Deluxe Retractable Birdie Bead Scoring System

I Recently improved on my Birdie Beads...

Hey! I'm Back!

Just a heads up boys and girls.

I recovered from my heart attack and last week had my third stent put in to clear my last blocked artery. I am doing fine and feel so much better.

I even got out last Sunday and played a round at Loriella with Jeff and did pretty good.

My putting sucked and if I could have kept my shit together 14 thru 17 it would have been a great round.

I won't be posting for a while...

Last week I ended up having a heart attack.

I was lucky in that on Friday I'm getting admitted in to the hospital and 5 days later I'm back home feeling 1,000% better.

After getting my stents...

It's looking like I'll make a full recovery but it will probably be until mid-January before I'll be able to play a round of DG.

New DG Hobby... Para Cord

Since I haven't been dyeing any plastic lately I needed a new disc golf related hobby I could do to kill some time at work when it's slow.

I found one. Making para cord zipper pulls for my DG Backpack zipper tabs. It's pretty easy to do after you Google search it. There are several videos out there.

I made a set of reflective orange for my backpack and then Jim Street wanted a set of black & green for his bag and when he bought his new Grip backpack he asked for a set of black & white.

After a few sets of zipper pulls I started making Birdie Beads. Basically it's a score keeping counter. (super low tech) Every time you make a birdie you pull down one color bead and when you bogey you pull down the other color for every stroke over or under par. Score par for the hole and the beads stay the same. When the round is over subtract the smaller number of beads from the larger and you have the number of strokes over or under par. If there is the same number of both colors you just shot a par round.

My first attempt was a Florida Gator strand...

Instead of attaching it to a zipper pull I decided to sew it on to the side of my backpack...

This has become a fun way to make some cool stuff. I made this set inspired for a Spotsy club member.

Maybe I'll give it to a member that wins a tournament. So go out there and buy some para cord and beads and start having some fun.

Lost a Friend This Week

A friend that I had the fun of riding with was killed last week when a truck pulled out in front of her and she died instantly. It had been a while since I had seen her but she was a great riding buddy.

Beebe Wright is the fourth from the left. She joined us for the day and guided us on some great back road riding and over the Cherohala Skyway.

That day still ranks as one of the best days of ridin' I have ever had.

Last Ride of the Season

Today was a toss-up between playing a round at Loriella or heading out to Skyline to try and catch the last of the Fall colors.

The skies cleared up around 11 and the temps warmed up and Loriella wasn't going any where so I took off for the day.

I'm glad I did. At the route 20 Sheetz I ran in to Mike and his classic Ironhead. I hadn't seen him in years we exchanged numbers so we could get together for a ride next year.

It's a good thing I bundled up for this ride. It was nice but it cooled down a lot on Skyline. The Fall colors were past the peak but it was still a nice ride. The GOP shutdown had closed Shenandoah park at the busiest time of the year. The traffic was busy but not too much to slow down traffic.

It was a great final day ride of the season. Unless there is a warm break this Winter. If that happens I'll just keep it local.

2013 Hawk Hollow Open... Pros

The open division pros descended on Hawk Hollow for 3 rounds of disc golf with the top 4 open players playing a final nine.

Saturday was a grey and damp day but Sunday turned out to be sunny and perfect for disc golf.

When 72 holes of golf had been played the ffour players in the finals were Stephen Miller-171, Erik Smith-173, Tim "tic tac" Owston-174 and Ian Liddell-175.

Ian Liddell, Tim Owston, Erik Smith, Stephen Miller and Hawk Hollow owner John Biscoe.

Spotsy's own Stephen Miller played great golf all weekend to win the open division. He threw some great rounds 58/58/55/29 (200). 20 strokes under par for the tournament.

Becky Sonnheim won the women's division shooting 66/70/66 (202) +13.

Tom Kim is the Masters Division champ with scores of 57/60/63 (180) -9.

Grandmasters champ Chris Hysell overcame an eight stroke deficit to win by 2 by shooting 64/62/61 (187) -2. 

The worst break of the weekend was dealt to Tic Tac when a straight at the heart of the chains putt kicked out.

2013 Hawk Hollow Open Scores

For all of the weekend's pics

2013 Hawk Hollow Slide Show

2013 Hawk Hollow Open: Ams

It was a long and rainy day....

That about sums up my day helping out at the Hawk Hollow Ams tourney. My feet were soaked from the get go. The morning round took about 4 hours and the afternoon round was about the same.

The Spotsy boys did good. Cody won Advanced, Chris came in 2nd and Ron 3rd.

Ryan won the Intermediate division.

For the  HHO13 Slide Show click here

For The HHO13 Scores click here

2013 DGCR Hawk Hollow Weekend

Hawk Hollow is a private disc golf course spread out over a working farm in rural Spotsy county. This was the fourth year member of DGCR have met up for the weekend for some camping, grillin', disc golf and waffles & strawberries breakfast.

But before I could pack up my truck Friday and head out I help host the inaugural Paralyzed American Veteran No Barriers Disc Golf Challenge at Loriella Park. We set up a temporary 4 hole course on the easily navigated baseball fields. Ten veterans showed up and after coaching them on how to throw and putt we let them loose to compete in a putting, distance & disc golf challenge.

 The Vets had a great time and picked up playing disc golf very quickly.

 They were able to throw overhand rollers and hit the baskets for drop in birdies.

 Jeff won the putting contest and was able to backhand throw the discs about 100' which is not bad at all for a first time player.

 Tai was a great player. He came in runner up in the putting and disc golf challenge and won the distance competition.

Now it was time to pack up and head out to Hawk Hollow. It was a hot day for October so I was looking forward to some cool night time temps.

I arrived in the afternoon and it only took me about 30 minutes to set up my tent and grill. I cooked me a burger and get ready to relax for the night.

Friday night we sat around the campfire, drank some tasty Sam Adam's Octoberfest beer. Saturday morning was looking like it was going to be a hot one and it was. Morning singles started around 9:30 and by 10 am it was already getting warm.

The morning round I played with John and twin brothers Joel and Danny.

I didn't play that bad for me, I usually shoot in the high 80's to low 90's.

The real surprise was Danny shooting a 68 his first time ever playing Hawk Hollow.

After a long lunch break we headed out to play some doubles. Austin showed up late so we partnered up. John and Jeff teamed up and this time we drove out to the 14th tee so we wouldn't have a long walk in.

I rarely play more than one round a day at HH. It's a long course with several steep uphill holes. I was tire but not feeling too bad but after about 5 holes I was beginning to feel burned out. I don't know how I ended up finishing all 18. But I did and didn't play too bad. Austin was amazing as usual but I hit some long putts and we even used my drive on a few.

Austin & I ended up with the 2nd place doubles score. Which earned me my first cash ever at one of these events.

Saturday night was for the pot luck dinner. Basically we set up all the grills and what ever you brought to cook was thrown on and you grabbed what you wanted. NY strips, huge burgers, brats, marinated chicken was just the start including several tasty sides including my home made cole slaw.

Sunday morning started with Tim & John's waffles with strawberries. I was pretty much done for the weekend so I started to pack up after breakfast and skipped Sunday's final round. It was going to be another hot day and I was just too tired to play another round.

But the 4th Annual DGCR Hawk Hollow Mid-Atlantic meet was another success. Everyone had a great time.

Gettin' Ready....

The 4th annual DGCR Hawk Hollow meet is next weekend. Three days of camping & Disc Golf on one of the best private courses on the east coast.

Today I started getting all my stuff together. I set up my new tent to make sure everything fit the way it's supposed to. I bought a CampRight Truck Bed Tent after the problems I had with my tent last year.

It went up pretty easy. There is plenty of room and seems like it will be perfect for me. My camping cot fit in to the back with ample room. Instead of the air mattress that went flat halfway through the night and totally sucked I bought a Gander Mountain Mojo Cot and it sleeps great.

All I have to do is get the grill ready, scrub out the coolers and pack everything up Friday morning.

Fall is coming...

My Shendoah Shag performance sucked beyond bad. It pretty much killed my wanting to play disc golf for a while.

This weekend the temps dropped dramatically and I decided to drive to the mountains today.

Plug the headphones in. Crank up some of my favorite music and head out for an all day ride.

Getting up on Skyline and the warm day turned a nice cool. Not a lot of traffic, you can ride for miles before seeing another vehicle.

It takes a lot of the disc golf misery away when you can ride for the day and have fun.

Skyline Drive or Last Place?

Today was the River City Open. I could drive down and play a morning round from the Dorey long tees and the afternoon round at The Village. Scoring a cornucopia of bogeys, double bogeys & triple bogeys.

Or....

I could take a ride up to Skyline drive on perfect day for a road trip.

I chose the latter and I'm pretty sure I made the right choice.

I didn't leave The 'Burg til 11am and took off toward Waugh's in Orange to take a break and check out the latest stuff.

Then it was off to Skyline. It had been almost a year since my last ride up there. The skies were clear and blue the air was warm but not hot and the Sporty was running great. As I head west on 33 and getting closer to the mountains a dark rain cloud was parked directly in front of me. But I kept on going.

When I got up to the entrance the temp had dropped at least 10 degrees and was actually pretty cold. I had to put on my jacket after buying my season pass. I headed north on Skyline in spite of possible rain.

By the time I got a few miles the skies began to clear and the light traffic made the drive sweet. The park was still very green from all the rain this summer. The wildlife was out and about too. Many deer and their fawns and even a black bear with her cub ran across the road in front of me.

The only bummer of the day was that The Stable is now the Family Restaurant and wasn't open. So I had to settle for an Italian BMT from subway.

A Full Day Saturday

Had a great day today....

I met up with Jeff & Austin for a morning round at Loriella. Before we started there were some dark clouds on the horizon so I check my iPhone radar app and there was a good patch of rain off to the East. It was either going to miss us or get us really good. We decided to go ahead and start.

 I started off pretty good but #3 gave me a few problems. I did end up getting a few birdies.

I was holding up pretty good until 9 and the wheels fell off a little but I was able to hit a good tunnel shot and birdie 13. On 13 a drop of rain was falling every now & then and by the time we reached 14 tee it was coming down pretty good. It was a refreshing cold rain too so we decided to keep on playing. By looking at the scorecard the rain didn't do much to improve our scores. It was the first time in a long time I had played in that heavy a rain before. I now have a new appreciation of being able to actually see where I'm throwing a disc. I'll have to keep some Rain-X in my truck for m glasses.

Jeff, me & Austin (kind of) on 15 tee pad...

Four birdies and I still end up 9 over. But it was a fun round. Austin and I were comparing complaint/gripe count. Austin was at about 10 for the round and I was at about 10 per hole.

Went home and fixed me some lunch and the skies cleared. So I decided to take the Sporty out for a test ride. 

The ride went great. I ended up riding to a place to get it inspected and now I'm ready to get some riding done before Summer is over. Hit Skyline this Fall for a colors ride.

Two weeks ago I found the damaged rear pulley. Since then a new chrome rear fork & pulley adjusters, replacement rear wheel, replaced the rear belt pulley & new front 30t front pulley, new drive belt, new chrome belt shields, new tires, new brake pads, cleaned out the brake lines with new fluids, fresh Bel-Ray 10w fork oil, fresh oil and filter and fresh primary oil. I also had to repair the primary drain plug threads.

Almost There...

I just about got the Sporty back together. Today I got the 30t front belt pulley installed.

This will lower my high end cruising RPM's which will get me to 60 MPG and will be less wear & tear on the motor.

The rear fork swingarm, wheel and belt guards are on. Everything is fitting exactly as it should.

All that's left to do is put the exhaust pipes back on, fill the primary and put the new oil filter on and fill the oil tank.