Mid-summer adventures in the Midwest
Our Mid-summer adventures began with a trip to Peoria, IL. Adam's Dad dropped out of our spectator group, but Helen, Adam, and Joe (Adam's brother) kept the disc golf spirit alive. We made our way to Peoria and stopped to play a round of disc golf on the way. At the course, Adam and Joe traded strokes throughout the round, eventually tieing things up at an even -5 on the 17th of 18 holes. The 17th hole was ~300ft downhill, across a creek, and guarded by a large oak tree on the right side. The position of the oak tree meant the best available shot was to throw forehand that curves from left to right.
Joe threw first. The disc floated on the perfect line, well left of the oak tree, then slowly faded right. As disc lost speed and began to fall more quickly eventually making a splashed in the creek. Joe threw up his hands in dismay. His disc was out of bounds in the creek and all Adam needed was par in order to take the lead. Adam attempted the same line, flicking his trusty yellow distance driver, just hoping to beat the creek. The disc was on line and then it started to fade. Uh oh, it was too short. Adam screamed instructions at the disc "stay up!" The disc held flight for as long as it could before it hit a rock on the outside of the creek and bounced up on to the very edge of the grass. He was safe! By the slimmest of margins— only 30ft to the pin. Adam proceeded to 2-putt to take a 1 stroke lead into the final hole. The final hole was a wide open straight shot that was an easy and anti-climatic birdie for both Joe and Adam. Adam clinched the first victory of the weekend.
After our own round of disc golf we got back in the car to go see the real pros play. Excitement grew as we made our way to the Eureka Lake course just outside of Peoria. Once there we followed a star-studded lead card with household names such as Paul McBeth, Anthony Barela, and Gannon Buhr. Seeing it in person gave a new appreciation for how accurately and far the pros could throw; often feathering the disc within a 25 foot target over 400 feet away.
We spent the night at the Embassy Suites along the Illinois river and slept like rocks. Unfortunately the sleep was too good and we missed breakfast; much to Helen’s sorrow, as Adam had declared Embassy Suites the best hotel breakfast this side of the Mississippi. But we had plenty of time to ay another round of disc golf. This time it came down to the 18th hole with Joe up by 1 Stroke. Adam had a long 35ft downhill putt to tie it up and force a sudden death playoff. Adam lined up the shot and let it rip. The disc was perfectly on line. It floared in the air before dropping just a bit and hitting the top of the basket then falling backwards. Missing by mere inches. With that missed putt, Joe won by a single stroke, leaving Adam and Joe even for the weekend.
Next we made our way to the second round of spectating where we witnessed a true tragedy, (At the 11 second mark you can see Adam, white shirt, and Joe, blue shirt, wearing bucket hats along the OB line):
For the record, he had plenty of time
by u/infernoblade252 in discgolf
An almost perfect shot was robbed from Garrett "Double G" Gurthie as a volunteer failed to get out of the way in time of his potentially 600ft roller. Even with the bad break for Double G we still had a fun time, saw a lot of top tier disc golf, and spent a weekend geeking out with family over our niche obsession. We even saw a couple turtles:
After a weekend of Disc golf it was off to meet up with the rest of Adam's family in Grand Beach, MI, a small beach town about an hour east of Chicago. The next couple days were classic relaxing beach days. We pumped up the paddle board, took a dip or two when we got too hot, took some naps, stayed up late drinking around a campfire, and played backgammon.
We were treated to another vacation highlight when Wesley's (Adam's brother) and Koko's (Wesley's partner) micro-burnadoodle named Rocky got his first taste of open water. Rocky, a Miami apartment dog, had only experienced grass a handful of times and was now faced with the incomprehensible vastness of Lake Michigan. Koko stepped into the water to assure Rocky that the large body of water was safe. Rocky took his first steps into the shallow lake and pawed at the water in hesitation. He gave it a lick to make sure it wasn't poisonous, but ultimately turned around and decided he preferred running in the sand.
We will be in Grand Beach for a few more days before we head back to San Francisco for the last 6 weeks of West Coast Fun!
