After our meetings concluded for the day today, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to take advantage of the long summer daylight hours to knock out a few more new courses in the area. I also wanted to do it today (versus tomorrow), since a colleague was having car trouble…wanting us to follow her back to Coos Bay tomorrow morning, in case she broke down on the side of the road. Not to mention the fact that 8+ hours of sitting in meetings had me feeling as though I needed to get outside and exercise!
My first new course I was able to visit was Sams Valley Elementary School near Central Point, Oregon. Both UDisc and Disc Golf Course Review said this course is available to play outside of school hours. But when I arrived, all I was met with was locked gates. Thinking that I might have driven all that way for nothing, I went around to the southern side of the school to see if I might have better luck. The same thing. Although I did see one closed fence entrance that didn’t appear to have a lock on it, so I thought I would give it a try. It opened! Although the whole time I was there, I was wondering if I would get a visit from the local police…asking me why I was trespassing on school grounds. Still, I thought I had a good alibi (course accessibility messages on UDisc and DGCR, and when I got to the Hole 1 tee, the same message appeared (course available outside of school hours), so I thought I was safe to play without getting a mug shot and a criminal record. 🙂
The course wasn’t anything particularly special, and one of the baskets was missing (though you could throw to the base of where it used to be, as an “object target”). It also was a very short, easy course (two of the holes were less than 100 feet in length). So I shot a -9 (19), with an estimated round rating of 982. My only three on the round came on the 390-foot Hole 2…where I had to throw through an active irrigation system. What did I say about starting my round with wet feet yesterday? Ha!
My next stop on the evening was at the Southern Oregon VA in White City. It was the tale of two courses. The first three holes were terrible. Serious safety issues and/or lack of course maintenance. The last six holes? Well cared for and fun to play. Holes 1 and 2 could have people walking or recreating near the fairways be seriously hurt by flying discs! And Hole 3 (shown above) looked like no one had cared for the area immediately by the tee in at least a few years.
So after “holding my nose” and/or throwing shorter safeties for two holes, then throwing a beautiful second shot to pull out my par three on Hole 3, I got to have a lot more fun. I took two bogey-fours on Holes 1 and 2 (not wanting to send anyone to the hospital…sigh), then shot -1 over the final seven holes. The +1 (28) was only good for an estimated round rating of 913, but it got me another +1 in my “Courses Played Rating.” We’ll just say I lived to fight another day.
I didn’t know if it could get much worse than Holes 1-3 at the Southern Oregon VA! But then I made my way to Gold Hill Sports Park. “UGH” would be the Minnesota Nice way of saying that Gold Hill was one of the worst disc golf experiences I have had in my lifetime. And having played over two thousands courses since the 1980s? That is quite an “honor.” All but one of the tee markers for the course are gone. Only Hole 9’s sign (shown above) remains. And only one of the tonal targets (Hole 1) remains. So I needed to use UDisc to guide me to each tee location, then throw at the nearest post/tree/??? I could find to where the tonal targets were supposed to be. I also had what looked to be a “tweaker” skateboarder unleash an angry set of profanity at me for daring to try and play disc golf within a couple hundred feet of where he was riding his skateboard. “I’m sorry for being alive…using YOUR park,” whatever your name was. 🙁
My bad experience in the park was made infinitely worse, encountering some type of plant that filled my shoes and socks (and a few in my shorts) with hundreds of natural “needles” which HURT every time I took a step. By the time I limped back to our car and started trying to remove all of those “needles?” My wife said I could be at it for the next twelve hours and still not finish…so her advice to me was to throw them away. The shoes were ready to be thrown anyway, with holes starting to be worn through the soles. But the socks were a good pair of socks, so I hated to toss them in the trash. 🙁
Doing my best to throw from unmarked tees and targets, using UDisc as my guide and wincing in pain with every step? I managed to shoot an even par (27), for an estimated round rating of 945. But I’m not sure I would call Gold Hill a disc golf course anymore. I’m counting it, since I had a map telling me how to play it…along with the pain and suffering I needed to endure (ha). But if I were the brass at UDisc and DGCourseReview? I would remove that listing from the active course records on their sites ASAP. If for no other reason than to keep other players from ruining shoes, socks and experiencing pain for 30-45+ minutes. All while having an angry skateboarder make them wonder if they would get back to their car and still find it in one piece.
Magic Number = -70 (2,070 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.