Wow, what a weekend! I headed up to Winter Park, CO for the 7th Annual Snow Mountain Challenge. The TD, Tom Carrillo, was kind enough to put several golfers, including myself, up for the weekend.

Our first round was at the Snow Mountain YMCA course. While challenging and fun, it is a shadow of it’s previous glory. As with many other areas in the Rockies, the forests have fallen victim to the devastating pine beetle. I had a great group and although I had a great time, my poor play quickly found me at the bottom of the pack.

After a quick lunch, we reconvened at the base of Winter Park resort for a players meeting and then boarded the chairlift to the top to begin round two. The course features several great downhill bombs with a mix of tricky turnovers and treacherous tunnel shots. Again, I had a great time, but didn’t play my best. I was plagued by poor putting and a general lack of energy. A good friend of mine had a pretty awful round too, receiving many a nasty tree kick and unfortunate roll away. He’s not at all accustomed to being in the lower ranks, so I did my best to cheer him up and keep him going. Sometimes the most fun shots happen when you have nothing to lose!

Well I only had to wait another twenty holes to find out just how true that is. I played pretty solid golf, making a lot of the routine putts I left on the ground during the first two rounds. We made our way to the last hole of the tournament, a 325-foot shot through a narrow double mando to a basket placed precariously on a steep hillside. I had missed a key birdie on the hole previous and found myself last in the tee order. I knew I needed something that would hold a fast anhyzer line to get through the mando and then fall back left to the hill, so I picked a lighter weight Monarch out of my bag. I put a pretty good snap on it and watched in satisfaction as it ripped right through the branch-infested mandatory window and disappeared off to the right. As we waited for the inevitable stable left finish of the flight, my friend Tom said he thought that it might be on line for an ace run. Just then I saw my Monarch reappear in the mountain sunlight, just in time to blow the chains apart and eventually spin to a stop in the basket. I had aced the last hole of the tournament!

I ran like an idiot across the mountainside to retrieve my lucky prize. As I emerged from the woods, I was greeted by the smiling applause of several groups that had witnessed the latter part of the flight. What a way to finish a tournament! So the round ended well, but not quite enough to get me outta the basement. I didn’t make it into the cash, but I did put a safe distance between me and dead last! Still, this will definitely go down as one of my favorite tournament moments yet!

Stay tuned for next week as Jurky and I venture to McCook, Nebraska to take on the Kelley Park Disc Golf Course at the TruLine Customs Open.

I might as well have been playing under the twin suns of Tatooine! If the blistering heat wasn’t enough, the wind howled relentlessly. Still, I managed to pull off what end up being my first 1000-rated round of the year. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough as I finished just one stroke out of the cash. In retrospect, there were several holes that I could’ve easily made up at least 3 or 4 strokes had I played a little bit more serious out of the gate. I was at least nine holes in before I realized that I was doing well enough to have a shot at cashing. Oh well, lesson learned.. Every throw matters, even when I think I’m just playing for the fun of it!

I’m far more excited about finally throwing a solid round than I am worried about the money. In my opinion, if you’re in this sport for the payout.. you’re in the wrong place. Regardless, I had a really fun group today. One of the poor fellas on my card took a 17 on the island hole. Although it was hard to watch, I was impressed and inspired by his excellent display of sportsmanship. He approached each re-tee with the same enthusiasm and didn’t utter a single foul word.

Thanks as always to my readers and supporters! Stay tuned for next weekend as I head to the hills of Winter Park for the Snow Mountain Challenge.

What a beautiful day for golf! It was sunny and clear with a light breeze all day and I had great groups both rounds. I had a bit of a rough start, parking the first hole and missing a routine putt. I went OB a few times, bogeying the next hole and several afterwards. The sprinklers were malfunctioning on one of the holes and I was treated to a rather fun shot through a veritable wall of water. Things did start to look up later in the round when I had a near ace on hole 10, hitting dead center chains, but flopping out left.. I finished with a pile of birdies, scraping my way back to even.

I spent the lunch break helping out with scores as usual. The second round started out rather well, getting through the first 10 holes at a bogey-free 2 under par. Things turned south on hole 17 where I threw into a neighbors yard and failed to execute my save shot and took a double bogey. I played pretty safe from there on, getting 2 more birds to finish at -2. Not the best golf, but I haven’t completely eliminated myself from the cash yet. If I play really well tomorrow, I might be able to creep in if I shoot lights out.

On a side note, I’m starting to think that the only way for my game to improve is to find a healthier balance between the amount of volunteering I do and just playing. It’s hard to take a step back when I care so much, but if my game continues to nose-dive at the rate it has been, somethings gotta give :) Soon I’ll be starting a new job where I will have a much more normal schedule, so I’m really hoping to get more practice time into my week.

Either way, let’s hope tomorrow goes well. Perhaps I just need to play a bit more seriously… which for those that know me are aware, is no easy task :P

Just checking in from the 2010 Vibram Open in sunny Worcester, MA. Shot pretty awfully yesterday, with a whopping 74. I had at least one OB stroke or awful tree kick on every hole. The highlight of my round was hitting dead center chains with my Condor from over 100 feet out on the 18th green. The crowd went nuts, but it didn’t stick :( I would’ve had to throw in the 50′s today to get into the cash, but that just wasn’t happening. I improved on the holes that plagued me yesterday, but failed horribly on the rest. Regardless, it has been a beautiful weekend and this course is just plain fun to play! I had good groups both days and got to play with some awesome people.

We also had the finals for all the ‘side events’ tonight (distance, accuracy, mph and pie-eating). It’s pretty much like a disc golf carnival! Tons of fun, free food and awesome golf to watch. Speaking of which, I had the pleasure of walking with two of higher-tier pro groups today. It really gave me a different perspective. Although these guys had amazing distance and a rock-solid consistency, they made many of the same mistakes as I had during my rounds. The interesting part was seeing how they got out of bad spots after bad kicks and how they mentally recovered from terrible throws.

I’m going to have to keep this entry short as my eyelids are getting heavy. Playing such a fantastically exciting course as Maple Hill is a delight for sure, but it is also exhausting. I’m gonna catch up with a local league tomorrow, then play a round at Pyramids, then watch more golf.. rough day, I know :)

stay tuned for my next adventure… the 2010 Johnny Roberts Memorial, back home in Colorado!

Three rounds, two great courses, one tired golfer.. It’s been a rough weekend. Still, it was great to be up in the mountains playing the best game in the world with some awesome people. We started out with two rounds at a temp course in Bailey, CO. The holes really took advantage of the varied terrain and natural obstacles. I played horribly and spent the remainder of the event on the bottom card. Had a great time on Sunday though as our final round was at Beaver Ranch, one of my favorite courses in the state. Played with a really fun group and tried a lot of nothing-to-lose shots. I chained out on a 180 foot save attempt and threw another in from about 100 feet. I ended up finishing a few places above DFL. It has been darn near impossible to get any practice time in lately. I wish disc golf could be more of a priority in my life, but until I win the lottery.. work comes first :(

stay tuned for tales from my next adventure.. the Snowmassive Open in Snowmass, CO

Jurkface and I got up ridiculously early this morning and drove two hours south to what I think is one of the best courses in Colorado. The Pueblo City Park Disc Golf Course features 18 challenging holes in a well-maintained park setting. There’s a good mix of long bombs, turnovers and technical tree holes. To be honest, the main reason I played this tournament was to play this course.

Unfortunately, with as many tournaments as I play, there’s inevitably going to be times when I just plain forget how to throw a disc. I missed the island hole both rounds and went out-of-bounds at every opportunity to do so. If that weren’t enough, I apparently left my putting game at home. It was a little tough to keep my grin, but I played with great groups both rounds. At one point, after missing the island for the second time, I actually took off my shoe and threw it down the fairway. Fortunately for me this was a pretty relaxed c-tier and my card was too busy laughing to cite me with a courtesy warning..

I would’ve loved to have played better, but it was a fun day nonetheless. I had a lot of laughs and Jurkface played some great golf, easily winning her division. I was glad to see a tournament at this course again, it’s been noticeably absent from the schedule for a few years now. Thankfully the TD announced that it’ll be back next year, hopefully upgraded to a two day b-tier. I look forward to trying again, I can’t possibly play as bad as I did this time!

We got up early this morning and took the light rail to Showa Kinen Park, site of the original Japan Open. After a little ‘exploring’ we made our way to the back corner and found hole 1. All the holes were rather short, in fact we probably could’ve played the entire course with just a putter, but we each brought our nutsacs regardless. I hit metal a few times, after our aces at the cottage course, I was running at every hole. The course was beautifully maintained and the lush gardens and trees made for a super fun round! We made it through the course pretty quickly and, although I would’ve loved to have played it at least one more time, we spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the rest of the park.

I was most impressed with the bonsai garden which featured miniaturized trees almost 200 years old! We took a bazillion pictures as the grounds were simply spectacular. We rode the little train back to the park entrance and took the light rail back towards the hotel. We also stopped for a bit in Harijuku to check out the 5 story toy store and crazy outfits near the train station. Arriving safe and sound having had a wonderful day, we passed out back at the hotel, dreading the thought of leaving this strange and amazing country.

In lieu of writing a separate post, it suffices to say that our entire trip home consisted of a ridiculously long flight that we spent talking about how much we wish we could’ve just stayed in Japan :) Simply put, the Japan Open is the best disc golf tournament in the world and it is an honor and a privilege to play. As my friend Dan says, we got to play ‘a game of etiquette in the land of manners’. Thank you so much to the fine folks at Innova and Hero Discs that made this such a fantastic journey! See you all in 2012!

Until then, stay tuned for more stories as the disc golf adventure continues… Up next, the inaugural ‘Heroes Huk’ in Pueblo, CO!

As beautiful and serene as the Nasu Highlands were, we realized during our last trip to Japan that we wanted to see more of the country than we would during the tournament. So we decided to spend a few more days this time around, establishing a base in Tokyo and making day trips by rail. The gracious staff from Hero Disc provided a shuttle bus to the NasuShiobara train station where we boarded the shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo. The thrill of riding the bullet train alone would’ve been adventure enough for one day. I’ve would’ve never imagined something moving that fast could be so quiet and smooth. It really made us ponder why in the world we don’t have trains like that in the states. We arrived in just a few hours and began to navigate the colorful spaghetti that is the Tokyo Metro rail map.

We made our way to Asakusa, a subsection of Tokyo and began the search for our hotel. As we exited the subway station we asked a businessman, who thankfully spoke English, if he could point us in the right direction. After politely thanking him for his help we started down the crowded, rainy sidewalk with our disc golf bags on our backs, dragging two huge suitcases behind us. We trudged along for about 15 minutes or so and just as a heavy downpour began, we realized we were lost again. As we looked around for anything we might be able to use as a landmark, we heard a voice shouting from behind us in the crowd. We turned in amazement to find the same businessman that had given us directions at the subway entrance. He had hunted us down to let us know he had sent us the wrong way. He gave us the correct directions, apologized and hurried off before we could say anything. We stood there for a moment simply dumbfounded. Every personal interaction we’ve had so far has been the epitome of courtesy and respect, but that was just mindboggling.

We located our hotel a short time later. It was a little of the beaten path with a main entrance down a back alley way near a market. We had decided to stay in a ryokan (traditional style hotel) with straw mat floors and rice paper doors. We were happily greeted by the hotel staff who showed us to our room and made hot green tea for us while they explained the amenities. We went exploring for a while, enjoying some fresh sushi before coming back and enjoying the room. We’re going to brave the rail system again tomorrow as we make our way to Showa Kinen Park, the site of the original Japan Open.

stay tuned for tomorrow’s adventure! until then… Oyasuminasai (good night)!

What an amazing day! Jurky and I both hit aces today on the cottage course. She struck first, on hole #2 which was about 190ft downhill through tight woods. She stood up a champ leopard which flipped a bit before hyzering back and smacking the chains!!! I don’t think I’ve seen her that excited in the entire time I’ve known her. This was also her first ace ever!!!

I followed her with an ace on hole #1 during our second round. Threw my gummy XD wide right into the trees, it somehow cut through the leaves and ended up falling into the basket. Total luck, but hey.. I get to say I too have an international ace!!!

There was a major earthquake midday, which we barely noticed. Had others not told us about it, we would have had no idea. We spent the rest of the day in the amusement park, mostly in the little trinket stores and taking tons of pictures. We’ve been relatively isolated at the cottages or at the course thus far, so it was really nice to get to experience more of the culture and the people!

Dinner was up on the large porch at the cottages with hibachi grills on each table. It was really cool to have a nice intimate dinner with friends as a good portion of the competitors have returned home.

We depart for Tokyo tomorrow on the shikansen (bullet train) from NasuShiobara. I am sure we’re going to get horribly lost, but it’ll be all the more fun!

Sayonara, see ya tomorra!

It’s official! I’ve finally cashed at the Japan Open. I threw a 63 today on the Fujin course, ending up in a three-way tie for 35th. Not a top-ten finish, but a far cry from where I finished in 2008!

Jurkface and I walked with the gallery for the final nine, bouncing back and forth between watching the mens and womens groups. Nikko won the mens side in a playoff after Feldberg made an unfortunate error while laying up on the 18th hole. Valerie ran away with it, again. I was happy for her, of course, but I alway pull for our good friend (and roommate for the week), Des Reading.

Huge awards ceremony, party time and karaoke tonight, where I’ll be presented with my biggest cash prize since I’ve been playing pro. I’m not entirely certain how it’ll work, since we tied, but it should be around ¥15,000 (~$150).

We’re going to have a fun day at the amusement park tomorrow and then play the little 9-hole practice course at the cottages. Gonna definitely be gunning for my first international ace! But, for now, it’s party time!!

KAMPAI! (cheers)