KOA Pro/Am Jam Extravaganza

I've got a few minutes this morning, with the tourney still fresh on the sizzling brain, so I'll kick in with the first post here, even though I don't have the full picture of the weekend, given my late arrival on Saturday morning.  I hope all the kooks will kick in their rants, and a full picture shall emerge!

It was quite a weekend, to say the least, full of full-throated frivolity and antics aplenty, and similar to last year, the disc golf was the least of the fun for me.  Part of that was due to a chest cold I brought with me this year.  I threw myself into a four-man ball-golf tournament earlier in the week, during which I had no less than a stomach flu, the beginnings of the cold, and allergies (we ended up qualifying for the next round, woo!).  By the time the tourney came around, the flu was largely gone, but the cold was full throttle.  My wife couldn't understand why I was going to the thing, but hey, the KOA comes but once a year!  I held up pretty well on the first day, finishing with a 3-down which, but for a few bad breaks and chain-outs, could have been 6 shots better.  My putting was really grooved, and things looked good.  But after the frivolity of Sat. night, and an inability to sleep, my tank was empty about halfway through the Sunday morning round.  I gave serious thought to bagging the final round and either going home or following the lead Open group around to learn a thing or two, and cheering on the other MFCers, but I didn't think that would be good form, so I finished up.  I was something like 5 down through the first round and a half (including a birdie on the crazy-hard-to-birdie new 17th pin position), and 10 over through the last round and a half, and finished the tourney at 5 over.  I stumbled home and slept from 9pm to 9am, and am looking forward to a slowwww recharging week this week.

Ok, so, the highlights of the weekend for me:

~The MFC turnout!  Although we were all sad that Erin couldn't get in under the wire, otherwise the turnout was supreme, with 6 (!!!) of us competing, and 5 others there to party and lend support!!!  We had Davey and me in the AM1s, Matthew, Rye, and D-Money in the AM2s, and Nate-dog in the REC division, and ABrun, with quiet but wry and fun friend Mean Gene, the Brodys, Travelin' Matt, and D's main squeeze Franny all along for chicanery of their own.  It was a high-flyin' group, and made for hours of fine entertainment, not only for ourselves but for the camp at large.

~D-Money's birthday!  Sly quiet one that he is, he didn't let on, but Franny finally told us that Saturday was his birthday.  He celebrated by not only playing some kick-ass disc throughout the day, but cooking some astonishing kababs for all of us at night, and sharing the extraordinary blueberry cheesecake that baker-extraordinaire Franny had brought for him.  Matthew said it best: "I feel guilty eating this delicious food.  Aren't we supposed to be cooking for HIM?"  But that's D-Money for you--kind and generous and, now, one year older.  How many is that now, D?

~The dice games!  We had a big circle of chairs around site 59's campfire, and it wasn't long after the last round on saturday that the dice kicked in to gear.  Over a period of maybe four hours, I think we managed to play four games of dice, and we became the comedy club of the campground, with many furners from other sites coming by and sitting in to watch the absurdity.  I doubt I've ever laughed as hard or as consistently as I did during those games, each character playing their parts to a T, as if the thing was being filmed for a sit-com or something. As Davey pointed out on numerous occasions during the weekend, we should write a damned screenplay about these absurd disc golf tournaments, a la "Best in Show".  If we wrote up this tournament, the dice games would have been the high point of the movie for me.  Later in the night, a couple of neighbors taught everybody some Humboldt game involving holding items in your hand and guessing the number of items in everyone's hand, the loser "ramming" or shotgunning a beer. Needless to say I was only a spectator of this game, but Nate-Dog ended up at the business end of the shotgun at one point, and in a spectacular show of support, when Nate lost the next game, Matthew valiantly stepped up to ram the penalty beer on his behalf.

~The volume of new pin placements!  The course on Sunday was unrecognizable from what it had ever been before, and it was a blast to try and figure things out!  There were completely new pins placements on 5, 6, 7a, 10, 11, 13, and 17, and with only one exception (10), the holes were harder to much harder as a result.  Applause to the KOA, and/or whoever went out and did it, because the course is a whole new world now.  Brutal in places, but certainly new!

~The way we all supported each other!  The broken-up nature of the tourney allowed the A-group to watch the Bs, and the B group to watch the As, and also the non-playing crew was out in force!  So it was really great to look over while playing and draw strength from friends, and to support those playing from the sidelines.  VERY cool.  I think that support single-handedly kept me going the last day!

~The solid play of the MFCers (myself excluded)!  I didn't stay around to get the final tallys, but when I left, it looked as if Nate had taken 4th in the REC, D-Money was going to place high in the AM2s, Rye played rock solid all weekend, Matthew placed second on the Friday doubles round, and Davey played well enough to wait around and see if he might get some winning from the payouts.  Nice job guys!

All-in-all, we represented the MFC with spirit, talent, perseverance, support for each other, and hilarity.  It was a fantastic time, and one which made me proud to be an MFCer!  WoooHoooo!!