I think I may have just finally caught my breath. What a weekend. We were up in Aspen, CO for the 2009 Kiss The Sky, a PDGA B-Tier event playing two rounds of 21 holes on the highest disc golf course in the world!

Not your typical resort course by any means, the Aspen Mountain DGC sports some of the more extreme holes I’ve played. Huge downhills, challenging sidehills, impossible uphills, hit-or-die gaps! If you miss your line up there, you might as well wave because you will never see that disc again!

So the first round was pretty rough! Ironically, I played really well on the ‘extreme’ holes, staying safe and pinning my upshots. The real difficulty for me came in the multitude of uphill holes and ridiculous climbs! To say I need to get into better shape is a gross understatement. Perhaps this is that spark I need to quit smoking once and for all! My dear Jurky barely got through the 1st round as unbearable joint pain in her knee replacement took her out of the competition for day two.

I improved by 5 strokes the second round, but still finished way further back in the pack than I wanted to. Although I had a great time and the views were spectacular, I’m kinda glad this one’s every two years, I’ll need all the time I can get to prepare!

Here’s a few photos to give you an idea!

Up Next… The Bloom At Beaver Ranch – Jurky and I are going to try our hand at mixed doubles… yikes!

Well, when folks asked me how I threw today, all I could do was smile and say “I threw often”.  The first round was not particularly stellar, the course is quite demanding and a few inches of inaccuracy can result in a devastating kick into some deep woods.  I had to pull off a few ‘get out jail’ shots just to save par.

The second round felt much better, I improved my score by a stroke, carding 4 birdies.  I just got a lot of bad kicks and some unlucky Out-of-Bounds shots. I’d say the one highlight of the day was getting a birdie 2 on the 423 foot hole #16 which played long and tight down a narrow field with OB on both sides finishing in a tight cluster of guardian trees.  I flattened a shiny blue 1st run champ Boss down the right side over the OB line, it faded left and skipped right by the bucket, leaving me a 20 footer that I put up and in :)  The spotter on the hole came over after we finished to tell me my deuce was one of only two on that hole the entire day!

Several holes later I witnessed an amazing ace from the group behind us. The hole plays about 390-400 feet, it’s a giant left-to-right shot downhill, OB on the left and jungle on the right. The first thrower off the tee threw a blazin sky anhyzer that just kept bending, slashed through some brush and slammed dead-center into the chains.  It was really something!!

If anyone is interested in following the scores, they will be posted here

We’re back at Jurky’s folks place gettin a quick shower and relaxin a bit before the players party over at Casa de Jenkins! Speaking of the ‘First Family of Disc Golf’  I can barely express in words just how impressed I was with how well run this tournament has been!  I mean any tee that was in the sun had a canopy and benches!  Every few holes there was water AND CANDY! I’ve played well over 100 tourneys in my disc golf ‘career’ thus far and this is above and beyond all of them in terms of how well the players are treated and how things are organized.  (ok, ok, the Japan Open is still the best, but these guys rock).

I also wanna say how much I’m liking my Double NutSac for tourneys.  I’ll admit, at first I wasn’t sure.  All the big guns carry these monsterous backpacks full of plastic and who knows what. I’ve found that with the nutsac, not only do I have more energy because I’m not carrying a ton of junk around, but because I’m only carrying 10 discs, I focus on the line i want to throw, not on a specific disc .  As a matter of fact, I may thin out my bag a bit more tomorrow, I only threw 6 or 7 discs out of the 10 I carried.

Well, we’re off to the players party for some backyard glow golf, putting contests and general insanity.  These folks sure know how to party.  I’m sure I’ll have some good stories tomorrow!

Until then remember, keep your putt’s high and your NutSac outta the mud :)

Happy B-Day USA!

We arrived in Akron late last night, almost didn’t get a rental car cause the flight was delayed!

The tourney plays at Roscoe Ewing Park in Medina, OH about 45 minutes southwest of Cleveland.

Got a good nights sleep and we were able to get a great practice round in today! It took a few holes to get used to disc stability at lower altitude. Jurky was hittin some crazy putts. I had a few near aces myself.

Really lookin forward to tomorrow! The field is pretty stacked and the course is quite technical. The distances are all well within my range but accuracy will be far more important than a big arm.

We’re kickin back at Jurky’s friends place. Enjoyin the campfire and fireworks.

Have a safe 4th! Stay tuned for tomorrows adventures!