After one more family gathering earlier this afternoon, we had one itty-bitty nine-hole course I hadn’t yet played in St. Paul, Minnesota, Hillcrest Knoll, that was on our way back to our AirBnB. So I asked if my wife and oldest daughter could humor me and let me feed my disc golf addiction for ~15-20 minutes before making our way back to Minneapolis. They agreed, and said it would be a chance to kill two birds with one stone, since my daughter wanted to stop at a Kwik Trip (we don’t have them where we are at in Oregon.
At only 1,750 feet over nine holes? Hillcrest Knoll is a course where you really need to shoot a deuce on every hole if you know what you are doing. So my daughter teased me that I’d better shoot an eighteen, or don’t bother talking with her when they came to pick me up. 🙂 I was CLOSE, shooting a -8 (19). But Hole 4 (above) got me…as I put my tee shot behind a low-hanging branch that I could not straddle around to have a clean look at a putt. So I officially brought shame to my family. Ha!
For a short pitch and putt, I thought that the course had some fun variety. And for the few hills that were present in the park, I thought the designer made good use of them (and the trees). Creating just enough challenge to keep players honest.
But alas, I did not get things done on Hole 4. So I suppose that I need to get used to living my life alone in silence. Unless I can maybe get back to St. Paul at some point in the future and actually shoot a -9 (18) on that course at some point in the future? Get back into the good graces of my family? 🙂
Magic Number = -30 (2,030 Courses Played)
ABOUT DEREK
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.