Strange trip indeed. Did we play disc golf, or did disc golf play us? These were walloping winds (+25 MPH for much of Saturday), a lot of Jag rust, a variety of new holes for many of us, but the real stars of the weekend were the courses. I had forgotten the quality and the tenacity. These courses are significantly more difficult than Madison, which is good or bad, I suppose. But their sheer acuity of design and stark beauty are undeniable.
Example, Hole 5, Northwood.
Or the always epic hole 18
Or Lake Eureka, hole 4. Interestingly, we had a wild Jag moment here. I had just established a relatively strong CTP candidate. Matt and I, with backs turned to the tee pad, were discussing how to mark such disc...WHAM! Leonard drove and hit Matt in the ass. Possibly the first Jag-on-Jag violence of the tournament's history?
McNaughton was fairway tunnels, intense penalties for straying from these tunnels, very high scores. Hole 18, Matt made like a 100+ bomb.
Northwood was woods, wind, woods, WIND. Hole 18 I think I saw several uses of an abacus.
Lake Eureka was woods. Woods. Woods. WIND. Woods. Tree-thumps throughout the forest on this day.
Interestingly, all three courses sort of lure you in, then attack you, then, 16-18, lead you to your fucking doom. As I was commenting to the suddenly MANY Jag runners, these courses are not so unlike the experience of a marathon. You run along, and, oh, this is pretty good, nice crowd, etc...then you hit the stretch where all the sudden, you know what, your legs and lungs just noticed they are running a long way, then you cross mile 20 and, well, hello, goodbye, welcome to absolute hell.
The Sunday course didn't let us down. VERY technical. It didn't have the teeth of the others, but that was OK. At this point, we were sort of frayed.
Some holes were shadow-lit cathedrals of pine.
Can you find Eric?
But no matter the sweetness of the D golf venues, we bitterly missed those Jags who could not attend. We played in your honors, kind folks. For example, for Rob, I threw a titanic hammer shot directly into a creek:
Mark often putted like Ander:
Matt and T-Town reflected on Andy and tossed BOTH their drives down a massive ravine:
For Aaron, We frightened away two deer
and Matt decided to throw left-handed
and Eric ordered a Shepherd's Pie with mashed potatoes and gravy as whipped cream and icing topping:
Other details included Matt sleeping atop 14 blankets on the floor. Eric Impaling a disc on thorns high up in a tree, Leonard climbing said tree, blood.
and Mark pulled one of these
I pulled several of these
T-Town seemed much improved (check the sweet follow through)
as did Eric's drive...
and Matt pulled one of these (I'm sure his screenwriting classes will enjoy the Jennifer Lopex oeuvre)
while Matt v Eric, Leonard v Mark engaged in an epic final round battle
On and on...5's, 6's, 7's, other such skyward scoring. Eric will send the "hard data" out soon, as is his way. Enjoyed it all, Jags, both those present and present in spirit. I hope everyone felt the same. I think we all need to focus next time around, and try to get the ranks up to the glory of former years. Life happens, like a disc in the wind, ups and down, lefts and rights, but we don't want to set a precedent here--we want 2013 to be an outlier: "Remember the year..." We want 2014 to be back to normal. Every D golfer, clanking shrubbery and trees and baskets, jagging it up, as one.
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