We stink

Here are a few photos from the NEFA Challenge Finals held Sunday at Barre Dam. As predicted we came in last, but hey, we had fun doing it!

Half the team: Donnie, John, Dave, Luke


As far as I know, the closest that we came to winning anything was on three CTPs. Arty got the first one, which I then stole, and Donnie got another one a few holes later. Unfortunately we were robbed by other players later in the day. Not sure if our other teammates Gags and Andy had any better luck.

Quote of the day comes from our fearless captain, Andy, who said at lunch: "Nobody stinks like we do!" I couldn't agree more. Good job team. Let's stink less next year!

John and Donnie discuss how to miss their next putt on Hole 4.



Aspen, our official mascot of the day, takes a break on tee 17



Donnie flicks 3



John uncorks one on 3



Bottom Dwellers from Tolland and Devens walk up fairway 2



Dave and Luke watch John miss another putt

Regular Socialites Off to NEFA Challenge Finals

Just a heads up to anyone planning on joining us at the Sunday Social tomorrow -- we won't be there! Tomorrow is our NEFA Challenge Finals at Barre. For whatever bizarre reason, we are starting off 7 strokes behind the winner of the regular season, so there is little hope for us to win or place. The only chance we have is at the CTPs on many of the holes.

In any case, it should be a fun day and a great way to wrap-up the off-season.

Here's your headline, Marcy!

Another nice turnout last night with 8 golfers, one official scorekeeper-photographer-birthday girl, and lots of those tiny annoying flea-things swarming around our heads. We played straight-up for tags.

Ken, Luke, Arty, Rob, Pete, John, Dan, Dave


There were also a handful of other players out enjoying the 84-degree temps. Yes, 84 in late April. Nice.

I shot a personal best and claimed the #2 tag. The results:

• John (55, #2)
• Dave J (58, #3)
• Arty (60, #6)
• Ken G (63, #11)
• Pete N (63, #12)
• Luke (66, #13)
• Rob W (67, #14)
• Dan (68, #15)

Dave, Pete, and I will not be there next week, so hopefully someone else will run the Weekly for us and send me the results. Thanks and happy hucking!

John winds up on 3


Off it goes into the trees once again!


Dave was on his toes last night


While Rob was landing on this rock


Arty, Luke, Marcy, John, Ken

New start time for WW -- 5:30 PM

More daylight means we can start later from now on and you don't have to drive 90 to get here on time (Arty).

Hope we see a few more new faces out there this week. Let's see if we can break our record 11 players from last week. Dave will have more tags for sale. $10 for the year.

See you at 5:30 on Wednesday!

This week's celebrity golfer: Pamela Anderson!

WW Results

We had a record turnout last night with 11 golfers. That makes me feel great and I can't wait to see the numbers go up starting next week when we start a little later at 5:30.

John, Arty, Mike, Pete, Matt, Donnie


This week's scores were much better than the past few weeks, maybe because it was the first beautiful day in a long long time. We played straight-up singles for tags and everyone seemed to like it that way.

There's currently some hubbub about the official results and a potential scoring error, so I'll hold off listing them until we straighten it out.

Until then, enjoy these goofy pictures...

Pete twirls "gracefully" off teepad 3



Matt shows some style on his drive off 3



After a great drive on 13, Donnie goes for the long deuce



Mike C putts on 15


We also bumped into Joe A and his wife, as well as Nut, his son, and some of their neighbors. The place was hopping!

Last week's WW photos

Here are a few photos from last week, including that crazy tree shot. Thanks for the pix, Arty.

See you guys tonight. 5PM.

• See all the pix

Pete T, Donnie, Dave, John, Luke



Where's my disc?




Ahh, there it is!

Disc meets stump

Ken Gary sent in this email and photo from a few weeks ago. Nice shot!

I took this pic with my phone during the Sunday Social on March 30. This was Phil's approach to hole number 6.

He redeemed himself with a drive on 18 that stopped 7 feet from the pin for a drop-in birdie to come back from 2-down and win the round.

WW Tomorrow

Join us for league tomorrow at 5PM. It's going to be a beautiful day, so get out and do some golfing! Unfortunately, #1 Dave can't make it, so we'll be battling it out for the lower numbers, which aren't too low to begin with...

Next week, we'll be starting at 5:30 so that more people can come, including Tom Cruise.

Get ready for Prime time

Steve Dodge, mastermind behind the top-notch Maple Hill disc golf course in Leicester, MA has started a new disc golf store called PRIME Discs.

We have joined his affiliate program that has some great benefits for our course and our Wednesday Weekly league players:

• You get free shipping on all orders. Order by Monday and pick up your stuff at league on Wed. Simple.
  
• 10% of each sale is donated back to our course, so shop early and often -- just use this link.

Steve has also donated a number of cool CTP prizes to use at league, so get your butt in gear next week and win you some stuff!

WW Results

We had another good turnout this week with 6 taggers. Here's how it broke down:

• #1 Dave (59) defends against #10 Pete T (63)
  
• #8 John (61) takes #4 Arty (65)
  
• #6 Luke (65) takes #2 Donnie (65)

Sadly, Donnie has announced that he is placing himself on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list after trying to fight through a nagging shoulder injury the past few weeks. He graciously gave his tag to Luke so that it would still be in play. We'll miss you out there, son.

Shot of the day: Hole 14. I decide to try to make it to the upper level off the tee. I let a laser rip that just misses the first tree on the left behind the boulder. The disc is cruising and passes by the second tree just before the second tier. We all watch with the usual "ews" and "ahhs" as it flies up the hill. Then I say, "Man that thing is going great!" and Luke replies, "Uh, no it isn't."

We look more closely and see that the disc has gotten stuck between the trunk and a small branch, but because of the fading light and distance it looked like it was suspended in air. It was pretty funny. Luckily Arty had his camera so he took a few shots which I'll post here later. More importantly, he kindly didn't call the 3-meter rule on me!

Anyway, we all had a good laugh.

Bonus: But what really made me happy last night is that Dave and Pete bumped into a few guys who were playing AND picking up trash too. Yay and thank you!

Wednesday Weekly Tonight

Join us at 5 PM sharp for our weekly tag league tonight.

Although you don't need a tag to play, you won't be eligible to win someone else's, but what fun would that be?

So, cough up $10 for the year and don't feel like a chump. All tag money goes toward our insurance bill.

Ice Bowl update

Got this email update from Rick Rothstein, the national organizer for the Ice Bowl. Thanks again to all that came to ours!

The count continues but thanks to the 200 events that have reported, I'm happy to announce these very impressive numbers for Ice Bowl 2008.

• Participants/helpers/contibutors: 10,435
• Average temperature: 35.74°
• Average snow on the ground: 3.10"
• Charitable donations in cash: $242,661
• Charitable donations in food: 49,807 lbs

With another 40-45 events that we're hoping to hear from soon, we might just exceed a 1/4 million dollars. I do like the sound of that.

Tick Deathwatch

Beware -- the ticks are back.

After several hours of cutting, clearing, and picking up trash on Saturday morning, my dog and I came home with three ticks. In a rare twist of fate, I had none for a change.

So, as a friendly reminder, you may want to spray some Off! around your ankles and on your shoes to help keep those damn ticks away. I found this was a pretty good way to protect myself last year.

Tick Watch 2008: 3

Donnie D gets Social

Since we only had 5 for the Social yesterday, we decided to play a tag round of singles. Donnie ended up winning a one-hole playoff with Pete to keep his #2 tag. John and Phil tied for third and Shep pulled up the rear.

Results:
#2 Donnie - 62
#3 Pete - 62
#8 John - 66
#9 Phil - 66
Shep - 75

Other tag holders:
#1 Dave, Luke, Bobkat, Arty, Tim.

See you guys on Wednesday.

Dave was not there to put up his #1 because he was giving a local Girl Scouts troop a tour of the course. From the shouts and laughs we heard coming from the woods, it sounds like the girls and parents had a great time. Thanks for coming, girls!

Back to our regularly scheduled disc golf

Well, no luck for UMass last night and it's raining and snowing this morning. How about a little disc golf school to brighten your day?

Learn how to throw a forehand flick.

Do we have it in us for one more game? NIT championship, tonight, 7PM ESPN against those chumps from Ohio State. Let's go Mass!

This could be Ford's last game coaching UMass. Latest rumors have him being wooed by LSU. Good grief. Let's hope it IS just a rumor.

Spring cleaning

Mother Nature has been doing some Spring cleaning. There is a huge pine branch almost down near the basket on hole 1 (still playable though).

A large tree toppled over on 12 and numerous branches are down throughout the course.

Please help clean by throwing any big branches off to the side while you play.

I am thinking of doing some work Sat AM, probably around 9:00 but first I have to dig out my tools and tick death spray. Join me if you can, but you may want to call first. (978-433-6133)

WW Results

Six of us showed up for the first Wednesday Weekly. Since it was the first week and we had a few stragglers, we made two threesomes:

• Dave (#1), Pete (#3), and me (#10)
• Donnie (#2), Luke (#4) and Jimbo (#6).

Dave, Donnie, Luke, Jim



Here's Jim's recount:

Six of us battled the wind blown hill: Dave James kept his #1, JoBo beat Pete for the 3 spot by a stroke (71 over a 72 ... three cheers!! (or jeers?)); Donny kept his #2 three strokes away from me and I exchanged my #6 tag for Luke's #4 by a stroke or two.

Highlights and lowlights in our battle: Donny and I missing a few easy birdies, some by lame putting, others by wind picking off the disc in mid flight. Donny hitting a long flick approach on 18 for a downhill breathtaker for par. I'm guessing it was a 60 or 70 footer all the way left until it just banked and crashed the chains. Excellent.

I like this challenge idea. Where else can you shoot your worse round in 2 years and still jump up 7 tag spots? Ugh. I played like doggy doo.

Not many highlights in our group except some pretty good long putting by Dave. On 18, both Dave and I crushed our drives down the hill within 50-60 ft of the pin but in the woods to the right. Then of course we both blew our approaches and left ourselves long comeback putts. Dave 4, me 5. Ack!

It was great to see Arty and Tim show up just to buy a tag even though they couldn't stay to play. Now that is support. Thanks guys.

We also bumped into Chris and his younger brother Charlie on 16 and they finished their round with us. Chris is a local guy stationed at Devens. It's great to see some military guys using the course finally.

Wednesday Weekly Starts Tonight

Join us tonight at 5 PM for the first tag league night of 2008. $10 gets you a tag for the year. If you don't want to join the league, feel free to come play anyway. We'll still let you! ;)

Tee off at 5 SHARP!

Big News! Devens to host National Tour stop in October!

I have exciting news! We will be hosting a last-minute addition to the PDGA National Tour calendar in October.

Under the PDGA's new initiative to jumpstart emerging courses and publicize disc golf in emerging markets, The Hill has been granted this amazing opportunity to host touring pros in this once-in-a-lifetime event.

Can you believe it? The big guns are coming to the Hill: Climo, Feldberg, Doss, Kallstrom, and more.

Between rounds last weekend, Pro Markus Källström said, "I met John at the Sugarbush Open last summer and after listening to him go on and on about how great Devens was, I told him 'Sure, I'll come to your course. Now just leave me alone.' So, I guess I have to go now."

Details are still being worked out, but preliminary plans are for a 2-day event in late October, probably the weekend before the NEFA Finals. Stay tuned!

Oh, and by the way, Happy April Fools Day.

New! Devens Bag Tag League starts next Wednesday

We are happy to announce the start of the 2008 Devens Weekly Bag Tag League starting next Wed., April 3 at 5PM.

$10 gets you a handcrafted birch bag tag and a chance to compete for a higher-numbered tag each Wednesday, or whenever someone with a lower number challenges you (either at Devens or any other course). It's a fun way to build up some friendly competition and bragging rights for the Hill!

• Cost: $10 to join. Proceeds go directly to our insurance fund.
  
• When: Every Wednesday at 5:00 PM
• Get one: Email Dave and let him know you want in, or get one next Wed. or Sunday at the Social.
• Official results will be kept on our website
  

Thanks Dave for making the tags and running this league. It's going to be a fun season. I'll post a photo of the tag as soon as I get one.

In the first exhibition match last night, Dave claimed the #1 tag, Donnie Disc Golf, #2, and Ace Race Pete #3.

We take a break from Devens Disc Golf today to say "Yeah boy!" to the UMass hoops team. What a friggin' awesome comeback victory last night against those cocky, out-of-shape losers from Syracuse at the Carrier Dome. We win 81-77 and are off to the NIT Final Four.

After playing like ass in the first half and trailing by 22 at the half, the boys slowly chipped away at the lead by nailing a ton of 3s and playing some scrappy D. Nice! Boo hoo. Bye bye. See you later, Orange.

Damn that was a great win last night. I haven't yelled at my TV like that in a long time. For a team picked to finish 8th in the A-10, I think we are doing pretty well!

Fellow UMass alumni join me now as I stand and cheer: "Go. Go U. Go UMass! Go UMass!"

• More on the game
  

Happy Easter!

March Madness hits the Hill

If you haven't already joined 99 other groups, why not join ours? Just for fun, join the Devens Disc Golf bracket for the NCAA tourney.

I'll even throw in a 2007 Ace Race disc for the winner.

• Free.
  
• One entry per person, please.
• Password is: chuckit

We get social

This week's Sunday Social brought some Southern flair to the mix with JJ from Georgia stopping by. He was in the area on business and found the time to join us. JJ is an old acquaintance of Daniel Marcus and told us a few entertaining stories about Daniel waiting tables down in Augusta back in the day.

Donnie, Dave, Rob, Pete, Ken, JJ


Congrats to Ken and Donnie on pulling out the one-stroke victory on the last putt of the round with a pretty sweet 51. Donnie also won a snazzy Got Gunk microfiber towel for getting the CTP on hole 9.

Social champs Ken and Donnie


The results:

• Ken/Donnie: 51
• John/Cali: 52
• Dave/Rob: 54
• Pete/JJ: 59

Since next week is Easter, I doubt we'll have many people show up, but as you know, the Hill will be there waiting for you no matter the holiday.

Dave approaches hole 4



Donnie goes for the winning putt on 18 (Ack!)



JJ putts up 18

Evergreen Solar is in for a birdie

Thank you Evergreen Solar for your sponsorship! Evergreen is building a huge manufacturing plant on Devens and hopefully one day will supply us with solar-powered soda machines for the back nine. That would be nice, huh?! :-)

Evergreen makes everything — wafers, cells, and panels — all under one roof.

Locally, 92.5 FM the River uses their products to power their radio station. Check out some other installations.

Thanks for your support. Go solar!

To the A-holes littering on our course...

Be a responsible human and pack out your beer bottles and other trash, damn it. Show some appreciation for the rest of us that have worked hard to make a beautiful free course for you. You f-ing losers.

By the way, cigarette butts are trash too.

If you are going to continue to be a loser and litter, donate some money to the course so that we can buy trash bags and shotguns and a few shovels. Not necessarily in that order. Thank you.

Sunday Social back on!

Now that most of the snow is gone, let's get the Social moving again. Pete and Donnie are getting tired of playing with themselves. (Umm, that doesn't sound right...)

Join us at 9:30 for a pre-St. Patty's day round of dubz. $5. A pot of Leprechaun gold for the winner.

Surprise! We lose again!

Yay to Dave James, our sole point winner, for keeping our 1-point per challenge average going strong in last Sunday's Team Challenge loss to Burgess.

Once again, we were "this" close to winning more than just one match-up. We hung in there, especially during dubz.

Donnie and I came back from a 2-hole deficit to tie it with one hole to go. They made a sweet pressure-filled putt thru the wind to force an eventual 6-hole playoff (which we obviously lost). I loved the gallery we had for the playoff and loved the pressure of it all. Very fun!

Arty and Gags took their match all the way to the last hole too, I think, but came up short. A few singles matches were close too, but no luck!

Thanks for the hospitality, Burgess. See you in the playoffs.

So we end our inaugural season at a stellar 0-5. Can't we get a half-point for close calls? Playoffs: April 27, Tully Dam. Prepare for Devens Domination!

Playing disc golf in shorts?

The big boys have started their season. This weekend they are out in AZ at the Memorial. Looks a little nicer there than here in MA!

Click the photo to see more from round 1 and 2.

Who has my lost disc?

Would the guy that called me a few weeks ago saying he found my NEFA Finals disc on hole 7 give me a call or email me? You said you'd leave it at Brian's house but we could not find it.

I love that disc. If anyone out there has one they don't want, I'll gladly trade you for it. It was from the 2006 Finals at Borderlands. It was white with the color NEFA States graphic. I think it was a Discraft Spectra. Help a brother out!

Let's go to the Cape of Cod

We're getting our March NEFA Challenge out of the way early this month with a trip down to the Cape to play the boys from Burgess Park in Marstons Mills on Sunday.

Most of us have not played this course, so I have no idea what to expect. Rumor is that it is short and tight, so maybe we won't be too much at a disadvantage.

I think Burgess is one of the top teams in the league, so they are prime for a little March Madness-style upset, baby!

Sunday Socialites, the Hill is all yours this week. Thank you Donnie for clearing tees 1-9 last week. Should be all nice and muddy with all the rain we're going to get tonight. Yum.