"Nice putt"

Mr. Positive Nick Connell is keeping us entertained at a backup on hole 14 at Delaware. Does this guy ever not smile?

A guy on his card asked him to stop telling him his missed putts were good and lost his temper a bit.

Abel is tagging along keeping Nick out of fistfights. ;)

Nick is cruising along great. We saw Sandy but he isn't feeling it today.

We watched the lead card with Wiggins for a few holes. The average age of the card has got to be about 17. Amazing. So young, so skinny. How do they chuck so far and accurate?!


Nick putts on 14

Today's highlight

I saw a wheat field. Truly are amber waves of grain.




And the cornfields go on forever. Pretty amazing if you stop and actually take in how many acres of farmland you are looking at. Just a little different than New England.

A good sign?

Marcy just bought me some scratch tickets called "Lots of 50s". Let's hope this comes true for all NEFA players today!



Let's go everybody. Throw straight. Put with confidence. Make the cut. Get paid!

Good luck and have fun.

Day 3 has been a rollercoaster

Today was an up and down day filled with a bunch of near misses and several incredible long-distance "almost" putts that rattled off or in and out of the cage. After wussing out on many putts in Rd 1, I switched back to my old putting style and turned it around in Rd 2. However, a few errant drives off the tee landed me in the worst jail I have ever been in and cost me several strokes.

Tomorrow is do or die for me. I'm going to have to shoot great to get back above the cut line. No problem. No problem. No problem.

• Current standings

I am a bit pooped mentally but a relaxing evening and some downtime should rev me up for tomorrow. If not, we are off to Columbus for an evening in the German section of town and to watch their huge fireworks display.

I've seen a few deer during my past few rounds, as well as a rabbit. Chris P just called to tell me he grabbed my APO Buzzz out of the lost and found. Yay! I lost it on Tuesday, or was it Wednesday (see, everything's blurry) on my infamous double-circle 7 over the water.

We thought this was funny. Ears and eyes next to each other. Did I mention we are a little tired?

This pretty much sums up how I felt after today.

But then I'd hit the cage on a 40-footer like this and perk back up. Ride the rollercoaster, baby.

Yesterday, we followed Sandy Redd around Alum where he was on the top card for his pool. The boy is good and making NEFA proud!

Sandy hits another tricky putt.

Since I like to take care of my MA NEFA consituents, I happily jumped in the water and went fishing for one of Sandy's discs. Anything for a vote.

Sandy's card had two Justins, a Reid, and a Redd. Not too confusing when asking for scores.

I've been shuffled

Busy day today so here's a quick update while we wait for dinner.

Played decent today and made it into the top pool for Am Masters and am in 32nd place overall.

That means another very early 5:30 wakeup call and an 8 AM round at Alum and a second round at noon Thursday.

Days, rounds, and people are begining to blur together. Approaching auto pilot mode.

Followed Sandy this afternoon and took some pix. Will post later when I've got the time.

Please post some comments and let us know you are reading this. Knowing you are supporting us really helps a lot, especially these next few days.

Had a fried baloney sandwich for lunch. They love them out here.

Pix from Tuesday

The weather has been great so far: sunny, breezy, and warm in the mid 70s with just a hint of humidity. Perfect.

Marcy has been busy caddying for me and taking a few photos. Here are a few good ones from yesterday.

My first drive of Worlds.

Round 1 card: Me, Derek, Jeff, Doug

The start of my worst hole. Can you say grip lock?

The open holes at Bucyrus were a lot like this.

Round 2 card: Rob, John, me, Jack

Standings

It was a good day for NEFA. Sandy is in first in his pool and Nick is in 7th.

Bill is tied for 4th in pool E and I am in 19th out of 44. Can't remember others.

Let's keep it going everybody!

• Results

Kylie loves the Hill

Hugs

I just hugged Val Jenkins. Nate didn't mind.

You may want to start coming to league. Things may happen.

Flymarting now.

Day 1 is in the books

My day 1 is done. Played well both rounds and am feeling good about my golf.

Rd 1 my card played the wrong hole so we all got stroked 2. I was annoyed, especially when the official told me later, "Yes, I thought that may happen when I walked the course earlier." Umm, so why didn't you do something about it like put up a sign? Ugh.

Oh well, lesson learned. The good thing is that I won my card.

I soon forgot all about it and played another good round in the afternoon. Ended the day with two 56s and I think -4. The pars out here are a bit generous, but good for the confidence.

Now just killing time til the Flymart. Anyone around? We need a place to crash for a while. Walmart parking lot just isn't doing it.

Where's my bird dog?

After 7 holes John has 5 birdies!!!

Marcy reporting.

And so it begins

8:00 tee time. Ready, aim, chuck!

Doesn't the sun set in Ohio?

Just got out of another boring players meeting. They should really call them Thank You meetings. Recognizing crew and other important people is a good thing, but please do it faster.

Going over basic things for newbies would also be helpful, but was skipped again this year. Most important thing to tell people is to be at your tee ready to go at your listed start time. There is usually no players meeting.

Anyway, Marcy and I sat with the CT crew younguns and Chris P and Sandy. The elder NEFA members sat up closer (no comment).

Coincidentally, I sat in front of a friend from WV that I hadn't seen in years. Hi John!

I tee off at 8 AM Tuesday at Upper Sandusky and then at Bucyrus at 3. Lots of time in between.

That's all for today. It's 9:15 and the sun is still out. Crazy Ohio.

Players pack

While we drive through cornfields on the way to Bucyrus, I check out some of my swag.









Front nine all like this. 300 footers with lots of trees. Pretty muddy and slick due to recent flooding and rain.




Back nine more open. Nothing too long.  Mmm, a river of chocolate.




This was not in the players pack.

NEFA power

Look who we bumped into at check in. Kylie, Nick, Abel, and Mike.




I chatted with Billy Crump too, but the photo came out crappy.




Thanks for the awesome custom scorecards, Ditterman!



Now Marcy is chatting with Val Jenkins' mom while the CT folks are doing the skills challenge.

Delaware State Park

This is a nice park. Reminds me of Wyco from last year. Open but with low trees. Some wooded holes. One water hole. A couple of tricky holes but overall I liked it.

Hooked up with some locals who showed us around. Saw Bill Dunne's car in the lot when we were done.

We are now driving on a musical road. Different pitched tones. Interesting.







A typical hole here.

This 300 ft hole was a par 4 for some reason. I eagled a different 300 ft hole that was a par 5! Their pars are a bit inflated I'd say.










Now we are off to OSU-Marion to check in. Marcy just saw a field mouse at the stop light.

Big Boy loves Devens

After a less-than-exciting breakfast at Big Boy, we are off to scout Delaware State Park under gray skies. Is that a Devens disc tucked under Big Boy's chin? I think so!

Buffet selections included biscuits and gravy, sausage and green peppers, corn fritters, hash brown log, creamed chipped beef, three sausage choices, and some sort of ham slices. Ohioans love them their meat.

Thank you, goodnight

And this ends today's exciting travel updates. We made it to our friend's house and are now looking forward to a great dinner and playing with the new puppy.

Tomorrow it's time to check in, get my players pack, and scout out a few courses. Let disc golf overload begin.

Alum Creek sighting

I finally got about an hour nap in and woke as we were passing the exit for Alum Creek Park where I'll be playing later this week. We are getting closer!

Drove through some heavy but brief rain and saw three big lightning bolts. It is cool to see it raining a mile down the road.

Traffic has picked up considerably now that we are on the outskirts of Columbus. No disc golfer sightings yet, but there are plenty of pokey drivers in the fast lane to annoy us.

Two to go

Just passed through the fine city of Akron.

Two hours to go. Sirius is getting repetitive. Marcy's driving is becoming more crazy. Or maybe I'm just getting cranky after driving the past 8 hours.

Stopped at a swanky McDonalds. They know how to live in Ohio.

Who knew...

... this state is so wide? Lordy.

Flying J in the middle of PA

Stopped for our first tank of gas at the Flying J (appropriately) somewhere in the middle of PA. We are pretty much halfway there. Only 6.5 hrs more of lame travel updates!

NY

Made it to New York. Sky met some Boy Scouts.

Our kickin' ride sporting Devens bling:

And we're off

Up at 4 AM, on the road by 5:02. Just crossed into CT cruising along in our Ford Fusion rental and enjoying the Sirius radio. Marcy's driving and Sky the dog is zonked out in the back.

I just heard my first Justin Bieber song. Hopefully it'll be my last.

Ohio AM Worlds here I come!

In just a few short hours Marcy, our dog Sky, and I will be heading out to Marion, OH to join over 510 other disc golfers for the 2010 Amateur World Championships. Last year's trip to the KC Worlds was a blast, so I figured why not go again?

Although I enjoyed my reign as the #1 non-cashing AM1 at Worlds last year, my goal this year is to cash in Advanced Masters. Yep, I've moved to Masters and will probably be the youngest old guy in the division.

• Registered players and scores
• Worlds website
• Last year's blog recap

There are 11 other New England disc golfers playing at Worlds this year, so we will be well-represented. If you'd like to keep track of me, I am in Pool E and start playing on Tuesday in Advanced Master. After the shuffle Wed. night, the goal is to make the cut and qualify to play Saturday in the semis and then the Finals.

Check back each day for news and photos and be sure to send me some positive mojo throughout the week!

Devens puts on a show at Spring Fling

This weekend, several Devens regulars played in the Borderland Spring Fling. While AM2 players played only the customary two rounds on Saturday, Pros and AM1s played a combined three rounds on Saturday and Sunday in hopes of making the cut and qualifying to play in the 9-hole fourth round.

After the dust settled, Jimmy Blakeney won his first-ever tournament after a two-hole playoff in a huge AM2 field on Saturday while Daniel Marcus cruised to a Pro Masters victory on Sunday. Great job guys!

Happily, I also got out of my tournament slump to finish tied for 5th in AM1. Let's hope I can continue like this at Worlds next week in Ohio.

Hill Yeah!

Vandalism update and the greatest shot I've ever seen at the Hill

Hmm, this is starting to become a regular post.

It was a bad week for signs this week. First someone rips down the tee sign for hole 7 on Monday and then someone defaces the sponsor sign on hole 16. Nice.

Last night, I noticed more branches broken on hole 18. If you see newer players out there, please casually mention that we are having problems with people breaking branches and tell them that that is a major no-no. With more new players exploring the Hill, we've got to be proactive and teach them the rules and proper course etiquette, I guess.

Rock and roll
On a more positive note, I saw the greatest shot ever on hole 7 last night at League. After losing his drive, Frank Strauss had to re-tee. He flicked a Valkyrie down and around the curve and hit the big boulder.

It kicked gently forward, caught an edge and slowly rolled down the hill to the left of the basket. When it was even with the pin, it turned right and rolled up to the pole as if it knew it was supposed to go there! It was incredible and fun to watch.

We of course told him that he got a bad kick and had rolled down onto tee pad 8, so he has pretty happy when he saw it under the basket. Not a bad way to save par, even with a 1-stroke lost disc penalty, eh?

We're new and improved!

I realized a few weeks ago that the website was a bit useless to some smart phones out there (the navbar didn't appear on iPhones), so I figured it was time to freshen it up.

So, I've combined the blog and website into one spot for your viewing pleasure.

You can still access it through devensdiscgolf.com or devensdiscgolf.blogspot.com. Either way, you'll get here!

For now, I've added the usual info, but I'm sure I'll be adding more stuff later.

Thanks for ripping down tee sign 7 today, loser

Some a-hole ripped down tee sign 7 this afternoon. Makes me glad I put this damn course in.

One more to go!

Vermont stops by the Hill

Vermonters Josh S, Matt M, and Jeff S stopped by the course last night as part of their MA disc golf tour. Thanks for visiting guys, and thanks for supporting our course by buying a Monkey Disc!