The 2009 edition of the Greater Bloomington Young Life Disc Golf Tour will be remembered not for the disc played but for just about everything else. I'll explain.
The day started off well enough. After an early breakfast thanks to Jeff Mahrt, our crew of Jace Rasche, John Byers, Jeff Mahrt, and myself on the road were ready to head towards Indy around 8:30. The first course on the list was the Avon Town Hall course. We managed to get turned around on the way there but it wasn't anything Jace's iPhone couldn't handle. Needless to say as we approached Avon and the start of a great day of disc golf, we were on Cloud 9. The only problem is that Cloud 9 had enough rain in it to impress Noah. Rain started to come down as we approached Avon. A quick look at the forecast on the iPhone showed a 30% chance of rain at our tee time of 10 AM with increasing chances of rain but the radar looked clear after a brief storm.
We met up with one Harrison Hilliker at Avon and even though it was raining, we were ready for some disc. The rain intensified as we opened up the doors but at this point it was appropriate for the Caddyshack, "I don't think the heavy stuff's gonna come for quite some time." A little rain was not going to ruin this round. We started the round and everything seemed great, until about the 8th hole. The rain that should have passed through was still coming down. Not only was it still coming down, it was close to downpour status. The wringing of shirts had already begun and one could see that this day was going to be extraordinary.
The back nine at Avon leads you into the woods, of course we didn't find this so easily. A backwards trek from hole 15 led us eventually to the 10th tee and a little respite from the downpour occurring in the outside world. That being said, we were still getting drenched in the woods. The rain settled down a bit as we exited the woods and it looked as if God would finally smile down on us and bless our attempt at some disc golf. We were sorely mistaken. A nice steady rain met us on the 18th and final hole and led us to our cars at the end of the round. A group decision was made to visit the nearest Goodwill store for dry clothes and protection from this rain.
As most know, Goodwill provides us with some of the best opportunities for great t-shirts at dirt cheap prices. Our entourage of 5 rolled into the Avon Goodwill looking like we had survived a hurricane. Nonetheless, we were able to find some real gems. A consensus among our group led to scramble teams of Harry, Jace, and John and myself and Jeff. We wanted to pick out team colors. Jeff was able to find an Ohio State jersey, which was very fitting. I found a reversible Plainfield basketball jersey. Jace located a retro Chicago Bulls championship t-shirt from 1991. Finally, JB3 found an old Pizza Express t-shirt. The fresh threads rejuvenated us and thanks to the iPhone, we found a Chic-Fil-A nearby.
The trip to the Chic-Fil-A from Goodwill proved to be the most humorous part of the trip. As Jace looked up the Chic-Fil-A on his iPhone, the rains began again. This made our decision to eat look better and we were in need of some food. Jace found the directions and as in The Office, followed the directions of his GPS too literally. The map showed that we were near a road in the parking lot and Jace took the liberty of not exiting the lot like most people but blazed his own trail down a slight hill onto the road. Harry couldn't accomplish this feat in his Scion and was forced to use the normal path. All of us in the vehicle besides Jace were a little stunned at this and didn't really say anything and just looked. Jace did too and commented, "The quickest way between two points is a straight line." Thanks, Einstein. This little mini adventure left us laughing 3.7 miles down the road to the fine eating establishment.
After some delicious Chic-Fil-A, a decision needed to be made about our future. The seemingly constant rains would have been a detriment to most in a quest to be outside, but not us. We decided to head to our next course, Brookside. A quick look at the radar provided us with the image that a break would be coming followed by some storms. It was weird but it seemed that the radar always looked like that. We started the round in our new clothes and while it was sprinkling, we figured we could get at least 5 holes in and then decide. Surprisingly, I was playing well after 5 and it didn't look too bad. Okay, it was starting to look pretty bad but we figured that we had been wet all day and why should that stop us?
We probably should have stopped. Whatever luck anyone had basically went out the window after that decision to play on. The second hole after proceeding, lightning came down and thunder surrounded us. But of course we realized that this was actually moving away from us so at any time the sun would come out. Wrong. It continued to rain and even a little harder. In addition to that, Jeff lost two discs in two holes thanks to the thick foliage that resides at Brookside. Things were starting to go better when we reached a hole featuring a large tree close to the basket. Jace tried to go over the tree, only to have it get stuck about forty or fifty feet up. We couldn't let a third disc go, and it was too fun to try and knock it down. The rain came down the whole time and none of really cared. We were like little kids at Christmas trying to be the first to knock it down. I actually hit the disc but it didn't fall. Then Jace got it to fall a little lower. We figured it should be easy from here, but it proved harder than first thought. Once Jace actually hit it from the lower spot, his other disc got stuck and we were forced to get another disc down from the greedy tree. The rest of the round was pretty uneventful except that of course the rain turned to a downpour as we finished the round at Brookside.
After a time of reflection on the round, a decision was made to head back to Bloomington for greener pastures, or drier ones for that measure. However, upon reaching home we realized that we didn't have it in us. That's okay, because today might not have been the best disc played ever, but it was probably the funnest.
Unofficial Scores* (Scores are unofficial due to Harrison's pending steriod test)
Avon Town Hall Links
1. Jeff Mahrt (-6)
T-2. Jace Rasche (-4)
T-2. Harrison Hilliker (-4)
4. Jon Uebelhor (+5)
5. John Byers (+9)
Brookside CC
1. Harrison Hilliker (-9)
2. Jon Uebelhor (-3)
3. Jace Rasche (-2)
4. Jeff Mahrt (E)
5. John Byers (?)
Golfer 4: JB Holmes: JB hits the ball a mile, and while that is an awesome thing, it sometimes leads to bad holes. The flip side is that it leads to great holes. JB is the ultimate golfer for this fantasy game because of the number of birdies he will put up on the board in any given round.
