Getting back onto the course
For a variety of reasons, I hadn’t been out to an actual course for about three weeks. It felt great to get back out for a quick solo round at El Dorado. This is my local disc golf course, with a relatively active Facebook group. The course is substantially shorter than other courses in the area, and most of the holes are “gettable” (meaning that it’s possible to get a birdie). That being said, the holes do require usually a somewhat technical shot. Not as overgrown as East Coast disc golf, but a wide open ball golf course this is not.
This was my first trip back out since I decided to actually start really paying attention to my shot and disc selection. Ironically, I think I only threw two of the putters that I’d been working on in the field for the last week. That being said, I was a lot more cognizant of how the disc was going to fly and I made sure to check the distance for all of the throws so that I could start building up a catalog of “how discs fly” and “what worked well”. I used my Notes app to track things, mainly because it was the easiest thing to do, and I’d been hoping that it would seamlessly synch to my computer, allowing for copy and past action to happen. Sadly, the latter hasn’t seemed to work, but the notes are definitely clear enough.
The back “9”
I didn’t have time for a full round and there were a couple of groups teeing off in the first hole, so I’d decided to just play through the back portion of the course. This tends to be a bit longer, and includes the “bonus” holes of 12b, 15b, and 19. So the back 9 is really a back 12. Let’s dig in:
Hole 10: 275 feet, straight down a wide tunnel with a slight fade at the end
- Tee shot: Neo Method – 240 feet
- Circle One put: Missed
- Tap in par
This is a stock shot for me now with a slightly overstable midrange. The tunnel is really only there in your head (not that I haven’t whacked into the first available tree on the right). But the shot itself is pretty straightforward. This was my first shot out of the car, and I left the shot a little bit short of the target. The angle was perfect though, leaving a slightly elevated, edge of Circle 1 put that I clanged off the cage. This really should be a “must get” birdie me, I park the disc under the basket about 6 times out of ten when it’s in this short position.
Round score: Even
Hole 11: 315 feet over an open field. Pin is slightly behind some guardian droopy trees and the out of bounds cart path is just behind
- Tee shot: Meta Instinct
- 28 foot slightly obstructed birdie put, made
This is again a stock “baby hyzer” shot with a straight-to-stable disc. In ball golf this is a slight draw shot, starting out about 50 feet to the right of the basket and fading back left as the disc slows down. The higher speed disc skips nicely on the grass at ElDo (unless you got a gopher hole) and settles nicely under the guardian trees.
I had some droopy limbs in the way, but straddled out slightly and stabbed in the birdie put. Measuring the distance helped settle my routine a little bit. I think I’m going to incorporate that from now on.
Round score: -1
Hole 12: 420 feet with OB along the entire left side. A giant tree in the middle of the fairway marks the best “skip past here” point.
- Tee shot #1: Shryke
- Tee shot #2: Nuke
- Jump put upshot from 110 feet
- Made par put from 20 feet
Parking the disc on this hole with the pin in this location in the air requires a monster low, driven forehand. The alternative is to try to lay down a roller, which I also don’t have. So my shot is typically to throw something higher speed and fade past the center fairway tree which is about 300 feet down the fairway.
If I hit the Shryke just right, then in principle it turns to the right during its flight and then fades out. On my tee shot I left the shot a little soft (and managed to slip into a giant puddle just off the teepad), so that the disc started fading at about 250 feet and hit the tree rather than pushing past the tree. Final distance to the pin, about 150 feet.
Giving myself a mulligan (it’s a practice round, after all), I picked up a Nuke (which for me is stable enough that it always ends up pretty far to the left) and threw a force-over shot, pushing the disc to the right and then letting the disc do it’s thing and fade back past the tree to the left. This worked like a charm, with the disc ending up about 110 feet from the basket. A jump put got the disc within 20 feet, which was good enough for an up-and-down for par. Realistically, this is my best score on this hole in this position, and what I really should be aiming for.
Round score: -1 (I’ll give myself a pass for not playing out the other lie from 150 feet).
Hole 12b: 350 feet with an OB road to the left and giant Willow trees to the right.
- Tee shot: Shryke to 10 feet
- Tap in birdie
This is a shot that I’ve struggled with in the past simple through poor shot selection. A typical driver wants to start to the right and fade back to the left. The Willow tree prevents that on this hole, and force over shots nearly always find their way into the branches for a 200 foot up-and-down attempt.
I decided to go back to the Shryke again. This time I got the disc started out far enough to the left, got the natural “turn” of the disc to the right, and put the disc high enough that it faded out at the end and skipped forward the final 20 feet. Definitely the easiest birdie look I think I’ve ever had on this hole.
Round score: -2
Hole 13: 330 feet, through a few trees with a mandatory to the left
- Tee shot: Essence, over turned into an early fairway tree
- Up-shot: Zone
- Tap in par from 15 feet
On a non-windy day, this shot is a “hyzer flip” all day. You basically want the disc to just go straight between the trees and settle without turning left or right very much. You’re throwing from an elevated mount about 15 feet up, which brings the ceiling of the tree canopy into play, so you can’t really throw something super slow and high (as much as I love throwing my Mako3 that way).
Today, there was a little bit of a headwind. As far as the disc is concerned, this just stacks with whatever speed you give to the disc. The result for the Essence was just that it started turning to the right and smacked into an early tree.
Cue the putter upshot I’ve been working on. I had no line to the basket, so I had to throw around a few trees and let the disc fade back in. The distance was about 150 feet, which I have fairly dialed in now on the super overstable Zone. I thought I had left the disc out too wide to the right, but it fade back enough so that when I got up to the basket I had about a 15 foot tap in for par.
Round score: -2
Hole 14: 350 feet got straight back the way you came
- Tee shot: Essence (again). Much better, but hit a late tree
- 90 foot jump put
- Tap in par from underneath the basket
Hole 14 you literally turn around, which meant that I had a tailwind rather than a headwind. The shot shape here is a mildly turning shot with some fade at the end to skip up to the basket. The hyzer line is completely blocked by late trees, and the outside turnover shot is blocked by early trees. Again, a 400 foot forehand would work wonders here, but I don’t have one.
I went back to the Essence, reasoning that if it was to flippy in a headwind then it would work just perfectly in a tailwind. It almost did. I got the right amount of turn on the disc, and if it had started off five feet to the right it would hav been perfect. As is, the disc hit a late tree just as it was starting to flatten out and dropped for a jump put that was little too far for anything but a lay up. An easy tap in par, and on to 15.
Round score: -2
Hole 15: 315 feet, over the hill and straight
- Tee shot: Meta Instinct. Pin high, but wide right
- 55 foot step put (never high enough)
- Tap in par
This is a shot that always look deceiving since you have to throw “over” a hill. But anything relatively flat gets there. I picked the fairway driver and tried to throw the same shot that I did on Hole 11. This time (either with a change in the wind directly or because I was more warmed up), the disc just kept going straight and never started to fade left back to the basket. So I need up pin high, but substantially to the right of the basket.
This hole needs more work in this position. It’s a bit of a tweeter shot between a real pump on a midrange and a more touchy shot with the fairway driver. There are also additional pin positions at ~330 and ~350 feet on this whole, all of which look the same because you can only see the top of the basket from the tee pad. So mentally it’s challenging to decide which shot you want to throw.
I’ve been working on a step put with the kid at the park. This one was I never quite got the height right, and it went past the pin about a foot below the cage. An easy comeback, but this was probably a birdie opportunity missed.
Round score: -2
Hole 15b: 310 feet, golf course OB tight to the left, pin about 15 feet up hill at the end.
- Tee shot: Meta Instinct
- 30 foot uphill put (missed)
- 10 foot comeback for par
The tee pad on this hole is literally underneath a tree. So you’re forced to throw a hyzer shot out to the right and let it fade back left. Too high and you have to jump the fence onto the OB ball golf course. Just in front of the basket there’s a wispy tree (which can save you if you’re headed out of bouncds.
I went back to the Instinct here, but because of the tight tee pad I didn’t quite get enough of it and it was a little high, but short of the OB fence.
The put was very makable at 30 feet, with a slightly tricky lie on the uphill slope to the basket. The put was on line, but after missing the last put low I’d over corrected and the disc went over the top of the basket. An easy 10 foot comeback saved par. Again, this is a shot that I should have dialed and should be an easy birdie.
Round score: -2
Hole 16: 350 feet, double mandatory, basket tucked left right next to the OB line.
- Tee shot: Wraith
- 10 foot tap in birdie
This is a tricky shot. The tee pad is elevated, with a double mandatory (both left and right mando’s that you have to hit) about 40 feet wide about 150 feet down the fairway. This limits your options.
I have a Wraith that I got as a tournament disc last year, which is now becoming my “perfectly beat in” driver. I can throw it with a baby hyzer, have it come up to perfectly straight, and then finish gently to the left. I’ve never had one broken in like this before, and I’m starting to see what the hype is about.
The tee shot here a was perfect. I heard the nice “whffzt” sound on release, the disc flew perfectly straight and ducked under some late branches to skip right up next to the basket. I’d never birdie this hole in this position before, so that’s awesome.
Round score: -3
Hole 17: 360 feet, major trees in the way, basket is way off to the left
- Tee shot: Nuke
- 70 feet step put layup
- Tap in par
I think the only way to really birdie this hole is with a monster flex forehand (starting right to left and then finishing left to right). The backhand line is either a really technical soft fade starting way out to the left and coming back to the right, or the shot that I play, which is an overstable distance driver where you hope to hit a bit of concrete and get a massive left skip.
I hit the line, but left the disc about 10 feet short of where I could get a really good skip. I’ve never birdied this hole, and probably won’t unless I throw something in from 50-80 feet. That didn’t happen this time, so I took the par and moved on.
Round score: -3
Hole 18 – 290 foot turnover shot. Trees just to the right of the basket, out of bounds left. Basket about 50 feet to the left of straight down the fairway.
- Tee shot: Heat
- 35 foot step put birdie
This shot is the main reason I have a Heat in my bag. I throw the disc hard and straight, and it starts gently turning about 100 feet into the flight. At my arm speed, it then finishes fairly flat at the end of its flight rather than turning into a roller.
I hit this line perfectly and got just about as much out of the disc as I could have hoped for. And then made a 35 foot step put for birdie that had me pretty happy about this hole.
Round score: -4
Hole 19: 270 foot straight shot with two late guardian trees about 20 feet apart. Double mandatory between the two trees, OB to the right.
- Tee shot 1: Mako3 (turned over OB into the wind)
- Tee shot 2: M2, baby flex shot. Settled about 30 feet out right next to the mando tree
- Missed put right off the cage
- Tap in (we’ll go ahead and call that a bogey)
This is the “end of round” shot that asks you how much you want to break off. A baby hyzer with any putter works just fine to get to within about 50 feet of the basket. If you go for the basket with a turnover backhand or a forehand (both of which go left-to-right) then you bring missing the mandatory into play.
Which of course I did. I was trying the Mako3, and just juiced it a little too much. It turned over in the slight headwind and kept drifting right throughout the whole flight, ending up about 50 feet past the basket out of bounds
I threw a second tee shot with the M2 I’ve been practicing with and nestled it just fine up by the basket. A missed put from there and a final tap in. There is a drop zone on this whole, which is a pretty easy up and down. So we’ll count that one as a bogey to finish.
Final score: -3
Final thoughts
Even though I didn’t actually throw the discs I’d been practicing with very much, I know my bag fairly well. So the mental exercise of thinking through the shots, the wind conditions, and generally throwing what I know I can do (rather than just a huck and a prayer) really felt I had things keyed in pretty well.
I did notice that the discs that I throw here are extremely different to what I throw at many of the tournament courses I’ve been playing lately. There most of the Par 3s are in the ~360 foot range, and that also includes a few Par 4s in the 600+ foot range. So I end up throwing a distance driver a lot more off the tee and then having the putter upshots to save par or a mid-range shot. Here, I leaned a lot more heavily on my fairway drivers. On the Front 9 for ElDo there are a number of shorter, more technical holes where I do throw mid-ranges off the tee (or putters). But it’s interesting to really note the difference in shot selection. Figuring out how to get the practice in with the longer discs is going to be key for the upcoming tournaments.
I did like taking notes, ranging almost every shot, and then writing up this summary for myself. We’ll see whether that sticks, especially when I’m playing with a group rather than just by myself.