Andrew’s Travelogue: Building the Dragon’s Lair

October 9, 2013 / P.J. / Leave a comment

As I said in my last travelogue, while South Korea is small as countries go, it can still be difficult and time-consuming to travel anywhere. This is largely relegated to the Seoul area.

Get anywhere near Seoul, and you will find yourself with a serious travel headache, unless you grew up in Asia, mostly because of the sheer density of the population.

About 90 percent of South Koreans live in Seoul. That’s not around Seoul, or the greater area of Seoul, that’s in Seoul. Pretty wild, no?

Now, being as far north as I am, and seeing as how we are somewhat restricted in our freedom of travel, I quickly deduced that making 3- to 8-hour round trip to play disc golf every weekend wasn’t going to work. I’d end up broke or insane, or perhaps both.

So this left me with one logical solution — build my own course!

Luckily, my barracks are in a rather nice part of the base known as “Dragon Valley,” and I figured I could pretty easily cram a 9-hole course in with no problem. I began scouting the area while I did morning physical training and, with the aid of Google Earth, came up with a delightfully challenging layout.

The course layout.

That was the easy part.

The next step would be the real kicker — cutting through the red tape and actually getting permission to build the course. This turned out to be a bit more difficult than I thought. My first stop was at Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) for a meeting about getting a few bucks to install baskets and signs, and for them to help me get permission to use the land.

Three minutes into our meeting I was duly informed that, thanks to sequestration and severe budget cuts, they wouldn’t be able to supply me with anything. In fact, they were so short-staffed they couldn’t even go with me to meet the higher-ups for permission to use the land.

They tried their best to help though, making a few phone calls on my behalf and sending me on the way to meet the people I needed to meet. But, for now, this course was going to be built with my blood, sweat, tears, and, perhaps most importantly, my money.

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Photo Focus: Oct. 7

October 7, 2013 / P.J. / Leave a comment

(Photo focus will run every few weeks or so on Rattling Chains. The idea is to focus on disc golf photographs submitted by staff members and readers. To see the guidelines for submitting a photograph for this feature, click here.)

The fall can be a great time to get some cool disc golf images.

When I’m out disc golfing, I’m usually looking beyond the throws and scores.

Often, my camera will be with me as it’s normally just a casual round. The fall with all its colors makes for some good disc golf photos.

While I realize it’s possible that it’s harder to find certain discs, it’s also a cool time to use nature for photos.

The above photo was pure luck.

I through an errant shot and it ended up, like normal, among some trees. It bounced off at least one and then landed. We had no idea where. We looked for a bit before I finally spotted it.

This is exactly how the disc landed. Could it have landed any more perfect for a photo?

Of course I had to snap away before pulling the disc up for the next shot.

One of the most important things I’ve learned about photography and disc golf is you should always be ready to take photos of the different things as you never know when something will make itself available, much like my Buzzz did.

— P.J. Harmer

Techie info:

Camera: Canon 7D
Aperture: f/4.0
Exposure: 1/500
Focal Length: 17 mm
ISO: 800

If you have any comments, questions, thoughts, ideas or anything else, feel free to e-mail me and the crew at: pj@rattlingchains.com. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook!

Sept. 30: What’s in your bag?

September 30, 2013 / P.J. / 1 Comment

(Editor’s note: We are bringing back the “What’s in your bag?” feature to Rattling Chains. It will run once a month or so. If you would like to submit what’s in your bag, please check the details at the end of this post)

This edition of “What’s in your bag?” comes from Kris “Professor” Mickelson, who lives and manages a disc golf club in El Granada, Calif.

He’s played disc golf since 2010, and competed in the open division since 2010. Mickelson participates in the San Francisco Disc Golf Club weekly, which is held rain or shine each Sunday.

He also co-wrote a feature-length film script based on disc golf and is the owner of Half Moon Bay Disc Golf.

Besides disc golf, he also coaches little league baseball.

As for the contents of his bag, there’s a bit of uniformity. See, he notes, that he’s been there when trying to find a yellow disc for 10 minutes, just to realize it’s in his bag and he should have been looking for a blue disc.

Yikes.

So, Mickelson eliminated that by having all of his plastic custom stamped with a shield on them. He’s used the same person since 2005.

Take a peek at his discs:

Kris Mickelson’s discs.

From the bottom center (Blizzard Blue) and going clockwise:

159g Blizzard Katana
175g Boss (Signed by Gregg Barsby)
175g Spider
175g Wraith (understable 2009 Star — just beginning to get sweet)
175g Wraith (New and overstable — into a gail!)
175g Leopard
178g San Marino ROC
175g Avair (signed by Gerard Butler of 300- King Loenidas)
169g Champion Omega
150g Star Omega
165g Beast
(Yellow Center Disc) 159 Champion Gummy KC 11-time (For pre-tournament catch/stretch out only)
2- 36oz. Blue Nalgene Bottles with the Half Moon Bay Disc Golf Club Logo on them.

Want to submit your bag and contents? Here’s what we need: A couple of photos of your bag and discs. Put together a list of everything you carry in the bag — from food to discs to anything else. Then maybe give a paragraph or two about your bag and if there’s anything you do between casual and tournament rounds etc. Finally, don’t forget your name, location and home course! Cell phone photos are fine, but please try and make it as high quality as possible. Grainy shots might not be able to be used. E-mail all of these things to pj@rattlingchains.com with the subject “What’s in my bag.”

Exploring a new course makes for an interesting round

September 27, 2013 / P.J. / Leave a comment

Binghamton University’s new disc golf course has the potential to be top-notch. It also proved to be a crazy welcome back for one disc golfer. (photo by P.J. Harmer)

Do you ever get that feeling where it’s like you are throwing a disc for the first time?

Though I get a small part of that feeling on almost every outing, I really was overwhelmed with it a couple of weekends ago.

It was like I was pulling out plastic for the first time.

It had been more than three months since I had last played the game, so I was excited to meet with two others and play a round. We met at Binghamton University in upstate New York for a round on a new course. This course, which had been open for less than a month, was designed by Dan Doyle, who also worked on the design of the famed Warwick course.

And, I’m sure, many of you may have seen the interview where Ken Climo put Warwick up there as his favorite course in the United States.

So forgive me if I was a little giddy when told by a friend than Doyle was the designer of this course.

Binghamton University is a deceptively large campus. It doesn’t seem like it should be as big as it is, but there is quite a bit of land. This course is spread over the upper part of the campus, going in and out of the woods, some open land and the occasional parking lot.

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Andrew’s Travelogue: Learning my geography

September 25, 2013 / P.J. / 2 Comments

(Editor’s note: Andrew Belet, a member of the U.S. Army stationed in South Korea, has joined Rattling Chains as a writer. He’ll be documenting his disc golf travels in another part of the world.)

I actually have been to South Korea years ago, when I was in the Marines.

I was way down south in a port town named Pohang, for training. I was here for about a month and didn’t get to see much of this part of the country, though I recall it being small.

Now that I’ve been here for two weeks, the only thing I can say is my thoughts about South Korea being small was misguided, at best. Camp Casey, where I’m stationed, is north of Seoul (the capital of South Korea)

…and all the disc golf courses are in Seoul or even further south.

The biggest and best course is DERP (Daegu Environmental Resource Park), whick is about as south as South Korea can get. Not only would I require special permission to go down that far, but it’s also about a five-hour train ride.

Yikes.

Even the courses in Seoul require an hour-long train ride, then you have to navigate the Seoul bus system. Since I don’t speak or read Hongul (the native language of Koreans), the buses would be a risky proposition, though the trains do announce all stops in English.

Nevertheless, fortune has smiled upon me since arriving.

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Poll 62: Favorite season

September 23, 2013 / P.J. / Leave a comment

As the seasons shift in both hemispheres (though it’s different from the northern to the southern), it brings on the question of wondering when everyone likes to play disc golf.

Of course the diehards won’t care. But what about everyone else?

Let’s hold off on that question for a moment. Before the summer, we posted a poll asking what all of your plans were for that season. We left the poll up for the full summer to allow people to answer it as they went along.

A total of 228 people voted in this poll, in which you were allowed to select up to three options.

The winner? Playing courses they’ve never played, which scored 134 votes (59 percent).

Second place went to play more casual rounds (122 votes/54 percent), followed by more tournaments (91 votes/40 percent), disc golf road trip (87 votes (38 percent), help design/build/install a disc golf course (41 votes/18 percent), play in leagues (36 votes/16 percent), play in states I’ve never played before (31 votes/14 percent), run a league (12 votes/5 percent), run a tournament (11 votes/5 percent) and play in worlds (9 votes/4 percent).

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Part 2: Two universal truths — and 7.5 tips — to help improve your putting

September 18, 2013 / P.J. / Leave a comment

By Jack Trageser — Rattling Chains staff

Before you dive into this post, make sure you read the first 3.5 tips and universal truths to improve your putting from the neck up. You can see part one here.

If you’ve already seen that one, or are now done with it, read on!

4. Follow through. Really, really follow through! Think about all the pictures you’ve seen of pro players having just released a putt. I guarantee that most of them will show a player with his or her arm extended almost perfectly straight, and with all fingers — and even the thumb — rigid and reaching out toward the target.

Rattling Chains staff member Darren Dolezel shows his follow-through on a putt. Notice how his arm and fingers are pointed straight out. (photo by P.J. Harmer)

Following through is an important aspect of mechanics is many different sports, especially those that include throwing a disc or ball. The benefit is two-fold as the best way to ensure consistent aim is to extend toward your target in an exaggerated fashion, and doing so will add a smoothness and extra bit of momentum that increases power and speed just enough to make a difference.

I’ve had too many putts to count barely go in where I noticed, as I brought the disc forward, that my grip was a little off or I wasn’t providing enough speed, but compensated by following through as strongly as I could.

This might be tough to do right away as it requires developing muscles in a different way. But this short video tutorial demonstrates an exercise that will help you understand the concept as well as develop the form.

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Win a Rattling Chains disc golf pack!

September 16, 2013 / P.J. / 42 Comments

By P.J. Harmer — Rattling Chains staff

It’s that time again.

We have some cool things we have lined up to give away on the site, so this will be the first of many more. We hope to do this on a somewhat semi-regular basis.

Have a chance to win this packet of goods!

We’re switching how we do things a little with giveaways, though, as we’re going with the RaffleCopter widget below. It helps us verify that entries are being done correctly, which is what we needed.

It also helps us with a random winner based on the entries.

Here’s the best, too — it allows many ways to get extra entries to this giveaway. I’ll get into how the widget works in a moment, but let me tell you what we’re giving away, first.

This is a RattlingChains.com gift pack. It includes:

A DGA Breaker from the tournament we co-sponsored this past March.
Two (2) Rattling Chains minis, made by Zing Minis. One is an Aerofoil, the other is a minifoil.
A Rattling Chains bag tag. Only 20 were made (numbered 1-20) and only a few remain.
A Rattling Chains weatherproof/reusable scorecard.

The winner will be chosen at random by RaffleCopter at the end of the giveaway.

How it works: To gain entries, you have to do the items below. The first is mandatory — a comment on the blog — and you have to answer a question, which you can see when you click on that option.

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Away I go — starting a new disc golf adventure

September 11, 2013 / P.J. / Leave a comment

(Editor’s note: Andrew Belet, a member of the U.S. Army stationed in South Korea, has joined Rattling Chains as a writer. He’ll be documenting his disc golf world in another part of the world. This is his first column.)

Hello all and welcome to my travelogues, as it relates to disc golf anyhow.

I’ve been playing disc golf for almost as long as I can remember. It was taught to me by my dad. When I was very young, he used to take me to the local course in Missoula, Montana, which was simply marked trees in the Rattlesnake Recreational Area.

In 1989 or 1990, I started playing by myself using only two discs — a Wham-O ’86 Softie for a putter and a Wham-O Heavyweight catch disc for everything else.

By the time I got to high Sshool and had the ability to buy my own equipment, I stocked up with an Archangel, a Tee-bird, a Puma, a couple of Rocs, a Discraft Shadow and three Aeros.

After high school, I enlisted in the military and this leads us to the present day.

In my line of work, you get used to leaving.

A lot.

I’ve been away for training more times than I can count and have been deployed for nine months to a year four times before. For my fifth deployment, I’m going to Camp Casey in lovely South Korea.

Previous deployments have robbed me of playing disc golf, but luckily South Korea is seeing a boom in the sport and actually has more than ten courses in place, most of them 18 holes. This bodes well for me, and as South Korea is still in the infant stage of disc golf, I’m able to use my experience to help truly grow the sport.

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Photo Focus: Sept. 9

September 9, 2013 / P.J. / Leave a comment

Lighting the way at Pyramids. (photo by Tim Johnson)

Pyramids in Leicester, Mass., is a spectacular course that plays mostly through the woods, with great use of elevation. It also plays back-and-forth across a clear, picturesque stream.

The stream is visible in the center of this photo.

My brother, nephew and I played the course in August, having our own “invitational” family tournament.

During play, this lone beam of light, illuminated the tee of hole No. 4.

— Tim Johnson

Techie info:

Camera: iPod Touch
Aperture: f/2.4
Exposure: 1/60
Focal Length: 3.9mm
ISO: 100

If you have any comments, questions, thoughts, ideas or anything else, feel free to e-mail me and the crew at: pj@rattlingchains.com. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook!