We planned on going to the Rivery Park in Georgetown for some disc golf. I decided to park at Wendy’s this time and walk down to the park from there. Unfortunately, there is construction going on so I had to be adventurous in making my way down to the course. I practiced for a little while and when no one showed up, I started out. Fortunately Jon showed up and yelled at me and then I started over.

I was a little worried about the state of the course. The throwing area for hole one was a lake. It was even more worrysome when Jon and I rounded the corner and discovered that there was no basket for hole one.

So we wandered over to hole two and once again found no basket and a lake where the basket should have been. After finding no basket for hole three we were surprisingly unfazed.

All of this searching did have good consequences. We did find the start of hole 17. We had never found that before and just used a dirt spot where it look like people threw from.

When we got to hole 4, we found this sign! Ahhh, so they rearranged the course! We have hope now!

And boy have they ever rearranged this course. Half of the holes are new. And they are located in parts of the park that we have not been to before. In fact, it seems that they cut down trees recently for this new course. Unfortunately, all of the signs looked very temporary. The slightest wind or rain will eradicate them.

There were also signs pointing where to go to next. Along with red spray painted arrows on the ground (these will probably last a day or so).

Part of the course is along the side of a hill. And there are a lot of trees that are obsticles. Which I hit. A lot.

Too bad this geologic feature was not part of the course.

Another day, another round of disc golf it seems. I arrived early to practice holding the disc and throwing the disc level. I notice that a lot of the disc’s energy can be wasted when there is a wobble in the spin. Or when it is angled up too high.

Sadly, instead of using balanced teams, we picked the teams randomly. And so I didn’t bother keeping score today.

Today was special in that this is the first time that Mike played with me in a couple of months. It was also special in that I was having a really off day for some reason. I could not putt well. My team-mates would throw better than me. And 7 was particularly brutal for me since I threw it into the water both times. Sigh… Still fun to be out and about though…

If disc golf is considered a sport, then I picked the right city to live in! I like how their icon is a char. Sitting is not a sport!

So I arrived early to practice. And after a while, I had to go to the bathroom. The problem is that this park is wide open. There are no convienient bushes to use. So I wander over to the baseball buildings and am greeted with this sign. Gah! What am I supposed to do now?

John arrives and gets us to help untangle his disc retriever. He tells us its a new Knizia game.

Which was promptly put to good use at hole 2. On hole 3, I threw a pretty good approach shot which landed 10′ from the hole. The trees on hole 4 held John’s long range throws back.

At hole 5, John’s disc lands pretty far into a prickly bush. Fortunately for John, Rehana volunteers to retrieve it (earning her a disc for her efforts). And on hole 7, both Mike and myself putted for around 30′!

At hole 9, Mike looses his disc high in the trees. And after it is knocked down, John comments on being blinded by the Sun. Which reminded me of my +1 Mike of blinding. And also at this hole, I had a pretty good yoga putt (where I hold on to the tree and bend around it to throw it into the hole).

At hole 12 is my best throw for that hole so far. Certinally within sight of the hole. Our mantra when we throw is “There are no trees.” Just pretend there are no trees and throw! It is your mind that causes the disc to fall to the ground…

We also saw this lady who hooked her dog up to this sled like contraption. I wonder what that was about. At least she wasn’t riding it.

And whats another water hole without a retrieval attempt?

We had a chili cook-off at work this afternoon, complete with beer. Once beer is in the picture, employees go home afterwards. So, since I came home at 4:30, I decided to head out and do a round of disc golf. It was sunny and some what warm. However, there was a constant breeze. I was surprised that I was able to complete the round in less than an hour. In fact, I had to wait 10 minutes for other golfers in front of me (so I could have done it even quicker). The good news was that I was able to par 4 holes (3 shots) and had 6 holes requiring 4 shots. The rest were worse ;). What was amusing was that I was able to throw it across the lake. But on the next hole, my throw went 45 degrees off course into the water. Sigh. It required some wading to retreive it.

Another round of disc golf for us. This time, it was cold and windy out with high temperatures in the lower 60s. It was also poorly attended with only Mike A, Adam, Rehana, and myself playing. So the teams ended up with the Ms vs. AR. I was a little worried when Mike “Tomahawk” keeps saying “That was conservative… I am going wild with this throw…” I definately need to teach him how to throw it horizontally.

We had one geeky moment. Adam looked up to see Mike throw his disc and was momentarily blinded by the sun. So I joked that Mike had a +1 disc of blinding. Adam then commented that it was intrinsic to Mike so I had a Mike of +1 blinding…

The above picture was my best shot of the day at hole two. This is a straight throw through trees on either side and over a small hill to the basket.

Another amusing moment was on hole 15. Myself, Adam and Rehana threw into the trees from the high winds. So we joked to Mike that he had better amaze us. So he threw it up into the air and it hit the powerlines once on the way up and again on the way down…

On hole 18 was my best putt. Our first throw was way off to the left and into the trees. Our second throw got us about 15 feet to the hole. But we were down at the bottom of a hill looking up to the hole. And I was able to sink it for a tie for that hole!

Another week of disc golf for us. We started out by flipping discs to choose teams. However, after the dust settled and John and Mike were paired, John declares that he wants to play individually instead. So we needed to reorganize. I am not competitive enough to want to play individually yet.

The only major trouble that we got into this week was on hole 8. John had initially thrown bad. So, he takes a penality and throws again. Only this time, the throw went wild and into a house’s yard. Fortunately, he was able to retreive it…

For lunch, we all went to Chipoltes. And it was rather difficult to maintain a chain of cars to the restaurant. Only two of us knew where it was. Fortunately Jon and myself were able to successfully play sheep herder and lead the pack to safety. It seems it was easy to get separated in the drive over there.

Another day for disc golf and this time at the Lutherin Church. This time I came an hour early to practice after eating at Marsala Wok. We still had problems with trees. Here Jon retreives John’s disc. Unfortunately, Jon would later throw a shot that went really high in a tree. And it was also unrecoverable since there were too many thorny vines to allow Jon to climb the tree.

However the day was not all bad. For the first round, the teams were tied. John and Rehana versus Adam, Jon, and myself. So we went another round with the same trees. This time, at a long putt to hole 7, I was able to sink it. And then on hole 9, John was not able to sink a long putt to tie the game and I was able to sink our putt for the win!. For the third round, I had some nice throws for holes 2 and 3. They landed close enough to putt for a birdie.

Another day of disc golf. This time we went to the Rivery in Georgetown since we were making a trip up north for gaming. The teams were Jon and myself versus John and Mike. And our team started off poorly with 2 shots behind! Jon pulled a move of mine and launched his disc 90 degrees off its intended course and straight into a pond. After trying the retreiver and failing because the disc was floating onto of a mat of algae, Jon gave up and walked out to the disc.

Another poster for a competitive match. However, given our performance, I don’t think that we are ready yet.

John had a really good throw that skipped into the area next to the goal and then skipped into the river. By this time, the retreiver was too tangled to use, so he used the low tech method of a big stick.

And now its my turn to get into trouble. I was using my putter (Champion Aero) on this course because it flies pretty straight (well, when I can thow it decently). And since it is light, it has a tendency to remain stuck high in a tree rather than falling down. So Jon steps up to the plate and rescues my disc. Which brings us to my first term for Disc Golf. And that is Treejected: tr. v., having a throw bounce off of a tree and stop or go wildly off the intended course.

What was probably the most amusing thing of the day was the fact that Jon and I discovered how to taunt Mike into throwing randomly. Since we often have to make a throw behind trees, there is one throwing style that you can try. And that is called the tomahawk. Which I guess is named after how one would throw a throwing-axe (um, like a tomahawk). So, an overhand throw through trees is not a guaranteed thing. When we figured out that we could chant “Tomahawk… Tomahawk!” and Mike would decide to attempt an over the tree throw, we started doing that all of the time. Which fustrated John to no end. He would say “you know, you just just throw it normally like this…”

Afterwards, we went to Duke’s for some bar-b-que before making the trek to South Oklahoma…

Another round of disc golf. Jon and myself started badly on the first hole by going down two points. And from then on we would bounce up and down as we tried to catch up. Which we finally did towards the end of the game. On the last hole we had tied it up to even

I threw another 90 degree-offcourse throw again. Gahhhhhhhhhh! This one sailed over trees out into the great unknown. So we all walked around searching for the lost disc. And fortunately Jon found it!!

We did a little bit of exploring today and noticed a fenced in section that contained a small cave. And apparently, John likes to go spelunking…