetah near water though, and it was pretty muddy from the rain the previous day. But i guess that's okay, i only had to scramble out of the creekbed once, the other times i let him go get it. Love ya dad!

He also got some candid pics of me, which i suppose is alright...I got a good one of him poised on a log bending into a creek to get his disc out of the water, but he hasn't sent me a copy of it yet.

As you can see, i was playing with the Sidewinder, the blue putter, and of course, Mike. I didn't bother keeping score, chatting with my dad was much too distracting for that. (But secretly i did have a really good game).

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Tay in the Wee-yund...Water and Trees, what's up with the lack of love??? I also went with Kevino, my roomie, on a pretty afternoon to kick off my THREE DAY WEEKEND OFF WORK (wahoooooooo!!). This was a terribly exciting game, complete with a клизма who played through without asking, a water hazard that almost cost me a disc, and a greedy tree who tried to emulate said water hazard.

Hole 4, with the great big lake on the left, definately had me in a panic. For the first time to date, i had to reach my hand in cold muddy water and retrieve a submerged disc. Luckily, it was right by the shoreline, but it was in water nonetheless. I hung my head. Then as a follow up two holes later, Kevin tried to make me feel better by branching the Cheetah. We were teeing off from the stout, which means a straight then hard left to the basket. I do well on that hole. Well, roomie thought it'd be worth a try to chuck the yellow cheetah through the fall foliage straight down to the goal. This did not work. The disc went up and stayed there, and for a good ten minutes we pitched rocks, threw tigs, tried shaking an immovable trunk, and got dirty. Said Douche played on through without even stopping to offer help or ask if it was okay with us that he march on by (which it wasn't, the situation was becoming perilous). Using that tried and true teamwork method, we hoisted up a huge fallen branch and attempted to reach the unreachable disc. It was all the harder that we kept losing sight of the disc due to its and the leaves' similar colors. Luckily the Cheetah came back to us, dislodged by our efforts and likely tired of the game it was playing watching us suffer and beg.

___________________________

Another two guys accompanied me on yet a different trip, this time Robert and his son Dustin, 6. I was glad to have the weather on our side, and funnier still was the muddy duddy trails we had to plod through. Most of you know my opinion of children, but a few are fun to hang out with. Dustin falls into this category, he's a trooper.

Despite having a crusty green nose (what kid his age doesn't have one of those?), he enthusiastically tossed his disc up to six feet in distance. I'll give it to children, they have energy like it's nobody's business. He ran after it, picked it up, and kept throwing til it hit the chains. He didn't get pouty or try to quit until Hole 7, at which point Daddy reinforced the "we don't quit" lesson i apparently missed out on as a kid. Robert was having a decent game, and i got off a few good throws myself. It was really nice to have the course mostly to ourselves, but definately different than normal. We only played 9 holes, i mean, we weren't expecting miracles with the kid or anything...and we had to "let him win" (grrrrr), but i ate a slice of cheesecake at Burger King so that made it all okay.

Oh, and one other plus to having the kid on this round...When Robert's Valkyrie loped to the right and embedded itself into the creek, he was able to lower Dustin by the ankles over the bank to pull it out. We had tried to discourage Dustin from tossing it into the water by telling him that snakes were in the water, and at this point we regretted doing that. Playing on his planned Halloween costume of Superman, we talked him into letting us dip him down like that by going on about "saving the day". I wish i had thought to pull the camera out for that, but hey, i can't have everything i want.

_____________________

Then i made the choice?/mistake? of asking Kevin to go with me again. This time we spent at least twenty minutes searching for the blue Leopard on Hole 15. It was half covered with leaves, and i was amazed with the persistance Kevin displayed in literally raking the entire wooded area to the left of the fairway to find it. Now keep in mind i made him play with the blue one, thinking it would be easier to find if it got overthrown. Ha! silly me. He was impressively throwing straight, unfortunately it was straight into the woods. I was ready to pack it in, but Kevin refused to admit defeat or shell out the $8.99 plus 20% discount to buy a replacement if it went unrecovered. Kevin, you're cheap, but you persevered, so i respect that. Now stop trying to lose my discs!

_____________________

Now yesterday Robert and i went to play again, this time sans six year old. Disc Golfing to the crickets. We got there about 4:30ish, and we were losing light fast. Robert almost got a hole in one, no lie, it landed about a foot from the basket...Hole 12 i think it was. I've got the right curve with the Sidewinder down, and used the Pink Panther for the rest of play. (I'm giving Mike a well deserved vacation, he's looking the worse for wear.) The course was a full house though, constantly playing through and being played through. Some jogging women even cut across our path, and i'll just say two things: good for them and ladies please wear pants, not shorts.

I'm still breaking in the Pink Panther disc, so stay tuned for more on that front. And no, i didn't keep score, i just had fun. Thanks Reedy Creek!

Disc Golf: Round Nine

MUD. Today's word for the day is: MUD. Dreck. Matsch.

MUD. No, those aren't my feet, but that's about the size of it, playing on a wooded, red clay endowed course at Reedy Creek after two days of rain. Sloopy hang on, we're in for a slip-n-slide good time...

Joviality being the second word of the day, i was inspired to jog/run/sprint/huffnpuff after my discs were thrown each time. On the one hand, i never lost sight of them. On the other, i was scootchin' and surfing down mountains of mud the whole time. Wahoo i would say, but a safety poncho to protect the Saturn upon re-entry was not to be had, so i'll have to stick with just wah. Crazy i know, but crazy's my middle name...

Okay, you got me, it's Anja, but whatever. Mike took a beating, twice getting sent straight into a tree that had not the presence of mind nor the sensibility to move out of the darn way, much to his chagrin. Were i in the possession of a digital camera, i'd post a pic of him, all battered and bruised, but alas, the muddy Shark must remain out of the spotlight. All joking and hoity-toity 'alas'es aside, i am becoming a wee bit worried that he's getting bent out of shape. With as much as i practice with that particular disc, i've actually begun to launch it with some force for distance. Like everything else in my life isn't warped enough, et tu, Mike?

Today was the day large groups were out and about as well. Starting off in front of me was a band of four, behind me, of five. By Hole 4 they let me play through, and at Hole 11 i was again caught up with another group...this time of three guys and three girls. The girls were impressed by my tee-off, but i think they'd never played before...but hey, i'll take it were i can get it. Saying thank you i jogged after my disc, almost busting a** in the mud getting to it, then finishing +1 on the hole. Audiences make me nervous.

Total Over Par: +13

The other disc i used today was that Sidewinder again, mainly because slowly but surely my underhand wrist snap throw technique is improving with every outing. Eventually i'll get more distance with it, and right now i'm satisfied that i have a disc and a throw that curve to the right. Once in a while my release is too tilted, and it only goes a few yards before grounding and rolling on its edge. This sometimes sucks, but like today, the rolling can get distance too, and curve in my favor.

Here i'll take the opportunity to share something personal with you. When i was in junior high and high school i played sports...basketball and volleyball. Heck, i was even a mighty might cheerleader waaaaaay back in the day. When it comes to sports, as an adult, i am just not competitive. Not the way others are. Defensive about my 'teams' (NFL: Packers and Panthers, Soccer: Arsenal and Bremen, Basketball: DUKE etc) yes, but not really so much in the sports i participate in now. i want to play, to practice so as to improve my game, and not really into following rules or keeping score. Beware of this if i ever go putt-putt with you. Disc golf is slightly different, since i don't really play against anyone. Most of the time i play alone, or tag on with strangers, who are out of my scoring league anyway. But i do try to keep up with my score, and it is nice to see improvement. So i'll be honest here: i called a re-do on two tee offs that went straight into the closest tree.

The weather was nice and cool, and the sludgey muddiness made it an adventure. This doesn't quite make up for the Packers losing yesterday, nor does it atone for the horrible injustice of the Lame-O World Series pre-empting all my television shows for a MONTH, but it's a start. Yoga choga is only one night away, and who knows what's next after that?

Be the disc.

Disc Golf: Round Eight

Okey Chokey Doing the Hokey Pokey getting dizzy falling down shaking it all about...you know how it goes...right? Disc golf in good weather; you have to shoot yourself for not going to the park.

Luckily, i get to continue living sans self-induced bullet injuries, for i, yes i, went and played today. Game of games, aside from yoga, throwing a disc into a tree is my favorite thing to do. i enjoy the fresh air, i appreciate nature, and although no dogs ran across my path this round, a couple of guys nice enough to invite me to join their game did. Now this has happened before (read earlier posts), and as always, they were waaaaay better than i. This seems to be the case with everyone i play with, so i'm used to it now, merrily able to continue smacking the flora as if i had no audience.

i actually practiced putting for a few minutes before beginning, seeing as how badly i've been doing lately with the close shots...it didn't help much. i joined Adam and Brett at Hole 3, so pretty much the whole game was spent with company. Adam recognized me from a short stint a while back when i attempted to play with the UNCC PingPong Club, an extracurricular he apparently dropped not long after i. Both guys are still students, and as much as i'd love to get nostalgic about school, i just can't...i'm glad i graduated, even if grad school is looming just beyond the horizon. Adam left at the 11th Hole, having some class to run to, and likely wanting to make a quick break after witnessing the demise of my score (Hole 11 was this round's ugh! Hole...i think i was 3 over par on it).

Here i'd like to point out what a difference a few months make...obviously i don't post every time i play, though i'm trying to get back in the habit...if you notice the early posts, 3 over par isn't bad, just usual. Now i'm horrified by such a score. Self competition can be motivating i suppose, and perhaps one day i'll be good enough to compete with guys who really can play (Brett finished like +4 for the entire course, and i won't mention the other under-par-for-the-course person i know). One day boys...one day...

I even had the pleasure on Hole 4 of almost, almost, losing a disc to the water gods. And for the first time in a while, i had to spend time hunting for Mike in the woods on several holes. Frisky shark wanted to play hide and seek...bastard.

Oh, and at the convenient store on the way back i was buying apple juice and ran into Jake Brown, cherry on the sundae. New friends, old friends, and a little blue sky....next time i'm bringing my picnic basket.

Total Over Par: +19

Be the disc.

Disc Golf: Round Seven

oOp JoOp a LoOp! Went disc golfing with the roomie again, pretty cool. Temperature a breezy 70 degrees, partly fluffy cloudy blue skies, sun just starting to tank. Go ahead, be jealous...

It was a short round, the only really unfortunate thing about today's game. Yeppers, a quickie 9 Holes, that was all she wrote. Why? i'll tell you why... my roomie had to go to some magic show (haha sucker). On the bright side, my score looked better than his, in part thanks to the distracting phone call he couldn't seem to end. Get Off the Phone Roomie!!

But it was all good, the crisp air keeping things light, especially as Mike sailed through the air as if he owned his own guidance system. Pretty much only on the tee off though, my putting seems to be going through a rough time right now. Hole 6 would have definately been a birdie, but as it was, only a par. [pouting still about that]. Nothing special happened on this trip to Reedy Creek, and maybe that's what made it one of the best trips to date. The weather, well, by far the best one could ever wish for...i foresee more dg in the next month than in all the days since i started; i'm taking advantage of this baby. And it's nice to finally see improvement. Maybe i'm not great, and in comparison with at least one other person i know, not even good, at least i'm not sucking and traipsing through the woods seeking my Shark. Oh, but i did have to use the ole disc-spotting skills to find my Cheetah, which Kevin was playing with and hurling into the trees, bushes, wildlife, whatever was NOT in or on the fairway (don't be mad, Kievin, you know you rock). Surprisingly enough (for him, not for me), once he started following my advice and WATCHING where he was throwing the disc, he did a lot better.

So long until next time....oh, you want my score? Fine, fine, if you must know....:

Total Over Par: +10

Be the disc.

Disc Golf: Round Six

Return of the disc golf blog!

It's busy doing nothing, let me tell you. Other than going to the batting cages, i've taken back going to the gym, walking around the 'hood, reading books from the library (four in the last three weeks, almost done with a fifth) and doing yoga classes again. Oh, yeah, and playing disc golf. Recent activities do NOT include: household chores such as laundry, dusting, or doing windows, applying to graduate school, or actually starting a new career. These are all on the agenda, but not the one for today.

So two days ago i went to play dg, and wrote down my score so i could post another blog here. I did not, however, take a proper score card with me, so i just know what my final score was, not the individual holes...

Total Over Par: +26

Ah, but don't be too disappointed with this, i can still take you on a tour of my game:

It's a beautiful September day, 71 degrees Fahrenheit, birds chirping and all that jazz. I'm listening to NPR in the car on the way there, because i'm a geek like that, happy and excited about the wonderful weather and the fact i had a yoga class that night to look forward to as well. All sweet and sappy, n'est-ce pas? Then i parked the car, got out, and immediately my nostrils were assailed, ASSAILED i said, with some funky s**t smell that made me almost gag. OMG, it was bad. But i'm a trooper, so i trooped on in and flung my disc. It hit a tree. I could go on in detail like this, but i'll spare you. Around the basket, around EVERY basket, were piles and piles of new smelly fertilized mulch. Now, i like that they put so much effort into keeping the course up, but pah-leeze! I'm not blaming the mulch/poo-smell for it, but suffice it to say that the only reason my score wasn't much better was due to my pitiful i-haven't-putted-this-bad-since-i-first-started-playing putting, and two nameless holes that i botched with embarrassing inaccuracy. But the rest of the game was awesome, and this is also the best score i've posted on this blog as well, so i am so not complaining.

People were also, as usual, pleasant to meet along the way. Everyone let me play through, several of which complimented me on my tee off (but i think they were relative newbies, because otherwise my throws were really not that impressive). And i want to stay honest, so i'll confess....

In an effort to make up for those idiot-holes, i played Captain's Choice the last few holes. Did i mention i was playing alone? haha. I had three discs with me, Mike the Shark and a nice Sidewinder (that i CAN get to curve right easily, wahoo!), and my favorite blue putter. So maybe my score isn't the best ever, but man did i have fun. Yowzahh!

Be the disc.