Monday, March 9, 2009

Willits

And so it shall forever be that Aaron Brun of Mendocino, California, son of Mickey Brun and husband to Katie Brun, defeated all in a hotly contested battle on the 8th day of March in the year of 2009.  

For those that follow the blog closely, you will notice the name of Aaron Brun posted above.  You may say to yourself, "Is that the guy who showed up one Sunday and scored a 14 down with a thumber over the trees on 11?".  No it was not.  You then say, "Surely that must be the little fella' who Rick met and invited.  The school age kid."  Wrong again.  I'll give you one more.  "The hippies.  The Hippies in the bus.  The one guy payed to play and his girlfriend and the rest of 'em just joined in, right.  That must be the guy."  I will assume that you are making reference to these obscure characters just to get a reaction out of me.  You have.  I am disappointed.  I can understand you confusing the name with maybe L. Ron Hubbord, author of Dianetics and the father of modern Scientology.  Or perhaps you confuse him with ReRun from "What's Happening".  Aaron Burr comes to mind, the third vice-president of the United States of America under Thomas Jefferson.  These mixups are common.  Just the other day I was talking with a fellow frolfer about a player named David Stein.  Understandably I mistook him for Ben Stein of "Win Ben Stein's Money" as well as many commercial appearances.  Perhaps it was Ben's first career as an economist that created the misunderstanding but a simple description of David corrected my folly and put myself and my cohort on the same proverbial "page" (Grey skully cap, chucks and long sleeve under the tee).  Aaron Brun is a name that will no longer be taken lightly.  It will no longer be acceptable to go around saying, "Aaron who?"  His mark is made.  Following in the footsteps of David Stein, Aaron Brun has won his very own disc golf basket.  By outlasting the crowd (including 3 self proclaimed pros) in a windy match, Aaron used his handicap to his advantage and won.  This is usually where the author goes on to talk about specific holes the champion used as leverage to hoist his own score up above the others.  Or a detailed account of the close match and how the leaders jockeyed for position in the final holes.  Maybe the author would critique the shot-gun start to determine if it played any role in Aaron Brun's win.  These all would seem proper, conventional, and even right.  This is not where the story lies.  The construct of the Tournament, the teams, the start time, even handicapped score did not even cross the mind of our hero.  The story begins at the end.  At the scorers table.  With all the cards turned in and our director Jim Eldridge and Erin Hemmings looking them over, a comment was made.  It wasn't shouted or announced or even stated.  It may have been said without the hope of anyone hearing it, but the statement started a buzz that would not be resolved until the final announcement was made.  "I think the one person I wanted to win this thing is gonna take it."  A paraphrased quote from a dishevelled scorer's table.  I heard it and the gears started turning in my brain.  Let it be known that Aaron is one of my best friends.  I never even considered him after hearing that comment.  No one knew who won.  Not even the winner himself.  He never even considered it.  When his name was called as the handicapped winner for the day and thus the new owner of a practice basket, a tear came to his eye.  Onlookers may have confused it with the combination of lack of sleep, beer consumption, grass inhalation and just dry wind, but knowing the man the way I do, I knew a soft spot had been touched.  You say "come on man, get off of it.  How much drama can you put into that act of winning one little match out in the middle of nowhere."  Is that a challenge?  Aaron shed a small tear through his proud/ shocked gaze and proceeded to be showered with praise in the form of a trophy.  Not just any trophy, but a scaled down, cherry wood destroyer.  The trophy goes to the winner of the special tourny and will be passed along in two months.  In a rush of emotion and altruism, Aaron rose to his feet, climbed atop a picnic table and announced to all who would hear that he intended to give away the very basket he just won.  A few of his closest cohorts pulled him aside and quickly controlled the philanthropic beast.  Aaron agreed to "sleep on it" and it seems will elect to keep the basket after all.  The real story lies in the fact that neither Aaron nor most of the players even thought of him as in the running, never mind as the champ.  This is a success for our handicap system and a success for the tournament.  May the best played game be rewarded.  The author played a fine match.  He battled the wind and the terrain and managed to eek out a plus 5.  With David Stein at a minus 2, I thought a placing would be in the cards.  When someone like Aaron shoots plus 6 in those conditions it is a fine game.  Let us all think of the rolling putts, the wind carried drives and let us not forget the updraft headwind that destroyed not a few scores.  Aaron had to avoid all these obstacles and still make good choices to score the way he did.  Aloha Aaron for providing the most exciting winner announcement ever, mahalo to Jim for putting it together and suppling the lights, another mahalo to everyone who donated discs for PEEC (I'll put together some fun pictures of the discs in use during this spring) and a huge aloha to everyone who showed up and made the game special.

5 comments:

  1. Rye Bread,
    Great write up. I just read it for a second time.

    Everyone,
    I put out a mass email but I will also announce it here that my score was written down wrong and I did not shoot a -2 but an even round (which still ain't to shabby). For the front 9 a -1 was written down and it should of been a +1. I shot a -1 on the back 9 bringing my score to even (2 over my handicap) and not a second place finish but a 3rd place finish giving the 2nd place finish to none other then D Money Derrick. Congrats Derrick...I have a nice black sweatshirt to give to you that Nate Dog generously donated.

    Erin,
    Awesome picture of B-Run on the blog.

    Jimmer,
    Thanks for organizing.

    Last but not least...CONGRATULATIONS B-Run. Hell of a round. Nice win.

    Davey D Stein

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  2. Well kiddies, I don't know about y'all, but I'm still recovering. Guess I'm not 25 anymore.

    When it was time to bolt (I had to host a dinner party immediately upon return), I realized that what I really wanted to do was just chill with my buds, drink some more beers, cook up some grub, play some dice, and hang out for another night! I guess that's the sign of a good time, yo?

    I would like to point out the poetic justice of the following: during the victory announcements, I forgot that Brun was winning a basket, and not cash, because of the CTP prize that Brun himself contributed! Vince didn't want it, so I, ahem, revved it up while giving out the prizes, and the tasty goodness crippled my memory, among other parts of me. Isn't that beautiful? Yes indeedy.

    I would also like to point out that Aaron's three-round win was convincing enough that his doubles win with Erin during the first round was completely unnecessary. He could have taken last place in that round and still won the overall!

    I'll probably chime in more extensively later, but my head is still ringing...not unhappily....

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  3. Jim, you party animal. I agree with the "all I wanted to do was stick around, yata, yata, yata." With that said, the safari course for May, may have a location. (Jim, I thought you would like the double use of your daughter's name.) It will remain undisclosed, however a campout event of the Willits magnitude could be in the works. It would be at a much nicer spot, a little out of the way, but no farther than the drive to Willits or Booneville. Let the speculation begin. Let me know, everyone, if another campout would be something we want to do.

    P.S. In the aftermath two nice folding chairs got left behind. In the old days I'd take 'em and say, "the last man standing gets the ground scores". These are not the old days and I would love to get them back to their owners. I think one is Erin's and the other is a non-descript grey camp chair.



    P.P..S. As for the three-pete attempt by D-Stein, D-nied. I gave you everything I got and you got me by a stroke but you got nothin' on the Brun. Aloha

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  4. i left a shorty folding chair with big feet. my favorite camp chair

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  5. I have it. Sorry I didn't bring it yesterday. Call me and you can pick it up over here. 964-2566

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