Luke’s Notebook

Today was fairly routine until the evening! That’s when things got really fun.

Around 6:00, Mark, Jude and I drove over to Jefferson Barracks Park in South County (outside of St. Louis) in order to play disc golf. I hadn’t played since several of us had an early-morning disc golf adventure in Florissant. It must have been a good month or two. But it was a really nice afternoon, and we had the idea of playing some disc golf, so after supper we hopped in the car and headed towards Missouri.

I hadn’t played at JB Park in quite some time. Since I had last been there, they have completely re-done the holes. Many of the tees and baskets are in different locations, so it’s almost like a different course. I really like the new layout, though.

Tonight I was experimenting with a new method of driving the disc. Up until now, I have always thrown the disc like someone would throw a Frisbee — you know, more of a backhand throw. Also, I would always throw with my right hand. Even though I’m a lefty, there are certain things — Frisbee-throwing being one of them — that I do right-handed.

The experimental way of throwing is more of a “snap” throw. I hold the disc with my left hand and just kind of snap it forward with a flick of the wrist. The old method would have me “winding up,” taking a couple of steps and then launching the disc. The new method is much less strenuous on the wrist, and I think it has lots of potential. So anyway, keep that in mind as I tell you about my performance tonight.

I ended up having a few pretty nice drives and set-up shots, along with some impressive putts. Many of my drives, unfortunately, were less than spectacular, with quite a few of the discs encountering trees at high speeds. Oh, well. I guess my new driving approach still needs a bit of work.

I had a couple of highlights while disc golfing. One was finding a really nice disc in the weeds. Whenever we find a disc, we always check for a name, number or some sort of contact information. This disc had none, so I just added a nice disc to my collection.

One more thing. On Hole 14, I made the longest putt of my young life! I had a decent drive (first shot), and was tossing my trusty Rhyno (putter) towards the hole in hopes of having a nice set-up shot. I had a very nice shot, and it glided straight into the chains of the basket! That made for an eagle as I sank the 112-foot shot. Jude and I paced it off to figure out the distance. Needless to say, I was pretty surprised to have made the shot! That made up for my less-than-stellar performance for the rest of the course.

I finished the day with 69 strokes through the 18 holes. That’s not bad, but I certainly can do much better. I’m not too worried, though, because I hadn’t played in a while, plus I was very much experimenting with the new way of driving.

All in all, disc golfin’ was fun.