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

Posts tagged “North jasper park

Thanksgiving, Redemption Round

I love being home for the holidays, especially quality time with family. Over the past two years, I’ve gotten my Dad and younger brother both hooked into disc golf. So anytime we’re all in town, we always make it a point to go hit up a round together. A father/sons tradition we started over a year and a half ago when we finally got my Dad into playing. Always fun times, but we still always seem to manage to turn it into a friendly competition. Who will win it this year?

Our hometown has a course—small, flat and short, but a course nonetheless. We’re talking like ~3900 ft. total length for 18. It’s a great beginner course with the front 9 being mostly 150-200 ft long, through the trees. The rest of the course is pretty open and the back 9 are longer. There’s not an abundance of trees in general at the park, so wind gusts always provide an unpredictable, increased level of difficulty to this rather easy course.

Weekends back home fly by way too fast, especially when the drive there is roughly 3.5 hrs. So the only time we got in a chance to play a round was this past Saturday morning. Low 40s, cold (for down South) and very windy…of course it would be. But we have to make do with what little window of time we have. Rain, sleet or snow, we’re playing. Might as well make it two rounds, since it’s so short of a course. By the way, this is a course that is perfect for trying out new discs..no chance of losing one, or dinging one upside a tree. I figured this would be my chance to give my new Buzzz a redemption round.

Since I first started playing disc golf, I’ve been partial to Innova discs. And by “partial” I mean that’s the only brand of disc I had ever thrown up until a few months ago. I guess I’ve stuck with them because I “understood” their detailed flight ratings and descriptions moreso than any other brand of disc that I’ve come across. But anyways, I’m branching out. I’m moving on to other brands to give them a shot.

One disc that’s making its way into a permanent spot in my bag is the 2012 Discraft Ace Race disc, the Discraft Zombee. I love this disc. Neon red, it has stability, lots of glide and a slight lowspeed fade at the end. My other “non-Innova” disc that I bought recently was a bright blue Discraft X-Line Buzzz. I’ve played two rounds with it here in Georgia and did not instantly fall in love with it like all the rave reviews I’ve read over the past few months. I blamed my poor rounds on the idea that I may not be holding it correctly. I’d learn. And yes sir, that came true. The Buzzz was my go-to disc that chilly, windy lil morning in Alabama. I don’t know if it was the wind conditions or somehow I’d magically figured out a better way to hold that disc or what, but it was dead straight on the line that I would release it at. I drove with it on the front 9 and switched to the Zombee for much of the back 9.—It was a Discraft-kind-of-day.

I would go on and beat out my Dad and bro by almost 10 strokes the first round and 7 the next. I ended up shooting back-to-back (-5)’s. It turned out to be a great day indeed. Having family there and spending quality [DG] time with them made it just that much better. So it was a redemption round indeed for that Buzzz and me. My initial dislike for it has now changed. I will try it again this weekend when we play a few courses in Georgia. Hello Discraft [for now].

Any thoughts on Legacy or Latitude 64 discs? I’m in the market for a Legacy Rampage driver (173+) and a Latitude 64 Core mid-range (173+) disc if anyone would like to sell me one or make a trade. Let me know!

-jt


Personal Best Back-2-Back Rounds at North Jasper Park

This past weekend I was in town for Mother’s Day and was able to get out for a few hours on Saturday. So, of course, I took to the disc golf course with my brother and Dad. We fought spells of wind for the part of the first round after a slow start on the first few holes. Now this Par 3 course, you really need to score low on the front with its holes averaging ~150 because the longer back holes will get ya. Much of the round was close scores between the three of us, but I dominated the back nine. Had a great shot on #18, about <20 ft from the pin and blew it on my birdie shot to tie my personal record for that course.. I lofted it too high and the wind took it carrying it a distance further away from the pin than where I just threw from..just great. Ended up sinking that par shot throwing into the wind to stay at -5! Dad ended up finishing -2 (personal best) and Chad finished in at -3.

With such a great round behind us, we had to get in another before the rain came in. Started out hot and was landing my drives within 20 ft each time. Sinking most of them, I took an early lead with several birds up my sleeve. Had many more stellar shots to follow and had a ~330 ft drive on #15 into open fairway. I failed short, hard, on a 48 ft. birdie attempt. Saved par. Moving on. As well as the rain clouds, but on top of us. Bottom’s falling out, but I can’t stop shooting this well. Ended with an awesome drive on #18 that landed ~10 ft from the basket. Sank it for bird, to go -6 and tie-ing my personal best score there. Yeaa!

-jt


Jtown Meetup this Weekend?

I/We’ll be in Jasper this weekend and will more than likely be hitting up North Jasper Park Disc Golf. If any of you guys are interested in joining up for a game, let me know and we’ll figure out a time/day to play. I’d like to get up a match.

Stephen and Joe, I also have your official Dogleg biz cards that I’ll bring with me. Legit!

-jt


Night Disc Golf @ North Jasper Park

What started out as another boring Saturday afternoon ended with a 9 year old, glow sticks, an empty cooler, a mormon playing disc golf, and Donnie doing the ugly (not to be mistaken with the now infamous “teach me how to dougie” song.) After rounding up glow sticks at 3 stores between Birmingham and Jasper, we finally had enough to play a around of disc golf without Alabama’s summer heat beating us at every turn.

Stephen, Greg Smallz and I show up around dusk, when most park-goers would have left already. We start setting up when TJ (9) and Caden (7) walk up and introduce themselves…..never met the parents. Since they were nice kids that played disc golf and their parents wasn’t anywhere nearby to object, I decided to let them play with us. Stan showed up at hole 3 to knock in 50 ft birdie put without any light for assistance. We play a couple more holes when TJ and Caden decide to go find their parents…. not the other way around. Around hole #7, Smallz knocks his miniature light off his disc and becomes the belligerent tweaker in the park.

So we continue playing the back 9 knocking lights off discs, steadily draining the cooler, and making some ridiculous shots that would not have been possible if we were able to see the obstacles ahead.   As we wrapped up the night, TJ showed back up…. without Caden.     His mom was still in the park but she had a friend meet up with her named Donnie.    After Donnie, another couple met up with them and proceeded to the opposite end of the park subsequently leaving TJ with us to babysit.       Luckily TJ was infactuated with glow sticks enough to roundup every single one from each hole, as we finished off the remnants of the cooler.

Stephen and Smallz are currently researching a reusable lighting source for the discs and holes.

Jeremiah


J-town or Bust

Saturday evening rolls around and it begins; scratching of the arms, body spasms, slurred speech and uncontrolled movement of my legs.  I’m jonesing.  It’s been 2 weeks since I played and the craving has kicked in with a fury; time to call Stephen.

North Jasper Park in Jasper, AL has been on my list for a while since it has been played by the majority of the Dogleg crew and also due to its short driving distance from Birmingham.  For those of you that are unaware of where this course is located, please do not consult with Yahoo Maps or you will wind up in a random industrial park in the back water of Jasper wondering why the only vehicle in the parking lot appears to be the semi-trailer truck that was featured in “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome”.

I did not bring my discs with me this time (sound familiar?) and Stephen let me borrow some of his.  I was pretty stoked about this but unfortunately the only bag I could find to carry my gear was a large mesh football practice bag with my former high school’s slogan and number.  Great – throw in a gnarled hickory branch to carry it and I’m headed off to the nearest rail yard to board a box car bound for a hobo life of panhandling and malt liquor.  Aside from the bag, I was able to try out some new discs Stephen had gotten in.  The Ching Prism did not rank very high for use as a driver; I would have similar distance and flight pattern if I thawed a DiGiorno pizza and attempted to throw it.  I primarily used an Innova Monarch for a driver and after getting used to it, I was throwing it as well as the Dragon – not too shabby, but I still missed the Dragon.  Stephen finished par for the course and I finished 3 over.  Overall I greatly enjoyed this park and would definitely play it again.  Below are some highlights and also shortcomings of North Jasper Park.

Highlights

  • No poison oak, few trees and essentially flat terrain – made for an easy day of tall boys and relaxation
  • There is a swimming pool adjacent to the course that was filled in with dirt and currently has a garden planted in it (ladders and other accessories still attached)
  • Regularly mown – easy to find discs if they’ve traveled off the path
  • Porta-john – few courses I’ve been to rarely have anything vaguely resembling a toilet
  • The majority of the holes are around 200 feet
  • Not many disc golf players – can leisurely enjoy each hole

Shortcomings

  • Walkers and joggers are rampant on sidewalk throughout course – watch out!
  • Dead raccoon
  • Somewhat difficult to find if not familiar with the area or using Yahoo Maps

– joe


North jasper park me and hobojoe

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Pretty good day I finished even and Joe finished 3 over. Had a great time drank a few beers, we both made some great shots, and told some great stories. The epitome of a good day. Afterwards Joe got a tour of jasper and got to experience the excitement of our local Mexican restaurant, Pericos.
~Stephen


Best round in Jasper

Yesterday I got off work and it was a beutiful day. Sun was out it was warm almost no wind. My wife wasn’t gonna be home till around 8. I decided if I went home I was gonna just sit around the house so I decided to go play 18 at North Jasper Park by myself. Glad I did, had a great round finished -1 for day and almost aced 5 it hit the basket and then rolled to bottom of hill. Real easy toss in. If i could have putted a little better it would have been even a better round. All the bogies were me missing putts.

Stephen