It always (usually) comes down to one or two shots!

Good People of the Mendocino Frolfer Association,

Well another tournament in the books to keep our record, of consecutive tournaments played, going. Somebody get Cal Ripken Jr. on the phone. For those of you who aren't baseball fans, Cal Ripken Jr., broke a 56 year old record of consecutive games played. This record was held by legendary New York Yankees first baseman, Lou Gehreg. Ripken played in his 2,131st game on September 6, 1995. On that day Ripken Jr. hit a homerun which is exactly what none other than Ft. Bragg's Tom Snyder did on this windy Sunday afternoon (shooting a -5). Ripken Jr. went on to play in many more games and his record now stands at 2,632 consecutive games played. So, with that said I have questions for all those out there in Frolf Blog Land. Does anyone know how many consecutive tourneys we have played? Will Tom Snyder break Rye Bread/J.D. Salinger's record of 3 consecutive tournament wins? Only time will tell. I (Davey D/the dentist) came in second place (shooting a -3) and all I could think about last night was the title of my post: "It always (usually) comes down to one or two shots". As I contemplated laying up a fairly short putt on 17 for bogey I couldn't do it despite the wind and the repercussions of a long miss. I let this wobbley putt fly and it hit the chains and fell out. "Fuck", screams Stein. Luckily the putt didn't roll too far down the hill and I ended with a 4 (which might I add was a respectful score on this day) anyways. I continued to search for an answer, ANY ANSWER, to explain why I wasn't having a playoff with Tommy. There were and are other answers but that will be left for next week gentlemen (and ladies). I am not sure of all the scores but here is what I remember:

Tom: -5 (2 under his hc)
Davey: -3 (1 under my hc)
Rye: +4 (2 over his hc)
Erin: -2 (3 over his hc)
Nate: +18 (12 over his hc)

I forget the rest of the scores. Can somebody (Parksalot or whoever remembers) post the rest of the scores. I will see you soon at a frolf course nearbye.

David

On a day like this anything could happen!

~ The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain. ~
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

That being said the other best thing one can do is to play disc golf! And play disc golf a few of us did. I came for one more tournament of my vacation. To join Derrick or D-Money as the magazines may read some day, Erin, George "Rustyfari", Good Ole Roy, and A.J., Nate came and he was not having it! Can I blame him? Maybe. Any how conveniently most of the core members were busy this very wet afternoon.


So we tee off in one happy moist group and it kinda got ugly. I know I was very happy to end with a par and Derrick actually had to write down a 4 after hole one. Erin did not birdie if that says anything for the day. Any how we went on about our business of frolfing. I can say for myself that rubber boots and rain coat suck for disc golf. I also can state that they have no effect on D-Money! He rocked the course after that 4. He went on to shoot a -1 on the front 9 to tie the sometimes seemingly nonhuman Erin Hemmings. Good job on that D.
~ The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. ~
-Dolly Parton

The second half of the round is a little blurry, my glasses were covered in rain. George just played without the aid of his optical items. I do however remember Erin hitting the goal post on 12 and the disc still had enough behind it to over shoot the basket. Crazy! Roy lost a disc on 14 so keep your eyes out guys. We have made it to 18 and AJ has one stroke on Derrick. Everyone misses the uprights on this crazy day. But wait did one of us miss on purpose? Did one of us know that 18 can be a easy 3 or a tear jerker 5? After a week of talking about it. Derrick did what many of us should do. He laid up on 18 and walked with a easy par. He actually almost nailed the long through the uprights bird.
Any how we have a tie! AJ and Derrick. Erin Hemmings took a unhappy third. Recording his worst highschool round in its 7 years of existance. A sad day for him.
" I love walking in the rain, no one knows when I am crying."
-unknown
So what do we do for the tie? We do what is going to get us in our cars and on our way home the fastest. We decide CTP to hole 6. Derrick steps up and blazes a low drive right over the top of the hill and just then the south wind steps in and does its job lifting it ever so slightly over the top of those pesky soccer goals and lets the low speed fade park the disc within arms reach of the basket. "Its over AJ" "You can try" we shouted. The only way he was taking the money home today was if he took out that magic cobra and aced it. That did not happen. So with a great round and a wonderfull play off Derrick is this weeks winner! Good job buddy! You stood up to the weather and AJ's laser beam putts and took home the loot!

This is a fond farewell for now! Thank you all so much for a great time in Willits! Thank you Jim for throwing down a great tourny! Thanks for teaching me liars dice. I hope to take some of your money someday! Yeah you Davey"liars dice" Stien. Cant wait to get back down this spring.
Peace.
"We will never be an advanced civilization as long as rain showers can delay the launching of a space rocket."

-George Carlin

Laying Up

Laying up has been the foundation of the traditional Scottish herdsman's pastime.  For centuries, men carried sticks through their pastures, hitting stones towards a common target.  Amidst many of these forays through the hillsides, men who reached the goal in the least amount of shots had done so with strategy.  Looking at the distance between the tee area and the target, the player would then look at all the potential places his stone may lie after a given shot.  He would string these researched locations together and formulate the fairest way of reaching the goal.  Over time the players began to out shoot one another and began reaching farther fair lies.  The risk/ reward system started playing a part in the strategies of leading players called "laying up".  This remained the quintessential strategy until a cooperative of herders, determined to lower their scores, grazed the entire length of each shot in their pasture.  They grazed and then reseeded the ground with the grasses they preferred from other areas of the pasture.  This resulted in the first "as the crow flies" fair ways.  The only skill the players needed was to shoot straight, as far as they could.  At local gatherings the herdsmen boasted of their latest scores and drew scorn from their friends.  Scores these low had never been spoken out loud before.  Following the men back to their course, the fellow herdsmen learned why the scores were so low.  They didn't have to strategize their shots as much and as a result scored lower.  This began a trend of grazing the fair ways of their holes and reseeding with the grasses more preferred by the players.  Within a decade the game of herdsmen was transformed.  Since the grasses used in the building of the fair ways was inedible by their livestock, the men slaughtered the animals and vowed to dedicate their lives to the cultivation of this game.  Years went by and one player who scored best before the "change" occurred, altered his course with bends.  They occurred at just the right distance as to challenge players to risk danger of the rough lie for the reward of a closer shot or play to a safe location with a fair lie and try to reach the target from a farther distance.  This man's name was Shamus Donnegan.  A bastardization of his surname led to the term "Dog Leg" in the modern version of the sport.  Due to the trend of shooting as far and straight as you can, players tried to pass over the rough on these "dog legs" and more often than not suffered higher scores because of it.  It was because of this that ol' Shamus the Shameless began dismantling the best and longest of players of the time and thus rebirthed the strategy of Laying Up.  

This has been "A Brief History Break: Out of Ryan's Ass" thanks for reading.

A putt and a throw

Anatomy of an Ace....and other Willits fun!

Ever wonder how to throw a line drive ace?
Here is how AJ does it with his Cobra..

Don't forget about the Might Brun..

Rye Bread battling on without the majestic Eagle..

RAAAAAHHHHHHRGGGHH!

Run-up?! I don't need no stinking run-up..

Man, Derrick's drives are smooooth.

Last shot of the day on 18? Think again
we have a whole night round comin'

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.

Crazy Superimposed and Shit.

Wow, look at that Awesome form on the hella handsome male model. That is a crazy picture...Erin what and how did you do that? It looks like hole 2 but backwards and with Mt. Shasta in the background. Crazy, I love it, thanks. Well Mr. Bread, I am coming for your title of 3 tournament wins in a row and what a better battle ground to complete this journey than Willits. I will see you there with my best fencing sabor to both attack your title and defend my winning streak. Lets get it on. Can someone put up the scores from the last tourney? I think it went something like this (but I am not positive):

Davey: -4 (2 under my handy)
Nate Dog: +7 (even with his handy)
Erin: -5 (1 over his handy)
Parksalot: +1 (2 over his handy)
Rye Bread: ??
Boonvarro: +7? (6 over his handy)

Jimmer: Oh, he chickened out.

P.S. The definition of fencing is: the art, practice, or sport in which an épée, foil, or saber is used for defense and attack.

Bringing Frolf to the Masses

Aloha everyone,

As some of you may or may not know, I run a small private non-profit up in Cleone.  We are an environmental education school where 6th graders come out to the coast and camp for 5 days and learn about ecology.  The kids have some rec. time in the afternoons and I've set up a small disc golf course for them.  In the past we've used ultimate discs, but the kids break them.  For a few seasons I've been neglecting our supply of discs and reinforcing it with cheap give-away discs.  Last season I brought two old putters of mine in and donated them to the course.  They have stood up to the abuse and inspired this posting (thank you "dennis/ sequoia/ berkley" and "old-school aviar").  If anyone has old putters for donation, Pacific Environmental Education Center has a collector.  Don't worry how bad of shape it is in, we'll take it.  Thanks for the time.  I will be more interesting next time.

Ryan