John and I braved the cold weather for some disc golf. It has been a while because of the rain. And it looks like they are going to install concrete tee pads for the winter course. The disc golf group has been talking about it here. We also had someone volunteer to join us for a round of golf. His name was Matthew. With John and myself, all we were missing was Luke.

The rains have not drained off yet. There were still puddles and mud around here.

Interesting, it seems that they have cut back all of the trees and brush that had grow up along the fence line. I wonder why?

And I don’t seem to remember that river either. Maybe the landscaping has changed the drainage? At this point, John bailed out on us. He said his nose was too cold…

I finally picked up the first “official” description of the winter-course at Old Settlers Park. On Wednesday night at 8pm, I make my way out to the billboard at OSP. I was told by the person who runs the weekly disc golf group that he would leave a copy for me there. It was quite an adventure getting there. They have taken out one of the entrances to the park due to road construction. But I ignore the large construction sign and cross where the new road will be placed to make it to the park road. Only to find out 50 feet later that they blocked the other side of the road as well. So I make it back out onto the main road and drive out to the second entrance and then to the billboard.

I can figure out from the course description where most of the tee boxes are. But I have questions about a couple of them. And, after a email to the leader of the group, I was still unsure of a couple of holes. So today I went out in the gloomy weather to do some exploring. He said that he would mark the tee boxes off with spray paint. And he certainly did that. I was able to answer all of my questions.

Here is the view from hole 7. It is a short and straight throw. Two trees have been marked as “mandatory” (meaning that you must pass to one side of them. since there is one on the left and one on the right, this will form a gate to pass through).

Hole 8 was the biggest of the unknowns. And I have finally found it. It also forms a tunnel to where the basket lies. But it is more forgiving. If you can avoid the trees of course.

And here is where hole 10 is. I had suspected that previously. But a confirmation is nice.

Hrm… that’s not a good sign. There is a pile of rocks out by the lake.

The group decided to play at the Lutheran Church. This is a very tiny course which has poison ivy in the brush. Fortunately, the poison ivy dies down in the winter. But the course is still tiny. John and I drove down early to practice. We played the nine holes before everyone else arrived. I was on fire and birdied 4 of the holes for a score of 24. John was still cold at 31.

Unfortunately, it started mist raining at 10. The juniper trees were full of pollen. Whenever someone hit a tree with a disc, you could see a puff of pollen blow out. I definitely did not help to retrieve those discs! Poor Curt was having an allergy attack as well. I know how he feels…

We normally play 27 holes (or three times around) at this course. But the cold and the rain got to us and we aborted early to find something to eat. We decided to have breakfast at the Village Inn which is a Denny’s competitor. Service there was incredibly slow and I doubt any of us will go back there again.

Today was absolutely beautiful out. The sky was cloudless and the temperature was 80 degrees. It felt like it was the beginning of summer. Even though it was January. Adam, Rehana, and I played the winter course of Old Settlers. I need to get a more official layout of this course.

It looks like another tree was downed during the recent rain. It is such a shame. That tree will never be replaced. I know that one of our groups states goals is to “cut all the trees down one disc throw at a time”, but still… Trees have character. Barren land, not so much…

Afterwards, I really regretted playing. My allergies kicked into full gear. You can’t live here long before succumbing to allergies.

Our group started the new year out right by playing some disc golf. I had some pretty good timing. I arrived home around 1ish and started a load of laundry. When I was web-surfing, I noticed an email about disc golf at the Rivery at 2pm. It was 1:40 and the laundry was in the dryer, so I ran out to Georgetown.

The weather was nice out and it started to warm up a bit. It seems that we kept of the tradition of throwing discs in trees or water.

Hrm. It looks like someone used a vine to hold a tree back. It must of been in the way of the tee box. Or, it could be a trap waiting to spring on some unsuspecting disc golfer…

At Cat Hollow this morning, it is a cold and windy day. I almost regret wearing short sleeves. But it warms up as the day progresses. And it didn’t rain!

It seems that the MUD is going to replace basket #13! Yea! Throwing at a bucket is just not the same experience. I wonder why they call it a “catcher.” Thats a term I didn’t know about.

Ugh, I wonder if this is some more vandalism? But when you look at the amount of concrete that they are holding the sign post up with, I am not surprised that the thing eventually fell down.

There were more discs in trees today. Here, Adam tries to rip a tree out to get a disc down. Not really. He was trying to shake it instead. But the tree proved tougher than him.

Jon’s group’s best shot here was inside a Juniper tree. Now that’s dedication. And Rehana was able to throw it out successfully.

Hrm, someone abandoned a bike on the green. I wonder what happened to them?

It looks like the sign was lying to us. Basket 13 was already up! It looks like they tacked the pieces of the basket together with a wielder as a security precaution. But I didn’t see a sign of concrete at the bottom of the pole. I hope that they just didn’t stick the thing into the ground like they did the last time.

Adam threw close enough to the basket for us to birdie it!

On the next hole, I throw an arcing anheizer throw. And I hear the sound of the disc hitting the basket! So close… It would have been nice to get my first ace…

To end out the round, it looks like the team cannot putt at all. Two missed attempts. Fortunately Gravitt can putt.

Old Settler’s was beautiful out. Nice and warm (for December) out. Today, I had problems with water. On hole 3, my disc went into the tiny stream and it was easily recoverable. Then, on the next hole, I had a dilemma. There was a father with a kid next to the lake. And my disc lands close to the stream so that they are between me and the basket. I realize that they are not going to move (and are probably oblivious that they are on a disc golf course). So I carefully throw it. I mean they shouldn’t be in the path of the disc, and I wasn’t trying to hit them, but the mere fact that they are out there cause me to mess up the throw. I yell “four” as it heads near them and lands in the water. Sigh. Fortunately I was a able to barely see my disc and successfully use John’s retriever to catch the disc and drag it to the shore.

The group went up to the usual Rivery course because there was a game day at Ed’s. John also wanted to check out a comic book store after Dos Salsas. We continued our level of inaccuracy. Discs in trees…

… discs in water. That sort of thing.

Here, John putts from on top a rock in one of the more interesting holes.

Oh oh. This is not a good sign. Are they installing a mountain bike course??? I hope they don’t move the disc golf course again! Or remove it for that matter…

I went to disc golf today and it was warm (high 70s/low 80s) and beautiful out. Man, this park looks different when all of the leaves and bushes have died out for winter.

What a cute little duckie with a blankie. Hello, Mr. Duckie!

Hrm, they are digging a trench along hole four. Irrigation? Electrical? Too small for a moat.

I had one good throw today on hole nine. It went a little more to the right than usual off the tee. This allowed the disc to fly down an open path to the basket. So close… Sadly, I missed the birdie.

A two mile race does not sound all that far…

The group went to Wilco today. The morning was a little cold. But then an hour later, it warmed up rather nicely.

Everyone was out of sorts today. I was having problems with my release (either too early or too late). Of course, there were discs in trees today (its been a while since that has happened).

Jon climbs up to get another one. Its a lot quicker than trying to throw rocks at the disc.

John threw in a cactus. All kinds of problems today…

On the way to lunch, I saw a grass fire along the side of the road. Austin has been very dry this year.