I made it back to Coos Bay this afternoon, but not before I snuck in one more new course on my way back from Sunriver! 🙂
I took a Southerly route home, so I could get the one Central Oregon course (South of Bend) that I hadn’t yet played: Odell Lake Resort and Lodge. I’ve looked at this course on two previous trips in the area, but had never been able to stop and throw a round. And given the perfect weather conditions, it seemed to be the ideal opportunity to add that “+1” to my courses played collection.
A man named Rick, one of the staff at the Lodge, was teasing me when I arrived…asking me if I was prepared for a seven-mile hike through the bush to try and find all eighteen holes! 🙂 They also warned me (about 2-3 times) how easy it would be for me to become lost. I teased that I didn’t have a flare with me if I needed help (only to seriously add that I don’t have any flares, since folks around Oregon don’t like to joke about stuff like that during the dry (fire) season). But after finding my way to the Hole 1 tee (above) and then searching for the Hole 2 basket, I heard a UTV approaching. It was Rick, wanting to help me have at least a general idea of the flow/layout of the full eighteen-hole course.
After catching a ride around the entire course area, Rick brought me back to Hole 2 and wished me luck. I still had trouble locating a few of the tee areas and baskets (as we didn’t find a few of them while riding around in the UTV). But his helping me made it a LOT easier to navigate the course. I even found a few tees and baskets that he and I missed while riding around the course area! And I took pictures from every tee area I could confidently verify…uploading them on to the course record at DGCourseReview.com.
That property has an amazing amount of potential! It makes me want to spend weeks on-site, putting on my course designer’s hat and helping them turn a rough-around-the-edges existing course into one of the better courses in Southern Oregon! Not only that, but seeing them installing eighteen new DGA Mach VIIs or Mach Xs at the property. [/DGA Ambassador] 🙂
Navigating the course as best I could, as well as using a couple of “nearest trees” as targets (where baskets were either missing or severely damaged), I managed to shoot a -4 (50), for an estimated round rating of 931. My lowest estimated round rating of the trip, but that didn’t matter. I got to see a BEAUTIFUL piece of property adjacent to a beautiful lake…while giving my DGA ProLine Squall a workout.
Magic Number = -37 (2,037 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.