Devens Grill Sponsors Sunday Social Winners

Each week, the Devens Grill (our official 19th hole) is giving the Sunday Social doubles winning team a free meal after the round! Excellent! It's a buy-one-get-one-free type of deal. Not bad, eh?

So basically, you'll both eat for free if you use your cash winnings. Thanks for your support, guys!

There are a few local tourneys this weekend at Barre and Buff, but we hope to see some new faces out there this Sunday anyway. 9:30, $5 and a can of food donation.

Social Scores

• Ken: 67
• Nut: 79
• Tim: 82

Thanks for the update, Tim:

Since there was only three of us, we decided on a more informal round of singles. Ken had a great round showing off his arm throwing some great drives. Despite coming in last, I had my best round ever, par'ing 4 holes. And it was great to play with Brian, and get some of the history, and some of the vision for the course.

Congrats to Chuck for winning AM2 at Pokerpalooza on Sat.!

Run, Spot! Run!

Hole 9 sponsor Gemini Dogs is hosting a two-day dog agility trial this weekend from 8AM-4PM. If you like dogs, are thinking about getting a dog, or have seen agility on TV and want to see it in person, please stop by!

It's free and the kids will love seeing all the dogs running around. I hear the owner of GDogs is a decent disc golfer too. ;-)

Agility is basically an obstacle course for dogs. The handler guides her dog through the course which consists of ramps, weave poles, chutes, jumps, and tunnels. The run is timed and points are added for missed targets and things like that. Our trials are fun, low-key events and the main goal is for the owner and dog to have fun.

Agility people love to talk about their dogs, so feel free to chat with them (as long as they aren't getting ready to run).

Gemini Dogs is about 6 miles away from the course down Rt 2A/110 toward 495 in Littleton. Since I'll be busy with the event, I probably will not make it to the Sunday Social. Bummer!

Thank you Hartmans!

A big thank you to Christopher Hartman and his wife for donating to the course today through our PayPal button! He writes:

Awesome course! My wife and I played on Monday afternoon with a couple of Wham-O's on our way back to Boston from W. Mass.

Glad you stopped by and helped support the Hill! Every bit helps to make it even better.

Drink and Putt Thursday at the Grill

If Dave doesn't shoot down to the Borderland league to practice for this weekend's Pokerpalooza tourney, he will be setting up a basket at our sponsor, the Devens Grill, Thursday from 5-7 PM. Stop by for an adult beverage or dinner and impress the ladies with your putting skills. I think there is also live music after 7.

The Grill is one minute away from the course. From the course, take a left up Sherman toward the mini strip mall. The Grill is next to the Marriott. Be sure to tell John you are a disc golfer and thank him for your support.

Check out the sweet custom disc Rob is giving away at his tourney. Nice!

Another Historic Weekend on the Hill

It's official! All 18 Chainstar baskets are in and we have a new sign too!

The Masterminds of the Hill -- John and Nut

Saturday, Dave James and Mark Mudgett swapped out the four Borderland baskets while Nut and I did some brush trimming and clearing on holes 9 and 12. Dave also installed a great Devens Disc Golf sign at the entrance to the course on Friday. Damn, we're looking good!

Mark, some dork, and Dave celebrate the new baskets


Greg and Tim Lowther play through the work zone



Sunday Social Results
Today we only had four golfers at the Social, but it was a very competitive matchup. Dave and Steve eeked out a 1-stroke victory over Brent and me with a 55.

Steve, Brent, John, and Dave be social


Once again, it all came down to the last hole. After a great drive by Dave, I answered with one of my own but got a wicked bad kick into the woods. Brent and I burned a stroke getting out of the woods while Dave and Steve worked their way down the Hill for the seemingly easy 3 or 4. Brent layed up nice and gave us a drop-in 5. D&S flubbed both of their layups and experienced some evil rollaway action. They ended with a 5 though and preserved the victory.

Shot of the day: Brent nailed at a 70-ft putt on 11 for a deuce. Beautiful!

Early Morning Work

Dave, Nut, and I will be at the Hill Saturday morning, 8 AM to swap out the Borderland baskets with our new Chainstars. Show us some love and show up to help. We will also be doing a few other chores.

If you play the course, you need to work on it. Plain and simple. Call me at 978-433-6133 and I'll let you know where we are. Thanks!

Or if you are too sleepy to get up Saturday, come down Sunday morning at 9:30 for the Social. $5 and a can of food.

Wed results

Wow, what a great turnout tonight for a last-minute thing! I took a lot of video, but most of it stinks. Luckily I got a nice one of Steve making a great putt on hole 15.

• Dave & Rick - 53
• Steve & Jim - 55
• Pete & John - 57
• Mark & Nut - 57

Anyone for a round Wed evening?

Dave and I are meeting around 5:45 for a casual round Wednesday (Aug 15). Andy G and possibly Ditterman may be coming too. Hopefully he'll bring up some other early MSDGC campers.

Post a comment here if you can make it.

Chuckorelli continues to dominate

If you want to win at Sunday Social doubles, my advice is to get randomly paired with Chuck Gerbrands! For the second week in a row, Chuck has been on the winning team. Better yet though, he has been on the winning team 4 out of 5 Sundays since we started! Two of those times I've been his lucky partner, hence the Chuckorelli.

Yesterday was a lot fun and went by very fast. There were six of us (Chuck and me, Pete and Donny, Dave and new-to-the-course-Rick). Rick amazed us all with his one-disc approach to disc golf. Yep, one beat-up Shark was all he needed.

About five cans of food were donated too. Thank you!

The results:

• Chuck & John: 50 (new course record)
• Dave & Rick: 54
• Pete and Donny: 57

There may be a gathering for a friendly round this Wednesday evening, 5:30-5:45. Stay tuned.

Today's Treasures

I love going to the course at different times than I usually do. There is usually different light and noises and I notice different things like rocks or trees that suddenly grew overnight. Today it just felt different because it was Thursday afternoon. I don't think I've ever played disc golf on a Thursday afternoon.

Like I said, it felt a little weird playing at 4:30PM on a weekday, but it was great. I quickly forgot my usual troubles as soon as I reached hole 1. I birdied hole it and came this close to aceing hole 2. Really. It was this close. I'm going to get that sucker one of these days, damn it.

I shot an okay 60, but should have done a few strokes better. I murdered a few holes that I usually par, but then pared a few holes I usually bogey. I even 3-ed 18. Nice. Anyway, if I hadn't choked a few times I could have broke my personal best, but oh well. Coulda woulda shoulda.

I met Jim Bobka's brother who had brought along his son and his buddy and his son. They said they have been out a few times now. I also bumped into John and his Chocolate Lab Celtic who were out for their daily walk. John lives on the other side of the Hill and played with us a few times last Fall. I heard more chains rattling as I played along and saw two other cars in the parking lot after.

The only thing that annoyed me today was finding a Cumbie's coffee cup on hole 3, an empty Bud Light can on 12, a Dunkins iced coffee cup on hole 13 tee pad, and pieces of broken glass next to a tree on hole 13. Ugh.

I built a rock circle around the the in-ground bees nest about 40 ft off the tee on Hole 3. Unfortunately I forget the bee killer today.

Please try not to dislodge the orange tee markers. One is already missing for Hole 1 and a few others were knocked over. C'mon, bigfoot! Watch where you're walking.

When I got home, I had an email waiting for me telling me of our first PayPal donation made by Dave James' parents! Yahoo and thank you very much!

If you like what we are doing with the course, please click the Paypal button to the right and donate a few dollars every couple of times you play. We're not asking for much; just something that says you appreciate the course being here and want to help keep it good shape.

Thanks, and see you on Sunday. 9:30AM. Bring food to donate to the Loaves and Fishes. They were quite happy with last week's donation. Yay!

We hooked another one!

Got this great email from another newbie who is absolutely hooked on disc golf after only 2 times out. Yeah baby!

I just wanted to take a moment to express my own appreciation for all the hard work you have done in setting up a disc golf course in Devens. I did not know anything about the sport until about 5 weeks ago when I read an article in the local paper. It included your website and since then I have logged into it a number of times.

I finally walked a few holes on July 29. Then, the next day I drove down to Marshall St and bought 2 starter sets. On Tuesday, July 31, I got out for the first time and did 12 holes before it got kind of dark. I met Brian McNulty out there and he gave me some tips and told me about all the efforts that have gone into this course.

Thursday, I got out there again in the heat and had to quit due to darkness after 15 holes. I finally completed the course and did all 18 on Sunday. I won't email my scores but I did hit par on 9 and 16 which to me was a very big deal.

I guess you could say that I am now hooked on the sport and I am looking to get back out there today. I talked the course up to my chiropractor and he may join me, so there may be two over-40 year olds banging the trees this evening.

Again, many thanks,

Jeff M

Take a drag

Attention! To everyone that has emailed me or told me they would love to help work on the course, but never have, your time has come.

I cut a number of smaller trees on 16 today, but ran out of steam and left them on the hill. If you have played the course and enjoy it, the next time you are out there please drag a limb or two down the hill, across the road behind the basket, and drop it on the pile. That's it. Thanks!

Also, if you wanted to be even nicer, bring a can of bee killer and spray the rock bench on 2 and fairway on 3. We've got a few golfers out there that want to play but need to avoid the bees.

And a small bit of major history was made today: we now have 18 baskets installed. Dave and I put in 16 and 17 this morning. Hallelujah!

The old and the new


16, looking up toward the tee way up there somewhere



Dave puts the finishing touches on 17

A Very Socialable Sunday

What a great day Sunday was for the course. First, we had seven guys (and one dog) show up for doubles and we collected about ten cans of food for the Devens Loaves and Fishes. Thank you!

Back: Dave, Rick, Pete, Phil.
Front: John, Brent and Dotty, Chuck


Phil Vilmorin and I squeaked out a one-stroke victory over Dave James who was playing cali. Phil made an absolutely amazing birdie shot on hole 7, banging the chains from at least 150 ft around some trees. Wow!

After an awesome drive, Phil V hits an easy deuce on Hole 15


Here are the results:

• Phil V and John B: 51 (ties course doubles record)
• Dave J and Cali: 52
• Chuck and Pete N: 57
• Rick and Brent: 63
  

As the doubles crowd drove off with their AC cranking, a group from Rhode Island showed up and convinced me to play tour guide. So, Phil and I headed out again to show big arms Dave Kurtz, Matt DeAngelis, and Todd C the Hill.

Phil, me, Dave, Todd, Matt


We played a relaxed round of singles in the brutal heat and humidity and it was fun playing with these guys. I had been hearing in NEFAland circles that Matt could throw a mile and damn are the rumors true. Dave is no slouch either, as he proved by bombing a laser straight up 15 and landing 2 feet from the basket. Damn, money.

Fig and Greg


At the turn on 3/5, we bumped into Paul "Fig" Grimes and Greg Dowdell who were making their first visit. (See Fig's comment below in the Press post). They're the ones who told me about the latest article.

The Flip Flopper Fivesome


Following them was a fivesome who were also here for the first time. One guy was wearing flip-flops and later paid the price by gashing his toe. Ouch! It didn't seem to bother them much though because we could hear them laughing and having a good time throughout the course.

Later, when we were walking out, I couldn't help but smile. There were 11 cars in the parking lot.

And now for the mandatory out-of-focus action shots, plus one of a tiny robin's egg I found on hole three.

The Egg



Matt on 18


Dave


Phil


Todd

More press for the Hill

I met Devens newbies, Greg and Paul, on the course yesterday.

They told me they came to play because they saw our latest article in the Sunday MetroWest Daily News.

Glad to see the power of the press really works! Read the article here.

Sunday, 3:09 PM

If you build it, they will come.

Birdies and bees

Just got a note about a bee's nest near the bench at the tee box for #2. Watch out! I'll gas it tomorrow if I make it out there.

The new phone book's here!

"The new baskets are here! The new baskets are here!" Or so says UPS, anyway.

We may be having a mini-workday tomorrow between the raindrops. Stay tuned.

Be social and bring a can of food.

Since the Devens Loaves and Fishes is our official charity, we thought it would be nice for Sunday Socialites to bring a can of food to the Social from now on. Dave James has volunteered to drop off our donations each week.

Please donate if you'd like, and see you this Sunday for 9:30 doubles!

Kiddie Depot Kids Love Disc Golf

DDG Board member Dave James recently did a demo for the kids at the Ayer Kiddie Depot, a sponsor of the course. Sounds like he had a great time! Here is his report:

I showed up after getting a reminder of where it was located from a local police officer. Good start. I had two portables with me, a bunch of putters, and a pile of freestyle discs. It was a hot and sunny morning. I did the basic directions in the shade and then we started throwing.

I set up two stations -- a freestyle one where the kids and some of the staff experimented with some spinjammers (easy freestyle disc), and a putting station with two baskets. I went back and forth making helpful comments and after 10 minutes they switched stations. After 10 more minutes, I gave them a choice to repeat the one they liked.

Next we took a short water break so I could set up a two-hole course. The kids ranged from 6-11 years old so the holes were age appropriate. I sent them out in threesomes and they reported their score as they retured.

How quickly they learned to cheer for a birdie, no matter who it was! A few days later I got a very nice thank you card in the mail. I plan on offering this to them again next year.