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.

We win! Well maybe not....

Sunday's challenge was a weird one. Some Maple Hill guys showed up late and there was talk of a forfeit, then not a forfeit, and then some of our guys left after round one leaving us without enough players, blah blah blah, so I think in the end we decided to count it as a real match. In that case, we lost.

Anyway, the first round was filled with some great competition. From what I hear, Hillfolk Donnie Discgolf made a great comeback bid against Maple Hiller Pete T but lost in a playoff (I think). Arty G and Andy G went up against Shaun L and Steve D from MH and both of those matches went into overtime. Unfortunately, some putts didn't fall for the good guys and MH took those matches, but Devens is definitely showing the league that we've got some skills.

The lone bright spot for us was Gags beating his ghost opponent (you go, boy!) and me beating Cuzz after 15 holes.

Round two was another story as people started to drag ass. It's pretty tiring playing the Hill on a nice Fall day, but add in a foot of snow and a few searches for lost discs and you get tired fast. We got spanked in doubles play.

Round 1

• Dodge (MH) over Gallerani (D)
• Borelli (D) over Cuzz (MH)
• Gags (D) over ghost (MH)
• LaForce (MH) over Arty (D)
• Tolvanen (MH) over Donnie (D)
• Hoey (MH) over Luke (D)

Round 2

• Dodge (MH) over Gallerani (D)
• LaForce/Cuzz (MH) over Borelli (D)
• Hoey/Tolvanen (MH) over Luke/Gags (D)

Hole 9 Ace!
Congratulations to Shaun LaForce for aceing hole 9 during our doubles match! It was a beauty to watch. Shaun throws lefty but took the anhyzer route to the basket (he threw to the right of the trees in the middle and it curved in the basket). It just floated down the hill and crashed gently into the chains. It was awesome to see, even though it meant I lost that hole to him and Cuzz! Nice going Shaun!

That is the second ace on that hole this month, as well as the second-ever ace on that hole. Hole 9 is finally heating up! When I designed that hole, I was positive that it would be aced early and often. Nope.

March Challenge
Next up is team Burgess from Burgess Park down on the Cape on March 9. Many of us have not played this course, so we look forward to making the trip. We hope to maintain our perfect goose egg of a record against this top-rated team. :-)

Hill vs Hill

We play host to Maple Hill this Sunday morning in another NEFA Challenge. We should have a good turnout this time and look forward to playing with the boys from Leicester. We are big underdogs again, but look forward to stealing a point or two anyway.

Another Ice Bowl this Saturday
There's bound to be a few tired golfers for both teams, since some of us are also playing at Franchi's Ice Bowl out at Flatrock in Athol, MA on Saturday. You should play too. $20 and 5 cans of food. Franchi's course is a beauty and his events are always a great time.

Directions to Flatrock: Rt 2 to exit 17, right off ramp, 1/2 mile to right onto Woodlawn. Follow to end and take hard left onto NewSherborn, take 3rd right onto Monson Turnpike, then 1st right onto Flatrock Rd. Course is 1/4 mile on left. Be there by 8:45.

One last ICO article

Here's another article from the Nashoba Pub weekly papers (Ayer, Pepperell, Groton, Harvard, Townsend, Shirley). Thanks for coming out, Katrina!

Rob Walker gets his picture in the paper again, plus some nice quotes from Bobka, Strauss, and TM.

See two more photos here.

L&F says thanks

Judy Grande sent this thank you letter in to the local papers. (link)

Thanks to Ice Bowl golfers!

The board of trustees, staff and clients of Loaves & Fishes Food Pantry (the largest food pantry in North-Central Massachusetts) would like to thank Dave James and all of the participants in Devens Disc Golf's first Ice Cube Open Ice Bowl.

Held on Feb. 2, the tournament players braved the elements on a very windy day and not only played, but also raised over $300 in contributions and a truckload of food for Loaves & Fishes. We are very grateful for their ongoing support and admire their fortitude in playing the game, too.

JUDY GRANDE

Acting executive director,
Loaves & Fishes Food Pantry Inc.

A few things for you to stare at on Sat.

Stop by course-sponsor Gervais Auto in Lowell this Saturday Feb. 16 from 12-2pm to stare at the Celtics' 1981 Championship trophy and also meet a couple of Boston Celtics dancers.

Free hotdogs and hamburgers will be available. Dates with the dancers, well probably not. :)

The final tally

It took a week, but I finally tallied up all our donations. We collected a lot more cash than I had thought!

Last night, I dropped off 207 food items and a check for $320 to the Loaves and Fishes!

That's pretty awesome for only 18 golfers! Mullys, donated prize winnings, and random donations brought in about $140.

We got this email the other day from Judy at the L&F:

Thank you so much for inviting me to come to the Disc Golf Tourney to collect the food and donations for Loaves & Fishes. The article about your group in the Lowell Sun was great.

Please accept my thanks for all you've done for Loaves & Fishes. I will get a letter out to the local newspapers today acknowledging your gifts.

Best wishes to all you hardy souls. And thanks for the donut, too.

Judy Grande
Acting Executive Director
Loaves & Fishes Food Pantry

No problem, Judy. See you all next year!

Another 15 minutes of fame for our local disc golfers

Thanks for another great article, Jennifer! Her write-up was the featured article in Sunday's Local section of the Lowell Sun and included a big group photo of Brian, Pete, Donnie, and Luke, plus another shot of Donnie driving. There's also another photo of Brian putting on the inside page.

• Sunday's main article: Par for the Course
• Thursday's preview article: Ice Bowl heats up Devens Saturday

Feel free to send a quick email to Jennifer and thank her for her continued support and coverage of our little course on the Hill.

More pix from the ICO