Friday practice

Got a good night's sleep Thursday night, enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and then by around 11:30 I headed down to Monterey to take a look at two of the courses I'm scheduled to play. First stop was Ryan Ranch, a 27 hole course that's listed as 10,245' and par 85. Pulling into the parking lot I saw maybe 10-15 cars and a few folks out on the course. After a quick stretch I made my way over to hole one and got things started. I found out quickly that Ryan Ranch is dry, sandy and has a ton of scrubby, bushy oak trees, a bit like the SE course at Ft. Steilacoom but without the Scotch Broom. The oaks are much more dense than the ones at Steilly making them much grippier/stickier which will definitely be a factor here since the 2m rule is going to be in effect all week. After negotiating the first few holes on my own I ran into J. Michael Barry (#1130) and he joined me on the next 8 or 9 holes giving me some good advice about the course since he's somewhat local to the area. After Michael bailed out I continued on my way, taking a few notes about where to exercise caution and what discs were working well. There are a lot of elevation changes and sloped greens on this course so getting in a practice round is critical. I also met Bruce Waldo (#25581) and Doug Smith (#13349) out on the course and chatted for a couple of minutes. Meeting lots of disc golfers from all over the place is one of the great pleasures of playing worlds for me. I finished the round after almost 3 hours and shot a 10 over 95 with no birdies. I know I can improve on that (and let's hope I do!). In the parking lot after the round I starting talking with a Norwegian golfer named Tor Laudal (#36212) and then noticed Jim (no spin) Myers (#3396) close by so I introduced myself to him too. Jim grew up a stones throw from Lakewood Park back before there was even an inkling of a disc golf course there. His father now lives in Auburn so he comes out to the Puget Sound from time to time and likes to play all the DG courses he can find. After a short conversation I hopped back in the car, made a quick stop at Costco for a slice of pizza and a cold drink, and made a bee line for my second practice round of the day at the...

CSUMB Oaks course, about 15 minutes north of Ryan Ranch.