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.

So, I’ve just returned home from our weekly tag match at Exposition Park in Aurora, CO and I may have just thrown the best round of disc golf of my life. I’m not sure if it was being out on a wide open course after playing in the trees or being happy to be home.. but everything just clicked. I had played a fun round with Jurkface and our friends Sarah and Larry out at Lighthouse yesterday, shooting a 7 under par. That’s a pretty good round for me out there and I even hit the cage on the first hole with my first throw after getting off the plane! With a drop in deuce on the long hole 8, I definitely felt like I had shaken off all those not-so-fresh rounds in Portland.

I left work a little early to be sure I’d make it to tags in time to distribute the minis from my tourney two weekends ago. Skies were grey and a fair breeze was kicking up, nothing unusual for Expo. I had no idea what I was about to do, other than have a good time with friends. I played with my good friend Doug Bjerkaas, Anthony P and a really cool visitor from Alabama whose name escapes me.

I apologize ahead of time if this sounds uncharacteristically self-serving, but I just have to write it down, if for no other reason than for posterity. Here’s how the round went down:

HOLE 1: threw my gummy QMS just past and left of the bucket for an easy 2. A good start.
HOLE 2: landed the same QMS half on the sidewalk, but safe, canned a short jumper. 2 under par
HOLE 3: feeling a cross-breeze, threw a newer roc to fight the wind, shanked a little right, missed the putt. 2 under par
HOLE 4: drove a Monarch about 45 right and 10 deep, canned the putt. 3 under par
HOLE 5: QMS again, pin deep, 15 left. easy putt.. 4 under par
HOLE 6: lime green HukLab TeeBird, 20 short and 45 right.. long floater putt that flopped in. 5 under par
HOLE 7: 192g Condor a little short and left but in the circle. routine putt, 6 under
HOLE 8: newer 170g Pro Katana 45 short but left of the trees, long low jumper for 7 under
HOLE 9: yellow QMS a little long and right. simple putt, 8 under
HOLE 10: Condor high and right, caught a branch, left me about 30 out, got the putt.. 9 under
HOLE 11: QMS a little too high, wind took it just past but about 35 left.. death putt in the chains, 10 under
HOLE 12: New DX Roc, straight hyzer 5 feet away, drop in for 11 down
HOLE 13: 171g first run champ Boss, planted in the mud 2 feet away, drop in for 12 down
HOLE 14!!: 170g lime green HukLab TeeBird, hyzerbomb over the water… dead center chains ACE! 14 under par
HOLE 15: Red Monarch 15 feet past, 20 right, starting to feel the pressure.. but got the putt for 15 under
HOLE 16: threw floppy SSS Magic on gentle hyzer line, almost aced it, 15 footer for 16 under
HOLE 17: Yellow QMS deep and way left… heart racing, canned a loft putt for 17 under
HOLE 18: went back to floppy Magic again, wind from the left was picking up.. landed on cement ring under basket. dropped it in for 18 under par!!!!

So I now own the new course record by 2 strokes. The course record was previously at 16 under and had been done twice, by Sean Guillen and Doug Bjerkaas. I was with Sean when he set it the first time (video is available here) and Doug was with me today.

Shooting 18 under always floated around in my head on that course, but when I missed hole 3, I figured ‘oh well, another time’. When I hit the ace on 14, I just stood there for several seconds in shock.. no idea what had just happened. It was a real mental test to try to keep playin steady golf after that. I’m still not entirely sure what made today so much different.

Well, I’m off to go celebrate with the Jurk. I think that $140 in ace pool cash may very well all get spent in the pro shop in Japan… all kinds of goodies!

Stay tuned next week as the adventure continues into the land of the Rising Sun :)