No Nature Walk Today

Sorry, the Nature Walk has been cancelled due to the pouring rain and raw temps. Don't want to catch a cold for Christmas, now do you? We'll try again in a few weeks.

Get Pumped: Watch This Movie Trailer

Watch this great trailer for a new movie called Chains due out next year. Caution! It may make you want to stop what you're doing and get out there and play!

• Watch it!

Rapid Refuel Nails an Ace!

One more big sponsor today! Rapid Refuel gas station and convenience store has signed up as a $500 Ace Sponsor! Thank you Linda Brown!

RR is about two minutes away up the hill in the small strip mall that also has three other DDGC sponsors: Hanscom Bank, Dunkins, and the Devens Grill. Now you can gas up, grab a snack, and head on out to the course.

Hopefully by next year, Rapid Refill will be selling our exclusive Devens Disc Golf discs and t-shirts!

Breakmark Bags an Ace!

Thank you to Mat Goldblat of Breakmark Ultimate Apparel for joining us as a $500 Ace Level sponsor! Breakmark makes some sweet shirts for the ultimate Frisbee player in your life and can outfit your whole team at amazing prices. Mat writes:

As a college student and player, I know how difficult it can be to afford to play this great game (Ultimate). I am doing my best to offer outstanding quality at awesome pricing.

Testa Insurance Gets a Birdie!

Thank you to R.W. Testa Insurance Agency of N. Andover for signing up as our latest $300 Birdie Sponsor!

New Resident Comes Through for DDGC

Greg Everett just moved to Devens and is already supporting his new hometown. Greg donated $50 toward the course this weekend and becomes our first Par Sponsor! Thanks very much, Greg!

We Are Done For the Season

Yes, we are officially done with major work on the course. Today, bright and early Dave, me, Rob, and Steve (left to right) met and installed four more baskets.

Hole 2 went in without incident, as did Hole 4. Next, we lucked out on Hole 3 when the hole we dug ended up being in the middle of three huge underground rocks. Three inches in either direction and we would have been bumming. Phew!

Feeling pretty good about ourselves, we headed to Hole 18 to install the last basket. But oh no, Mother Hill had different plans for us - rocks, rocks, and more rocks. Fortunately, after a lot of hard digging by Dave, Rob, and Steve (I was clearing brush from the fairway), we reached a compromise with Mother and put the basket in a few inches higher than the rest. Since the basket is on a pretty steep grade, we surrounded the pole with some rocks to make it look a little nicer.

After that we packed everything up and played a round. Rob and I grabbed lunch and headed back for a second round and were joined by Pete T. We saw the Groton Family out there again, plus two other kids. All in all, it was another beautiful day on the Hill (although I lost my nice new yellow Lat 64 Medius driver. I think it fell out of my bag. Ugh.)

More pix here:

Intalling More Baskets

Parker Hannifin Corp Parks a Birdie!

Thank you to the Nichols Airborne Division of Parker Aerospace for signing up as our latest Birdie level sponsor!

Parker is located on Devens and is a world leader in the design, manufacture, and servicing of hydraulic, fuel, flight control, and pneumatic components, systems, and related electronic controls for aerospace and other high-technology markets.

It's a perfect match. Discs. Flying. Aerospace. Get it? Keep them in mind the next time you need your disc's flight controls checked!

Throw for show, putt for dough

Since good putting is going to be key on the Hill, I thought I'd share a good video showing different putting styles. If you've got 12 minutes to spare, watch and learn from some touring pros.

9 More Basket Are In (or TM is the Man)

The day started late the night before. After working late at the dog factory, I came home and loaded my truck with as much material as I could fit: 10 disassembled Chainstar baskets, the 4 assembled Borderland baskets, tools, and 400 lbs of cement (5 80-lb bags).

Sunday I was up and out of the house by 7:15. Since my outside hose had frozen overnight, I headed over to one of sponsors, Dunkin' Donuts, to fill up some jugs with water. I thought we'd need it for the cement but it turns out we didn't. Dave met me at the course and we drove in to Hole 5 and started digging. TM called from the parking lot a few minutes later, so we met him and decided to install hole 13 first. While Dave and I unloaded the stuff and tried to decide the best way to do things, TM started digging and before we knew it, was done with our first 3-ft deep hole in what seemed like 10 seconds. It was a sign of things to come. The guy is a machine!

We decided to install a new Chainstar first, so TM showed us how the sleeve, collar, lock, and basket went together and showed us the right way to do things. While Dave and I stood there watching him fly through the installation, TM joked, "I've done this a few times." After about 20 minutes or so, we had our first basket in the ground. "Damn," I thought. "That was easy." I didn't want to jinx us, so I kept my mouth shut.

With our first basket in the ground, we moved down the road to Hole 12 and decided to put a Borderland basket there. This one was pretty easy too. Next, we went up the hill to Hole 11 where we put another Borderland basket. We ran into our first substantial rocks on this one, but nothing too major. We had a good system going now and for most of the day, Dave and TM did the digging and basket-building while I got everything else ready and acted as the go-for slash supervisor.

Next up was Hole 10 and since it's off the road a bit we had to lug everything over there. Not too bad, but we ran into a few more rocks. We put a Chainstar here. We walked back down the hill to the trucks and drove out to the parking lot where we moved all the tools and sleeves from TM's truck into mine. We headed out to the front 9 and as we were working on putting a Borderland basket on Hole 6, Matt Stroika showed up to help.

Hole 5 gave us some trouble with a huge rock about 2 1/2 ft down. While TM and Dave continued to bash the snot out of the rock, Matt and I moved on to Hole 15. We lucked out and didn't come across any big rocks.

At about 12:30, Brian brought us lunch (some manly meat-covered pizza), and after a short break TM and Dave installed a Chainstar on Hole 5 and Matt and I started on Hole 9 (another Chainstar). Before long, we had them both done and were ready to play a round. Unfortunately Dave and Matt had to take off, so Brian, TM, and I hit the links (but not before TM cut down that pine tree at the top of Hole 12).

There was still about 20 minutes of sunlight left after our round, so we decided to put in one last basket, a Chainstar on Hole 1. We carried our tools and supplies through the woods and up the hill. Major props go to Brian for getting that 80-lb bag of cement up there! Thankfully Andrew and I had already dug the hole Saturday morning, so we saved a few precious minutes and ended up finishing in the dark using my tiny keychain flashlight. Phew, we were done.

What a day. Nine baskets in about 6 hours with only 4 guys. Impressive. Thanks again to TM Dyer for custom-building our sleeves and collars and for showing us what the heck to do. Dave and I could have done it without you, but we'd still be on Hole 12 scratching our heads! :-)

• For more pictures, go here.

Here's an exciting video for you:

Moreland Lending Corp. Gets a Birdie

Moreland Lending Corporation has joined the Birdie train by donating $300 to the course. Thanks a lot, Steve!

Sunday, 8AM

Parking lot. Be there.

Broke our posthole digger today after only one hole. Big day on Sunday. The more the merrier. Do come.

Work This Weekend

This is our probable schedule for this weekend:

• Saturday: 10 or 11. Dig holes and then play. Bring a posthole digger. (Not 100% sure about the time yet)
• Sunday: 8AM. Install polesleeves and possibly baskets, cut a few trees, and then play. (95% sure of this time)

Check back late Friday or early Saturday for definate info, or call. Let me know when you are coming to help.

Many hands will ensure we are done before the ground freezes.

And We Have Baskets

The chains arrived today. Given the way the UPS guy stacked them in the driveway, I bet he's glad we're not ordering any more for a while.

We are hoping to install more sleeves on Sunday so that we can get these babies in the ground. But, we need some help! If we have a few workcrews we should be done in no time. The weather outlook looks great, so come out and help. Put the time in now and build up some disc golf karma points for the future! Email me if you can help. More details later.

 

Chains Are On Their Way!

Should be here Thursday.

Updated Photos of Each Hole

We took a photo on every hole today and tried to give you a good idea of what awaits you on the Hill. Let me know what you think. Click below to start the slideshow.

John & Brian Play 18 - Dec. 3, 2006

A Beautiful Day on the Hill

Dave and I started the day making a path between Hole 12 and 13 and then cleared a bunch of junk from Hole 12's fairway. Now it's a bit more defined. Only a few more trees to get out of the way and this hole will be killer.

As Dave was leaving, I hooked up with Nut and we played a round. It was a fun time since I was sucking and he wasn't. After Brian beat me by one on the front 9, I buckled down and came back to win by 7 strokes thanks to a few birdies.

We met a family from Groton who was headed out to play the back nine after playing the front 9 yesterday. It was great to see! Thanks for coming out!

Work and Play on Sunday

Pre Season Speed Dave and I are doing some work Sunday morning. Probably 10, not quite sure yet. Depends on when I get home Sat. night from the Who concert. Yeah baby.

We are going to hack out a path from 12 to 13 and finishing tidying 18. Let me know if you'd like to help out. I'll post here Sunday morning before I leave.