After a very quick 1,550 mile, six-day trip over to Michigan for some meetings with the Disc Golf Foundation board, I made it back to my office in Minnesota for another meeting tonight with about fifteen minutes to spare. 🙂 That’s sort of how my life goes! A small business owner. A husband and father of two wonderful daughters. Serving as a member of Team DGA! My “side hustle,” working to offer business counseling services to aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners with the Small Business Development Center. And serving on no less than seven non-profit Boards.
Some weeks, it feels as though I need to schedule things such as meals and sleep on my calendar! But as you can probably tell if you’ve been following along on this blog for any significant period of time, I start to twitch and fidget if I am sitting idle for more than 5-10 minutes at a time. It’s not that I don’t know how to relax! It is more the fact that me doing things is relaxing. And the more I do to help others? The more I feel like a “good human being.” Worthy of the oxygen and resources I consume as a result of being on the planet.
I would say the same is even true with my disc golf course collecting! It isn’t about me hanging a “big number” out there for others to ooh and aah over! Rather, it is a chance to inspire others, along with doing everything I can to edit and enhance the course directories in UDisc and DGCourseReview.com. I don’t know how many hundreds of course records I’ve added/edited. How many thousands of photos I’ve submitted. But it is with the intent of making things just a little bit better for everyone who comes after me.
ANYWAY (sorry for waxing poetic), knowing that I was working with limited time today, needing to make it back from Chicago to southwestern Minnesota, I only made time to stop at three nine-hole courses that were new to my Courses Played Collection. My first stop on the day was at Diamond Lake Slough in Mundelein, Illinois. It was difficult to find in UDisc, as whoever added the course record to that directory entered it in such a way where Google Maps directs you to a residential street that is nowhere close to the location you are actually supposed to park! I eventually figured it out (and later adjusted the course record in UDisc).
While the course was only 2,169 feet in length, there was a surprisingly large amount of opportunities to lose one’s discs in all the rough and leaves! Not wanting to waste several minutes looking for discs, I decided to play the course VERY conservative. My score, a -1 (26), was underwhelming as a result (only an estimated round rating of 893). But I accomplished my two primary goals for playing that course:
- Add a +1 to my Courses Played Collection.
- Kept all of my discs in my backpack.
My second stop on the day was at Hope DGC in Lake Zurich, Illinois. Not the most interesting (or challenging) course, along with a major safety issue on Hole 4 (throwing directly at children’s playground equipment and parked cars), it wasn’t my favorite. Although Hole 7 (above) was beautiful! I only managed a -3 (24), for an estimated round rating of 881. But again, no lost discs in the pond, and no vehicles, playground equipment or people hit with my discs, so we’ll consider it a successful “+1” addition to my courses played.
My final stop on the day, on this entire trip, was at Door Creek Church in DeForest, Wisconsin. A very short (1,698 feet) open nine-hole course, I dealt with the wind very well off the tee. Managing a -7 (20) and an estimated round rating of 957. It KILLS me, knowing I’ve got some great courses in Sparta, WI and Rochester, MN that I will be driving within a few miles of on my way home! But duty calls. So I will need to leave those few other courses for another time.
I am creeping ever-closer to 1,900 courses played! So close that I can taste/smell it! 🙂 I don’t know if I’ll be able to get there before the end of the year. But I am already 41 courses ahead of the goal I set for myself in 2021, so I’m doing great regardless.
Magic Number = 109 (1,891 Courses Played)
How it All Got Started: Tonn’s Travels >>
A main purpose of this blog will be to share information, helpful tips and tricks (everything from health and fitness to methods for saving money while you’re out “bagging courses” of your own), and ideas for better, safer course design. But I am also hoping to inspire others with my passion for the sport, via the stories I can share about all of the interesting experiences I have. All of the interesting people I meet. All of the amazing courses I am blessed to have the opportunity to play. If I can inspire even a handful of individuals to get off the couch, get “out of their bubble” or “security blanket” and explore more of this big, beautiful planet we all call home? Then I will consider this effort a success.
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.