Cold Lampin' Weekend # 3: Preview and random thoughts

At the moment of this post hitting the internet we will be about 30 or so hours from beginning the next greatest disc golf adventure.  We are about to embark on our (count it) third annual Cold Lampin' disc golf weekend, never mind that this year it takes place over a Monday-Wednesday. I dare say that this years trip will be our best yet.  The anticipation has been mounting for months as we finalized our plans to head back to the place we dreamed about in high school. A place where the disc golf weekends started....the legendary Disc Golf Mecca. Highbridge Hills.

A place where one day there will be ten 18 hole courses set upon the single property.  Located in the middle of nowhere close to the shores of Lake Michigan in Northern Wisconsin. Five brave souls will embark on a journey that will undoubtedly strengthen our friendship but also test our disc golf abilities.  It is an area that is unforgiving, arrant throws will be punished with extra shots.  But the one golfer who dares challenge the likes of Highbridge Gold will wind up with the greatest prize. A golden trident that Poseidon tossed out of the Great Lake only to never have it return.

On Phoenixes & Rainy Days: A Highbridge HIlls SC Review, Pt 4... Pt 2

Highbridge Gold and Granite Ridge in Memorium...

First up, Granite Ridge!

Diggs and the King in front of the landmark sign, found on Granite Ridge's course

This is actually Blueberry, but this is a taste of the fog we threw through during the beginning of the round

This is URBWes on the last hole of the course with the fog lifting quite a bit

This was a neat fallen tree left to provide more difficulty

This shot taken in a field after a 300+ foot throw, and you had to hit that tunnel. I faded into the trees on the left and went OB in the creek bed. bummer...

URBWes meditating upon the round. The other fellow always seems to be pointing at something...

And now, Highbridge Gold!

BroLo El Cunado kneeling Tom Joad style next to a tree. I think it is a metaphor. You know? For how the big course brought us to our knees... Righteous.

This was the fun terraced green on Hole #18. The whole hole was terraced in much the same way

Hole #8 Intro for the Longest Hole

BroLo El Cunado being all sorts of man on the pad. I believe he had a triple bogey on this one


BryJohn showing his throwing skills. Dude never plays, but he played this one in sandals. Straight gangsta.

Jiggs showing us the Leaning Dutchman routine

After my first drive on hole #8. Can you see the basket? No? It's about 1000 ft further down behind that clump of trees up ahead. Probably didn't help that my Nuke had a meltdown off the tee

Fin.

~Diggs

On Phoenixes & Rainy Days: Highbridge HIlls SC Review, Pt 4

Pt 4... Stay Gold, Ponyboy (or Money Disc)

We have reviewed the Woodland Bear. We have reviewed Granite Ridge. Now we touch on the big daddy of Highbridge Hills... the Gold Course! We hit Granite Ridge in the morning and Gold after lunch. Play time was approximately 5 hours. That's 5... with a 5. Course length is ~8500 ft. Of the 18 holes, only four are under 300 ft; three are between 300-400 ft; and fully eleven holes are over 400 ft, including the (self-proclaimed) longest hole in the world, Hole #8 coming in at over 1300 ft.

This course was the pièce de résistance of our trip, the source of our desires, and the sun decided to show itself as we began to play. Since this was to be our most anticipated round of disc EVER MRK decided to make things a little more interesting. The winner of the round would be awarded a disc. Not just any disc; the disc with the sweetest name a disc could ever dream of... the Money Putter.

Let me tell you straight out that the best kept course I have ever seen resides in East Bethel, MN and is known as Blue Ribbon Pines. This one is a close enough second. The lines were well laid and well taken care of. To be fair, Jon had just gone out the day before to mow it all down. Jon's good that way. It was just a beautiful course. Gold offers a nice change in elevation; good use of vegetation and stone. It even mixed in a little water, though it really didn't factor into the course much. Gold does everything you hope a golf course to do. As Timmy Gill puts it, it rewards good throws and punishes bad ones.

Only a couple things work against the Gold course. A stage was left in disrepair and disuse after it's initial construction for the World Amateurs played there years before (round abouts hole 18 if memory serves). It just gummed up the aesthetics. Hole 16 was also a bit of a let down. Supposedly an island hole, the water had long since dried up, leaving what had once been (I'm sure) a very comely wooden ring around the island. The ring had unfortunately suffered a breach and the whole thing was in the process of falling apart apparently due to the extreme weight of the soil it was holding up.

Everything else was finger-licking good. Notable holes included hole 2(?) with a nice little elevated putt. I enjoyed hole 18 with it's terraced shots and an elevated green. Hole 10 was a tricky shot choice involving heavy pines. Another hole (of which number I forget, maybe 11) offered a neat little shot over a pond before anhyzering back right into this protected grove hidden within the side of a small hill. Hole 16's island green was a neat idea, even if she isn't as pretty as she used to be. And the most memorable of all was the famous hole 8, the big guy. It looked to be a ball golf hole converted wholesale into the longest permanent hole in the world, a hole that has garnered a legit par 6 from the PDGA. This thing wasn't just long... it was beautiful. Three tee pads in terrace formation lead to a gradual decline in elevation, bracketed on each side by tall pines. This opens up into a breath-taking view of the valley. A few trees line the right side of the fairway before emptying into grove of trees much closer to the basket, forcing a picky hyzer shot that better go as far as you think it will if you want to clear the brush and vegetation or a lay up anhyzer before a short approach and putt. Simply stunning. My only regret is turning over my Nuke WAY too much, crashing it into the treeline on the right and essentially wasting my first two shots on that drive and my recovery shot.

MRK and I ended the round in a tie, but since this was MY bachelor party and I can cry if I want to, I can now gaze upon the Money Putter neatly mounted near my home office, reminding me of that wonderful trip... that wonderful course... Highbridge Gold.

Stay gold, Ponyboy... stay gold

~Diggs