Contributed by:
Eric J. Lubbers, YourHub.com
Article Contributed on: 3/3/2006 3:38:27 PM
Community Journalist Brendan Leonard and I are going to attempt to play every disc golf course in the YourHub.com circulation area, from Boulder to Castle Rock, by the end of summer 2006. This blog is our second course on a preliminary list of 14 courses.
I have to mention, for the sake of journalistic accuracy, that this is, in fact, my first blog of the above-mentioned quest. “What the heck, man? Why would you deny us the tale of your first outing?” I’m sure both of you reading this are saying to yourselves (or each other, if you happen to be in the same room). The answer is simple: Brendan did a much better job of it than I ever could.
I’m trying to outdo him this time, but considering he’s already wrote this on the subject, I’ve got a ways to go.
Now I’m never going to complain about leaving the office early and going disc golfing, but I will complain about the fat Midwestern trucker’s heart that is traffic in Downtown Denver between 3-7 p.m. (Did you get where I was going with that one? Clogged arteries as a metaphor for streets? ‘Cause truckers eat greasy food? Anyone? You, in the back? OK, whatever. Neanderthals.) Needless to say, when it takes you 3 1/2 hours to play a short nine-hole course, you've a traffic problem and a disappointed girlfiend at home.
After (un)successfully navigating the tricky Hampden Avenue-Sheridan Boulevard intersection to get to the Schaeffer Athletic Complex, we parked, looked at the map and realized we were almost as far away from the first tee box as physically possible while still being on the same piece of property. But walking is half the fun of disc golf, right?
After trekking across approximately 650 soccer fields, we saw the course. A beaten, winding asphalt path led us to the first tee box (made of concrete! A far cry from Globeville.) My first impression of the course was cynical. With no more than five trees (almost all of which were around only two targets), a landscape more-than-vaguely reminiscent of the post-harvest cornfields of my youth and the first hole no farther than 225 feet away, I was pretty disappointed.
Needless to say, I began to see potential in the course. The tilled landscape, I later surmised, was most likely seeded with grass, and there were a number of saplings growing in the area that could grow up to be strong, healthy, disc-eating trees. Distances between tee boxes and targets began to lengthen, along with our shadows, and coupled with my deteriorating night vision, that strech made the final four holes fairly challenging.
For pros/more-experienced amateurs, this course could be boring at worst and a good place to practice your short game at best. For Brendan and me, however, it was just about the right course to play for our second round of the off-season.
We were both throwing pars like clockwork, sans a few gaffes, including an extremely embarrassing 5-foot-putt miss (I got cocky), which resulted in 4s. While the round was free of jaw-dropping displays of disc manipulation, I managed to redeem myself with a 35-40 ft. chain-slammer on hole 8.
All in all, the round was a pleasant interlude between road-rage-inducing bouts of the nation’s ninth worst traffic congestion.
Score: Brendan-31, me-28
Next week: We haven’t decided, so you’ll just have to wait like the rest of the class.