Do you have something that you use every day, something you
think of as irreplaceable, such as a phone, or tablet, or favorite golf club,
or ball and mitt? Maybe it’s a favorite
book, or a wonderful comfortable chair?
Since so much of my free time is focused on preparing for
the 2014 World Disc Golf Championship, right now, my discs are that sort of
thing. My disc golf bag contains some of
my favorite discs along with a few new ones that I am trying to get to know how
and when to use to my best advantage
.
One of those discs is a Mamba made of Starlite plastic. It was a gift from my son for my birthday in
September. Since I’m training hard for
next year’s World Championships, one of the things I wanted to do was to expand
my disc selection and so as my Birthday approached I asked for some new discs.
This disc has become my “go-to” disc for most drives off the
tee, or longer approach shots. Because
of its light weight, I am able to throw it 10 or 20 feet farther than any of my
other discs, and for me, that is a very good thing.
Wednesday night, as we were finishing a round of golf on
hole 17, I threw a hyzer shot with that disc.
It was NOT the way I should have thrown, as there is a bank of trees,
weeds, and bushes down the left side of the fairway right off the tee. Big mistake!
I watched the disc fly up in the air, so pretty, and then it
started to turn, left, left, left, and DOWN!
Right into a huge mass of vines, leaves, trees, weeds and bushes. When I walked to the point where I thought
the disc had entered, I realized it was going to be difficult to find the disc.
Danny and I both looked for it, digging our way through
areas compacted with vines. Some were so
thick that they formed a bowl-like canopy over the top of the trees and bushes….and
were nearly impassable.
Dusk was fast approaching, and that meant that all sorts of
critters were making nests to trap their evening meal.
Danny captured a picture of a huge spider web
with many spiders waiting for their next victim. There must be 7 or 8 spiders in that picture. I did not see the web as I was making my way
through the overgrowth. Good thing! I probably would have been freaked out.
After a time, we decided to abandon the search for the disc.
Apparently it was too deep in the woods
to find, or it was just too dark to see it.
Danny kept assuring me that it would be found, and probably no one else
would find it because it wasn’t in any obvious place.
Last night I went back to that course, played it through from
the beginning and when I finally got to hole 17, decided that I’d make another
attempt at disc recovery. In my mind’s
eye was that image on Danny’s phone of the spider web. Still, I forged my way forward into the
overgrowth.
The night before, as we abandoned our search, and as I was
walking toward the basket I looked back at the place where I thought it might
have entered the brush. I began my
search there last night. It was a little
earlier than it had been the night before and I was hoping that extra light
might help me locate my Mamba.
After fighting my way in, I looked just a bit farther than
we had gone the night before, and there it was, down in a very dark, dense
area. There were greens leaves all over
the floor of the bushy area, and my light blue disc was quite visible. I had to
crawl over and under some fallen limbs that were completely surrounded by
vines, but bit by bit I inched my way toward the prize!
After inching back the way I came, I was ready to take my
second throw on the hole and you can be sure, I threw that Mamba. It went exactly where I was aiming for and
was so pretty flying through the air.
Oh, Mamba! I’m so
glad you are back in my bag. I missed
you!
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