It’s been a rough three months. In early August, I fell while volunteering to clean-up one of our community’s parks, leaving me with some nasty “road rash” on both of my shins. But I’m stubborn, and since work (and my health) has made it difficult to play much disc golf since my road trip to the Midwest in May? I needed some time on a course. So the next day, I decided to play eighteen holes of disc golf at Ferry Road Park in North Bend, Oregon.
I got to Hole 8 at Ferry Road, which is the longest hole on the course (378 feet). So I was going to put a little EXTRA “mustard” on my throw. Imagine a 55-year old, letting out a grunt/groan that would do Serena Williams proud (ha)! Only instead of powering through in my reach-back and release? My X-step went: “Step-Step-POP!” A knee shouldn’t make a noise like that. Shouldn’t wabble left-to-right like that. So after several days of denying that I was actually (seriously) hurt? I went to urgent care in town to get X-rays. The nurse practitioner then said: “You need your primary care physician to confirm the diagnosis after ordering an MRI, but I am guessing that you tore your MCL.”
Ugh. So after an appointment with my primary care physician and getting an MRI? I learned that I didn’t have a torn MCL. I had:
– Sprained my MCL
– Tore my meniscus
– Had bursitis.
And after an appointment with a surgeon, he is planning to perform surgery on my knee in December. I thought: “No disc golf for me, indefinitely.” 🙁 Then, on August 27, my mom suddenly passed away. That meant two weeks back in Minnesota, lifting thousands (and thousands) of pounds of boxes and furniture while getting her house ready to be put on the market. Dealing with not only the emotional pain, but much more pain in my right knee than before I left on the trip. But this week, I needed to head up to the Oregon Garden Resort for a conference for work, needing to drive right past three courses I have never played! So I looked at my wife, she said: “Okay” (but was probably thinking: “PLEASE don’t do anything stupid and hurt yourself worse!” 🙂 And we stopped at two of those three courses this afternoon.
The first course en route to Silverton, Oregon was Sladden Park in Eugene. Disc Golf Course Review said it was a three-hole course, but UDisc said it was a four-hole course. Mystery solved, as it is actually a four-hole course. I corrected the course information and added photos from each tee area to the DGCR website, and V-E-R-Y carefully threw my tee shots standing still. No X-Step or run-up of any kind. As even with a knee brace? My knee hurts. Without a knee brace? My knee hurts a lot…and moves left-to-right more than it should. So I needed to be careful. I managed to get deuces on the first three holes! But Hole 4 (226 feet) was just too far from the tee for me to reach with my ProLine Squall from a standing start. So I wound up with a -3 (11) and an estimated round rating of 853. But no further injuries!
My next stop on the afternoon was Willamette Valley Vineyards DGC in Turner, Oregon. A short nine-hole course only 2,230 feet in length! But again, throwing every shot from a standstill? More than enough length to provide me with a strong challenge. There was also a lot of interesting variety of hole designs and “shot shaping” on the course, which made it more challenging than I had expected.
Take, for example, the design of Hole 2 (shown above). A nice alley/tunnel that will test your ability to throw a tee shot dead-straight for 151 feet. I ended up hitting one of the trees about halfway down the fairway and kicking left. Fortunately, I had a clear alley to put my approach close to the basket for my drop-in three. But if you’re playing pinball in those trees? You could easily be sweating your second (and third) shot.
I ended up struggling my way to a -1 (29), for a terrible estimated round rating of 815. But I knew I would underwhelm in my playing ability, playing only me second round on a damaged knee. My only goals from playing today?
1. Add +2 to my courses played collection.
2. Don’t hurt myself worse than I already am.
I’ll be busy at a work conference the next couple of days, but if I am feeling up to it? Maybe I’ll be able to get that third new course played on my way home on Thursday.
Magic Number = -104 (2,104 Courses Played)
Derek Tonn is a member of the DGA’s Ambassador Team. His company, Mapformation, LLC, has been DGA’s partner in the development of disc golf tee signage since 2012. The longer our two companies have worked together, and the more Derek has gotten to know all the great folks at DGA, the more he has wanted to formally sing the company’s praises. The more he has realized that “Steady” Ed’s (the father of disc golf and the modern-day Frisbee) vision for the sport and his company perfectly describes his own interests and priorities related to disc golf, and the more Derek has recently been encouraged to share his story.