After waking up with the sun and sneaking in a quick eighteen holes of disc golf at Cornwallis Road Park in Durham, North Carolina, I made my way to Virginia Beach, Virginia ahead of the 2018 NACIS Annual Conference. I did this in order to play the one course I absolutely had to play on this trip: Bayville Farms Park. This eighteen hole course was originally designed by the one and only “Steady” Ed Headrick back in 1977, and locals tell me it is the second oldest remaining disc golf course on the Atlantic Coast. The course has changed and evolved quite a bit over the past 41 years! Not the least of which was the replacement of the original DGA baskets with Innova DISCatchers (BOO! Ha!). But Ed’s fingerprints are still on that course, via the short tee and basket positions.
You can tell from the short tee and basket positions how much the sport has evolved over the past four decades! I only wish I would have had my old 141g World Class Frisbee to throw those holes. Experience those holes as Ed had intended them to be played. But after my round, I couldn’t help but have a personal moment of silence. Looking around, breathing in the air, and smiling. Seeing another bit of history, and one of the VERY early places where our sport got its start.
After finishing up at Bayville, I had just enough time to sneak in one more nine-hole course before I needed to shower and get ready for the opening sessions at NACIS. So I decided to check out a relatively new course: Poplar Hall 9 in Norfolk. A fun little course that plays fast. And I got to meet two nice locals and help one of them find their lost disc on Hole 6. They told me a couple of times that I didn’t need to spend all that time helping them, but I said: “Leave no disc behind.” 🙂 And we didn’t. I eventually found the lost driver, about 8-9 feet off the ground, wedged between two branches.
That will likely be it on the disc golf front for the next few days. But getting to play Bayville, and the bit of nostalgia and history that comes along with it, should hold me over until I am back on the road.
Magic Number = 540 (1,460 Courses Played)
About Tonn’s Travels
How it All Got Started: Tonn’s Travels >>
A main purpose of this blog will be to share information, helpful tips and tricks (everything from health and fitness to methods for saving money while you’re out “bagging courses” of your own), and ideas for better, safer course design. But I am also hoping to inspire others with my passion for the sport, via the stories I can share about all of the interesting experiences I have. All of the interesting people I meet. All of the amazing courses I am blessed to have the opportunity to play. If I can inspire even a handful of individuals to get off the couch, get “out of their bubble” or “security blanket” and explore more of this big, beautiful planet we all call home? Then I will consider this effort a success.
About Derek
Derek Tonn is a member of the DGA’s Ambassador Team. His company, Mapformation, LLC, has been DGA’s partner in the development of disc golf tee signage since 2012. The longer our two companies have worked together, and the more Derek has gotten to know all the great folks at DGA the more he has wanted to formally sing the company’s praises. The more he has realized that “Steady” Ed the father of disc golf and the modern day Frisbee vision for the sport and his company perfectly describes his own interests and priorities related to disc golf, and the more Derek has recently been encouraged to share his story.