For the love of the sport. A place for DG enthusiasts to share their thoughts.

Author Archive

The Legend of the Bowers Park Holes

Posted by rolltidethrow


Somehow, some way, a group of guys come together that compliment each other and being good friends by circumstance and chance.  Maybe it’s fate, maybe it’s chance, but either way I have a group of running buddies that have all come to play this awesome game of disc golf.  In the process, we have kind of adopted the course at Bowers Park and have done some things to improve the playing experience there and have fun at the same time.  I will outline the legend of the Holes and share our story with you.

First off, the Holes came from Meet the Fockers.  Remember the baby that said As*HOOLE?  Well me and two guys, Juergen and Bald Martin took the S-curve, morphed into S-Hooooooooole, and finally to the present Hole.   It should be noted that we usually just yell “hoooole” at each other as our signal to each other if one arrives late.

So now you know about the Holes got their name, and now the Cast of Characters.

The Four Original Holes:

Juergen(JB Hole):  Juergen is  one of our European Holes.  He is a supplier quality engineer for a certain luxury auto manufacturer in Tuscaloosa.  He and I started playing about five years ago and have been enjoying it since.  This guy is one of the best of the group with a wicked forehand shot.  He had a supplier that gave us the timbers to build the awesome bridges at Bowers Park along the creek.  If you have played their you know those bridges are massive…I mean hey, how many guys can say they have bridges at their course built with 8×16 timbers?

Bald Martin:  Martin has been there since the beginning.  He bought the original four all first run Bosses and is a great guy.  This dude can make a Boss scream through the air like no other.  He is one of our two computer dudes and is always around to help with projects when we need him.

Oliver (Olli):  Olli is one of our long lost holes because his contract here ran up about 3 years ago and he is back in Stuttgart.  Olli got the first star plastic of the group, a USA Flag dyed Star Beast and could flick it about 16″ off the ground.  This dude can defy gravity with his flick.  I hope he can make it back with a contract.  He is a really fun guy to hang out with.

Eric: I am your humble storyteller here. I have been with the group from the beginning.  Until the economic downturn I was a project manager with an architectural firm, now I shifted to manufacturing which gives me more money and more time to throw.  My background in architecture and planning gives me the ability to facilitate and plan, and generate ideas.  I try to help the group the most by making contacts, friends, and helping strangers on the course out.  I have been known to give away a disc or two.  My strengths on the course involve throwing my 2010 Ace Race disc and my broken in champion monarchs.  I WILL ace Hole 8 at George Ward with my monarch one day.

The Faithful Core Holes:

Other Martin: Other Martin is this british cat that has migrated to the states about 15 years ago because he heard a rumor about this ‘burning ball of fire in the sky that occurs instead of clouds and rain’.  Martin’s house and yard were affected by the tornado so with good insurance he has three new chainsaws, including one with a 36″ bar we call The Beast.  The Beast has helped clear out Bowers with all of the storm damage.  Martin has found that his Impact is a straight and accurate disc and has improved his game greatly.  He also drives a sweet Mustang GT California Edition.

Nick:  Nick is Martin’s stepson and is a fantastic player.  He has only been playing a few months but he is an up and comer in the group.  He turns over his Orion LS like nobody’s business.  Nick is also awesome at wielding a chainsaw…a true slayer of fallen trees.

Wes(Wisket): Wes is our lefthanded, latitude 64 plastic throwing sandbagger that has came a long way and has tore up the Eat Sleep Disc series in Novice and even did better than rec.  He is moving on to rec next season in his quest to become pro.

Russell(Our caddy): Russell is a super talented machinist that not only makes awesome bag tags but he is also a forum-whore on dgcoursereview.com.  He constantly does research on how to get better and has made a lot of tweaks to his game and ours and the result is we are all throwing better.  By the way, our group can help you with some awesome bag tags…talk to us about design and pricing.

Well, that is a little on our background…my next blog will be about club/group organization, public relations, and how to get things done when the current club is dragging their feet…..talk to you soon.
Rolltidethrow


Disc Golf Lingo–Is it a new language in the works?

Posted by rolltidethrow


So the other day while me and the gang were playing a round at Bowers, it dawned on me that we have a lingo that we use and I am thinking this might be a new potential sub-language to American English, like a different accent or dialect.  I had to share this anthropological discovery.  Some of the new lingo we found are:

Tree Molester/Tree Hugger:  This is what happens when one throws their disc and hits a tree and it actually does them so good, like a skip ace or skip birdie or it puts the disc on the fairway.

Search Party: A term referring to when one golfer throws their disc in the woods or off the path and the next golfer throws the same crappy shot.

Thank you, Baby Jesus, six pounds four ounce swaddling clothes: Referring to a situation where your disc has made a miraculous shot and to pay homage to Talladega Nights.  Make sure you say this when you make a miraculous shot, or I will go off on you like a spider monkey cause I am all jacked up on Mountain Dew!

F, you, you F-ing F:  A term of endearment for your friend when he or she scores an ace.  This is only reserved for those that hit an ace.

When in doubt, throw the Ken Climax: Meaning when in doubt and you need to throw a midrange, throw your 11x KC Roc.

You produce more wood than Ron Jeremy:  When you hit three or more trees on the same shot.  Trust me…this will create a lot of embarrassment if you do this.

Swedish Plastic Whore : Refers to some cat that throws more Lat 64 discs than they really should cause it’s what all the other kids do.

Just a handfull of terms we have added to our vocabulary.  Please feel free to comment on your lingo so we can all benefit from this and our descendants will not be confused when they are watching and listening to our youtube videos in the future.

Rolltidethrow


The Fireside Chat from Bowers Park

Posted by rolltidethrow


A funny think happened to me on the way to do some bridge maintenance at Bowers last week.  I met three guys on hole 12 pro tee that encouraged me to sign up and perhaps submit material here on dogleg.  So, after a week of procrastinating and watching the terrible news involving the tornadoes in the midwest, I finally got the gumption to sit down and type out my thoughts and say hello.

For those that don’t know, Bowers Park is in beautiful sunny Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  Yes, a tornado came through, and yes it did damage, but a lot of work has been done to make it playable, and all 18 holes are playable.  The course is maintained by three groups.  Tuscaloosa county Parks and Recreational Authority or PARA owns the property and does minimal work.  Tuscaloosa Disc Golf Club is the official group that does trimming, brush clearing and rotates basket locations.  Then there is this super secret disc golf society that I, myself belong to, called the Bowers Park Holes that do a lot of work behind the scenes.  I will tell you about the Holes, how we got our name, what we do, and how we do it in another post. 

Bowers is one of the more challenging courses in Alabama, and has a reputation amongst the players for eating discs and causing bogies.  More than one player in the Eat Sleep Disc series declined to come to Bowers, citing it was the hardest course on the tour and would be difficult to compete in.  My friends and I just call it home.  The course has three tees for each hole.  The blacks were added last fall for all holes and make it quite a challenge for the pros.  Each hole also has three positions and some even have a fourth, but until all eighteen holes have a fourth, we will just have positions A, B, and C for now.  The month of June will see the positions shift from B to short.  The tee to pin distance ranges greatly from under 200 in some positions to nearly 500 on Hole 3 long.  The terrain ranges from open with little trees on Hole 1 to a ‘hairy booger’ on any hole of the back nine you choose to throw.  It’s a good hike up and down hills, across creeks and through the woods, but in the end youwill find that there is something for every thrower, newbie to pro, lefty to righty.

That being said, I will be posting things about Bowers, encouraging all of you to come throw.  The invitation is there, every 7:30 Saturday mornings.


Follow

Get every new post on this blog delivered to your Inbox.

Join other followers:

%d bloggers like this: