[Fortress of ] Solitude Open Open 2012

Today was the Solitude Mountain Resort's opening day for summer activities, and the mostly usual suspects showed up to play the Solitude Open Open 2012 tournament. First up we have the Late JC of Discarama past fame. DM joined the crew for his second season with his girl who we shall call Xiu Xiu. Last in the crowd is your humble blogger, Theorris. Unable to attend this year, due to military commitments was our friend The Croin. Dern.

 The day promised to be hot in the valley, and we wanted to make an early start to beat, or hopefully not match the crowds clamoring to chuck disc. Along with the heat, the forecast also prognosticated wind. Our friend the wind. It is probably best that our friend The Croin could not join us. The Croin is a bitter enemy with the wind. The Wind. And yes, it was windy.

We arrived at base approximately 45 minutes after 10 am. A good start, if you ask me, but there were signs of the wind.  The aspens shook.

While my compadres only purchased single-lift tickets, I went balls out and bought a season pass after quickly doing the math. Yes, I will be up here more than 9 times before the end of October. Well, I better be.

 The lift up was uneventful. No dropped first aid packs. No hawks. An unimpressive party tree*. Just wind. I nearly lost my hat to it. Perhaps that is an event. No.

So at the top I took this picture (the only one of the day):

Near tee one of Solitude Mountain Resort

 I am not sure why I wasn't taking pictures other than the fact that we rocketed through the course.

Hole 1 we played through quickly a group of new folks.  I had a damn fine shot at the basket, but over shot it and what with my putting, ended up with a par along with JC.  DM ended up with a bogie.  We all bogied the second and only JC managed a par on 3.  Then the mishaps began.  Hole five is the first serious uphill hole, and both JC and I suffered for it.  DM suffered less, but wasn't happy with his play.

Acursed hole 5.  I spit at you.

The mishaps on the Front 9 continued next through 6 and 7.  DM got a atweaked on the infamous Southstar/Northstar (hole 6) where he lost his disc in some pines.  None of us saw it drop, unlike our other discs.  After a fair bit of searching where the damn thing should be, DM gave up in a fit of pique.  I felt badly for DM.  He doesn't like to lose discs. Mind you, he has never bought a disc in his life (living off unmarked finds and gifts from generous friends who wanted to get him hooked on the game.)  So we moved on to 7, and DM took an X.  Oy.

While we were walking up to the 7th tee, the new folks following us shouted "did you lose a blue disc?"  There it was.  DM still didn't finish the hole.  I judge not.

So on 7, DM was still atweaked and picked up again, for some unknown reason.  I had a good throw that landed in the pond, but was able to throw it from its lie.  Par.  JC also had an excellent throw.

We got DM laughing again at the 8th tee and his game seem to be on the recovery, but he was unhappy with the placement of the Abyss basket.  Yeah.  I played it conservative and just layed up.  He followed my example.  That's not a good place to be for the atweaked.  He got a little more tweaked, but we recovered him again by the time we got out of the front 9.

As he picked up on 2 holes, DM had no score for the front 9.  JC and I tied.  I am uncertain if that is a first, but I like to think it is.  36.  That's 9 over par.  Yeah, you come play this course and then you can gloat that 9 over is a shitty score.

The back 9 went quickly.  No miraculous shots and DM was recovering.  He actually managed to win the back 9 altogether with a consistent par/bogie average of 32.  JC and I didn't fare so well, but didn't suck, over all:

Solitude Open Open 2012 Score Card

As you can see, I threw a 71.  That's pretty good for week 1.

Here is a satellite track of the course:

Endomondo Golfing Workout: was out golfing 2.08 miles in 2h:33m:55s using Endomondo.
That is all.