Calendar says it’s the first day of spring. Conditions say otherwise. Oddly though, unseasonably cold temperatures make for the most ideal course conditions right now. The snow melts just enough from the sun during the day to freeze up really solid during the cold night. So at 9am, you can walk on top of snow that still ranges from a few inches to a couple feet deep and not sink in an inch.
So I went out this morning with the mercury reading 15 degrees (and rising, fortunately) and played a couple rounds. The aforementioned frozen snow meant not only easier walking but no discs burying, so for the first time in a couple months, I was throwing ribbon free discs.
And being ribbon free, I finally got to test out a couple new molds released earlier this month by Westside Discs: the Bard (midrange) and the Seer (fairway driver). The discs I was throwing are both Tournament plastic. The Bard weighs in at 175 grams while the Seer is 167g.
The Bard is advertised as an overstable midrange. The flight ratings indicate it has no high speed turn and I saw nothing to indicate that isn’t the case. With a hard flat release, the Bard carried a fair amount on a straight trajectory without a hint of turn before gradually fading to the ground.
The Seer is touted as a understable fairway driver with a good deal of high speed turn and some fade. Again, that’s what I saw from it. I really liked the way I was able to throw it with a slight hyzer release, have it flip up to flat then continue to turn over with just a slight bit of fade at the end. With some more seasoning, this may be the reliable turnover fairway driver I’ve been searching for since the switch.
Both discs may find their way into my regular bag with a bit more work as they both potentially fill roles I’ve been unable to settle on a solution for to this point.
In other news from my rounds today, I managed to bag my second ever unwitnessed therefore doesn’t really count ace. In all the years I’ve played, I’ve been fortunate to have had witnesses for 21 aces, and for a long time I prided myself on not having thrown one in when no one was there to see it. That is, until last winter when I finally broke my streak with my first solo round ace. Today I bagged #2 on hole 5. My third time getting that hole and second in a row with the same Classic Soft Warden (first time was witnessed back in December).
Still a few weeks away from real tournament action but preparations are well under way. Starting to get into a routine with my putting practice inside, and hopefully can start to transition to some outdoor putting practice soon. I mean, eventually the weather has to catch up with the calendar, right?
Yikes, it’s been a long winter. And it’s still not over. There’s a good 2-3+ feet of snow still out on the course and it will be a while before it all disappears. However, the worst appears to be over (fingers crossed).
The last 35 days or so has been unprecedented in my lifetime. Seems like every 2-3 days, there’s been a fresh snowfall. It started with a 2 foot dump of a storm, followed a few days later by another 8-10 inches. From there, it’s been a few inches here, a dusting there, and bitter cold temps. I’ve spent plenty of time on the course during that time, but all of it has been in an effort to keep the tee pads clear. I’ve played exactly 54 holes of golf, 36 of which were yesterday, since the last week in January. An undesirable dry spell to say the least.
The first 18 holes I played in the snow was at the Frostbite Doubles. The original date had to be re-scheduled because of a storm, and the new date resulted in only 3.5 teams showing up to play. Because of the half team, I decided to step in to play with the .5 to make two full groups of 4 and played one round before my team and the other (in a division of their own) decided 18 holes was enough.
Then it was three weeks of no play until yesterday at our next tournament, Ice Doubles. I had no partner lined up and was fine with just playing TD for the day. Only one pro team showed up (along with 8 amateur teams), so rather than have the pro team play against no one, I offered to play with them for fun. From there, we decided to make it a 3-man Open singles division and played for $5 a man instead. I finished second out of three and was just happy that I made it through two rounds without losing a disc or hurting myself.
And it was also enough to light the fuse again. In March, the golf dry spell has to end regardless of what the weather does. My first PDGA of the year is barely four weeks away, and I intend to be ready for it.
(Edit as of 3/2 at 9:30pm: Or not four weeks away. Tourney 54 postponed due the snow levels. Doesn’t change the plans to end the dry spell though.)
Step one has been to set up a basket in the basement, complete with backdrop to protect the walls. I’ve got enough space to putt 35-footers although I’ll probably stick to 15-20 footers primarily just to keep the damage to a minimum. Time to put some time into my putting.
Step two, drag myself out into the snow and play a minimum of 72 holes a week. I like to advocate field work as part of a good practice routine, but all the fields are covered in deep snow. The course, at least, has clear tee pads and some well worn (provided we get no more big storms) and packed paths to walk on. So field work is going to have to be exclusively course work for the time being. Throwing is throwing after all.
Step three, believe it or not, is snowshoeing. It’s been the only way to get around the course to clear tees and make walking trails on the fairways, and all that walking has been paying dividends. If there’s anything I’m ahead of the curve on this winter, it’s getting my legs and cardio system in shape. It’s been a great side benefit of trying to get and keep the course moderately playable despite the snow cover.
So…putt, play, snowshoe…the cure for the winter blues.
Quite the weekend to start off the new year. In what has become a tradition for me (6 years running now), I participated in a tradition that dates back to the mid-1970s. That tradition has come to be known as First Folf at Fort McClary.
But before the fun began on Sunday, I got the good news on Saturday that my sponsorship deal with Latitude 64 and Westside Discs has been extended through 2015. Wahoo.
And even more fun (of a more sarcastic nature) was had on the drive to Fort McClary on Sunday morning as the tail-end of a messy snow-ice-rain storm was passing through. The good news is road conditions weren’t as bad as they could have been and all the precipitation passed through by the time we started playing. The bad news is that the weather apparently scared off a bunch of regular participants in the event so the field was smaller than usual.
Fort McClary is a small state park in Kittery Point, Maine. The land had been fortified in some way since the late 17th century protecting the mouth of the Piscataqua River where it entered the Atlantic Ocean through Portsmouth Harbor and Pepperrell Cove. The Fort was officially established and militarized in the 19th century. It has been maintained as a park and an historic site since the 1920s.
Ft McClary – First Folf 2015 – “Tee 10” overlooking Pepperrell Cove where the Piscataqua River empties into the Atlantic. Traditionally, the hole plays down some steps and into an underground bunker but it was flooded out due to the storm. Instead, the target was a section of fence that surrounds the staircase. Pink tape can be seen marking that section.
The park is divided into two parts by the main road through the village. The “park side” consists of a playground and picnic area, some nature trails, and a small pond that is frequently used in the winter for hockey. The “fort side” nearer the water features old buildings and battlements.
The tradition of frisbee golf (true frisbee golf with actual Frisbees) at the Fort dates to the early/mid 1970s when a group of friends would play their made up course at the Fort just because they had free time and loved throwing Frisbees. As these friends aged and graduated and moved on with their respective lives, they made a pact to always gather once a year (on or around New Years Day) at the Fort to “relive” the old days and play frisbee golf. And they’ve stuck with it, getting their children involved and soon enough, probably their children’s children as well.
The “Folf” crew has grown from the original handful not just through growing families, but through inviting new friends and acquaintances to play (you tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on). That’s how I came to be a participant.
I have family ties to Kittery Point. My father grew up there. My grandmother still lives there. I spent many hours of my childhood playing on the playgrounds at Fort McClary when we visited family.
Ft McClary – First Folf 2015 – A look down “hole 6” where the object is to land your disc on the elevated platform of the gazebo playground equipment in the distance.
So in playing various disc golf tournaments, my father, my uncle and I all became acquainted with one of the original Folfers. And in the course of conversation, the common connection of the Fort came up and the invitations to play the First Folf event were offered. All three of us jumped in (some sooner than others…I was actually the last to join in the fun) and now we all look forward to starting the new year with First Folf.
The event itself consists of a single round of 18 holes, followed by lunch and awards (and usually thawing out) at a local restaurant. Over the years, the “course” has changed with new holes and targets tried and new angles thought up. The current layout used in the last few years has more or less stabilized into something that the original Folfers say is pretty close to their original design (give or take a few trees and objects).
This old school course is entirely made up of object targets. They range from throwing the disc through a “V” created by two birch trees to striking park signs, doors and flag poles to landing on an elevated platform that is part of a piece of playground equipment.
Ft McClary – First Folf 2015 – the flagpole that serves as the object target of “hole 9” (playing from down the steps to the left) as well as “hole 13” (playing through the brown brick powderhouse window).
Some targets are used multiple times. One object, a large well cover, is not only used twice as a target, but twice as a tee as well (it is the tee for one of the holes playing to the pictured flagpole above). There are also a number of mandatories that have to be navigated. For example, one hole forces you to throw between two specific trees before taking a 90 degree turn to the left and playing to the door of the men’s room.
A few mandatories are actually windows in buildings through which you have to pass before completing the hole. The window in the brown building pictured above is one such example. There are windows on two sides of the aforementioned well cover. One hole forces you to come through one of the windows on one side of the building before landing on the cover. Later you must enter through one of the windows on the other side before again landing on the cover.
Sometimes, mandatories are the targets as well. There is one hole in which you must throw your disc through a crotch in the tree, but can only do so in one particular direction. Still other targets, like the men’s room door and the “zebra” striped sign, can only be struck on one side.
All this adds up to a golf course that puts a huge premium on placement and approach angles over distance. The only holes that exceed 230 feet bend around mandatories that make it difficult if not impossible to cover the whole distance in one throw. Many times, the difference between getting a two or a three on a given hole is landing one foot further to the left or the right and being lined up to be able to hit the target properly.
Case in point, I had drives on both holes playing to the well cover that had it traveled just a foot or two further, I’d have been lined up with a dead straight shot through the window directly to the well cover. Instead, I was forced to lay up (8 feet on one, 12 on the other) to give myself a putt.
Fortunately, despite a few of those hard to swallow extra throws, I was able to throw the lowest score of the day amongst the 12 participants. It was my second time doing so in my six years of playing the event, but the first time being the solo low score (no tiebreakers at First Folf).
Fort McClary – First Folf – Sweet first place trophy plaque for the 2015 First Folf. Better trophy than 99% of the tourneys I pay to enter.
With the conclusion of First Folf, my 2015 season is underway. I intend to be a bit more diligent with the blog and update it with every event I play (most probably won’t be quite this long). We’ll see how that goes.
I’ll just conclude with a formal invitation to anyone reading to visit and “friend” the Fort McClary Folf page at Facebook and then feel free to join in on the fun of playing at the Fort. There are tentative plans to do a doubles tournament in March, which would be the third year running of that event. That one is two rounds and yours truly (with my partner Charlie Sawyer) is the defending champ. We welcome any and all challengers. 🙂
My scorecard for First Folf at Fort McClary – January 4, 2015
