Course report from Roosevelt Park, Albuquerque NM, 7 April 1999.

Yes, the goal is Total World Visitation.

It looks like there are two disc golf courses near Albuquerque, where I happen to be visiting for an NCSA Alliance PACS meetings. Happily, the largest is about 15 minutes from the airport and 5 minutes from the university.

I found it last night around sundown, hoping for an early evening game. When I got to the park, it was getting just a bit too dark to really see the holes, plus there were a lot of unsavory characters hanging around, so I bailed.

This morning I had a little bit of time before meetings started, so I dropped by. A bunch of folks were walking dogs and a park guy was mowing the lawn, and in general it was a lot friendlier.

The park covers about 2-3 city blocks. It's quite hilly, and has a lot of large trees, and is otherwise grassy - it feels very much like the Lombard9 with hills.

The tees are concrete. (Side note -- when you have a concrete tee, and it faces downhill, you can get some *serious* speed up for your drive.) The baskets are all mounted in concrete slabs, and a lot of them are mounted on the sides of hills, making some of the holes fairly challenging.

Supposedly it's an 18 hole course, but I only found the first 9 holes and the tee for the 10th. I'm puzzled how they could fit an additional 9 holes into the space in the park without reusing baskets or killing pedestrians. If I have a chance to go back without a time pressure, I'll walk around the park and try to figure it out.

I'd say in general the course is like an improved Lombard9, which means that it's very nice. I suspect in general that the course is a bit more challenging, but I was really on my game this morning and scored an even 27 - quite good for me for a first shot at a new course.

One strange side effect of playing a complex course early in the morning - I found not one but two discs just lying out in the open. An X2 (a brother of the XL), and a custom Roc with a local disc club's name on it. Both discs had names on the back, but neither had phone numbers or addresses (duh), so I'm adding them to my "found on the road" collection.

-r'm

Normally I wouldn't send two messages about one course, but I went back and played this one a few more times, once with Steve, and ran into a few things that may be of interest to the rest of the gang.

First, on the "missing" upper 9 holes, Craig suggested to me that perhaps the top 9 use the same baskets. And indeed, when I asked some folks the next day, they explained that you use different tees, but go to the same 9 baskets. It's all very cleverly done - the top 9 include some very challenging holes. Unfortunately, they're unmarked, so you have to go by insinct and luck. Also unfortunately, they cross over the first 9 a LOT, so you really need to wear a helmet when playing this course.

After attempting the upper 9 twice and getting lost, I asked one of the locals for clarificaiton and he sent me to a local outdoor store that has maps of the course. I'll probably scan it in and put it on the page.

Second, the wind when Tuecke and I visited was _insane_. If it was this windy here, we'd all just stay home on Saturday morning without even thinking about it. We've never come close to playing in wind this strong. Steve and I went out just to get out after a day of meetings, since it was still very sunny and nice. But the park was full of discers. I asked one of them if this was normal... he drops some grass to the ground, watches them go, and says "nah, it's only about 35mph right now... sometimes it gets up to 50". So as you can imagine, a lot of throws went completely random directions. But, amazingly, quite a few of the folks there were able to throw very accurately in the wind, and in some cases even use it even when it wasn't at their back. One guy in particular I saw throw across the wind on his drive. He angled and spun his disc somehow so it just sort of surfed along the wind's push, and he got as far on that drive as Brian would on a still day, maybe farther.

Third, this and the trees explain another minor mystery - why I found those discs. They were under or near trees - I'm sure that folks landed them in trees and couldn't get them out, and then a night wind blew them out. Both times I visited after the first trip, there were gangs of youths throwing stuff at trees, trying to get their discs back.

Fourth - Steve gets a mention in the "Good shots" list for a stunning 30 foot uphill putt into the wind that just went into the basket, and a mention in the "Bad shots" list for an approach that went about 30 feet uphill and then back down hill and behind him for about 100 feet. I laughed so hard I had to lie down.

Last note - the locals there say that Roosevelt is the best in the area, but if you want to travel north for a couple of hours, go to Sipapu. I happened to drive past it on my way to Taos on Saturday but didn't have time to drop by.

-r'm