Saturday wrap-up

I got an earlier start on Saturday since I was motivated to get down to the Pinto Lake course so I could check out the layout while photographing the Mixed Doubles competition. I arrived just as the players meeting was finishing and the competitors (25 pairs) were about to head out to their holes for the shotgun start. Pinto Lake is a beast at 11,606' and features a par five 1288' foot hole which I suppose could be eagled by someone like Dion that can chuck a disc 650'. For me it's going to take four really solid throws to even have a slim chance at getting a 5. I'll give you a damage report after the round on Wednesday! Speaking of Dion, I watched him and his partner, Liz Lopez, play hole 14 which is 523' uphill along a narrow road with a serious dropoff on the right side and steep, tree lined hill to the left. The basket is perched precariously up on the slope about 35' perpendicular to the road and is deservedly rated as a par 4. Dion had two great drives to put his team pin high along the road but with a plethora of small trees in the way of their potential birdie putt. His comment after taking the par was something along the lines of "great, two fantastic shots to get to a spot with a zero percent chance of hitting the birdie". The next group to come up the road was Jesper Lundmark and Camilla Jernberg who put their second shot in virtually the same spot at Dion and Liz. Yep, Jesper nailed that "zero percent" birdie putt, pretty cool to watch! Watching the doubles was a good way to learn a few things about the course. Saw some amazing shots of course but learned a bit of stratagy too. I got some decent photos too which I'll post on the ol' flickr page when I get home.

At the end of the doubles my wife Denise kindly picked me up and whisked me over to my friend Jim Velzy's house. I played Ultimate and Disc Golf with Jim back in 1991/1992 when Denise and I spent a year living in Santa Cruz. Jim and I headed up to the legendary DeLaveaga course to meet up with Gordy Kirkpatrick for a practice round. By this time the doubles tourney had gotten over to DeLa and they were about to start round two, this time playing alternate shot. Fortunately for us they didn't fill the whole course and with a little creative jumping around we were able to play the entire 27 hole course without getting in the way of the tourney. There were a lot of folks up at DeLa and I ran into the Whitler and Kirk McAllister among many others. After the round Gordy and I met up with Denise and headed out for burgers and a walk along the boardwalk and then out to the end of the Santa Cruz pier.