Cleveland Bag Tag Deathmatch

Jill and I gave a reading in Cleveland at a cool bookstore. What was cool about it? They sold beer and wine. I do believe people would buy more books if bookstores boozed them up a little. The next morning I met up with Rob and Andy at Sims Park in Euclid, OH. The course is located on the estate of Sims Mansion. 

Apparently this is what qualifies as a "mansion" in Cleveland. I believe in New England they would call this as a "cottage." Guests would sip their Manhattans and refer to it as "quaint."

It hadn't rained in the Midwest in three months, but the gods sensed Jaggery and induced a steady downpour. We said fuck it and made our way to the first tee. This was my first bag tag match since Madison (Muncie Jags decided not to play for bag tags during local rounds, to avoid excessive tag-switching). I was a little nervous bringing my precious #2 into enemy territory.

The first two holes on this course are killer. Tricky on a good day, they were made damn near unplayable by the 40-plus mph wind coming off Lake Erie. You think I exaggerate. I do not exaggerate. These two holes destroyed us in both rounds. There were fives. There was a seven. There was a snowman. I started off with a 5 and a 7 in the first round to go to +6 after two holes. Jesus. Did I mention it was raining hard and wet as shit. Here's the tee on hole #1:

If you look closely you can see the wind making ripples in that puddle. We flung our discs into that ravine. Rob threw good drives on this hole both times. Andy threw a good and a bad. My first drive turned completely upside down in the wind and landed on its back in the woods to the right. Then it was on to putting.

Putting in this wind was not putting. It was like trying to throw a Band-Aid in the basket from 30 feet. As tough as the first hole was, the second was worse. Here's Andy unleashing the forehand. 

#2 is a giant dogleg right. You drive down into a ravine, then back uphill to this killer basket position:

Our scores on this hole for both rounds were: 7,5,5,4,8,6. I believe there was a five-putt by one of us. We walked toward the wooded portion of the course, leaving the lake, and much of the wind behind. 

The next section of this course was excellent. A variety of short, wooded holes with good use of ravines and slight elevation changes. Here's the view from the fairway down to the basket of #5:

Here's Andy driving hole #7:

Great concentration considering he's about to devoured by that light-based alien to his left. We played these holes pretty well, but not great. Too many errant drives and missed birdie putts. Rob was beating me by two strokes at the turn, with Andy just two strokes behind. 

The back nine is mostly open, and mostly long. You really aren't going to birdie many on the back nine unless you can throw an accurate 350+ drive. Here's a typical view from the tee:

We played the back nine pretty well both rounds. A lot of pars and bogies. First round scores:

Mark +10, Rob +13, Andy +18

Did I mention the rain? Did I mention that the local disc golf club had moved all the baskets to long positions? The wind speed? The post-Madison disc lull rust?

If possible the wind had picked up when we started round two. The snowman occurred. I won't mention who carded the snowman, but here's Rob headed for the lake. We convinced him not to throw himself in. 

Sims park has a lot of what they call "character." In round two a few of the characters began to wander across fairways. I have no pictures because these are people who get upset if you take pictures. When one of these characters walks across the fairway, you wait respectfully until he is far out of range. Often he is headed to one of the neighborhood establishments. Oh, there's one in the background.

I got a little more comfortable in the second round, carding the only birdie of the day on #8. Andy tightened things up, but never really got in a groove. Rob played well, but couldn't overcome a bad start. Round two scores:

Mark +9, Rob +15, Andy +15

No bag tags changed hands. Thanks to the Cleveland jags for showing me around Euclid! Hope to get back there to play Punderson soon, which sounds like a great course not far from Cleveland. Also hope to spot Aaron in a round sometime soon. 

Oh, and I picked up the Cleveland Prize® while I was there. It came in a brown paper bag. My favorite kind of wrapping paper!