What’s Shakin’ in San Diego Disc Golf?

Last night’s magnitude 5.7 earthquake came just as the board members of the San Diego Aces Disc Golf Club were finishing up their monthly meeting.  While it wasn’t an earth-shaking meeting, there are a few highlights that should be of interest to local disc golfers.

Course Updates:

Morley Field – San Diego’s oldest and most popular disc golf course continues to be ground-zero for disc golf action.  The Pro Shop, run by Snapper Pierson, has the best selection of discs you will find in our area, and most of our top players are sure to pass through the property each week.  Aces bag tag #1 has recently been in the hands of the Nichols family, with Aces President Jeff, Alex and Max each defending the tag at Morley in recent days.  Don’t miss the next Morley Monthly, coming up on Saturday, June 19th.

Sun Valley – The 9-hole course in La Mesa will be the site of the next PDGA-sanctioned tournament in San Diego County, the 4th Annual Sun Valley Open, on August 28-29, 2010.  The SVO has turned into a must-play for local tournament golfers, with Tournament Director David Parnell pulling out all the stops to make it a great event.  Each year, Dave converts Sun Valley’s 9 ball-golf holes into 18 challenging disc golf holes, making great use of the course’s rolling hills, ball golf greens and bunkers, and its signature palm trees.  Be sure to watch out for the aptly named “Pin of Death”… it can definitely kill your score.  The SVO has a Facebook presence this year, so in between Mafia Wars and Farmtown visits, check it out.

Montiel Park – San Marcos’ 9-hole circuit is still busy, hosting it’s regular Monday Night Doubles league at 5:15pm each week.  Players had been complaining about the high weeds on the course making it difficult to find discs, but that has been addressed.  The S.D. Aces (who have a contract with the City of San Marcos to oversee Montiel’s disc golf course) were able to get the City of San Marcos to cut down most of the weeds on the lower portion of the course, in the name of fire safety.  While the City will not cut down the weeds for cosmetic or ease-of-play issues, they will bring out the mowers if the weeds become a fire hazard.  Next event on tap for Montiel:  The 3rd Annual Montiel Ace Race, scheduled for Sunday, September 12th, with proceeds going to the San Diego Aces Course Development Fund.

Escondido Rotary Club DGC @ Kit Carson Park – San Diego County’s newest course is getting lots of play, and great reviews from the players.  The Grand Opening tournament was a huge success, raising over $500 to go towards new rubber tee pads for the course by raffling off a DGA Mach-3 basket.  The course is still in need of sponsors for some of its holes, so if you’re interested contact Aces Course Representative Ryan Meyer.  The Aces are currently sponsoring two weekly events:  Saturday Morning Doubles, at 9am ($5 buy-in, random A/B pools) and a Disc Golf Clinic held every Tuesday at 6pm.  Both events meet at the practice baskets.

Kit Carson is experiencing a few growing pains.  Hole 14 has recently been removed and Holes 9, 10 and 13 are being redesigned as a result of two park users being hit by discs.  Also, the park’s rangers have reported having significant problems with illegal behavior by disc golfers in the park – drinking alcohol, smoking and having dogs off-leash are against park rules.  The Aces board has been working closely with park officials to resolve these issues and reminds all disc golfers that breaking these park rules is about the same as saying to the Parks Department “please remove this disc golf course.”  Please help us keep our new courses by following the park rules.

Cal State San Marcos DGC – Summertime is the best time for disc golfers at Cal State San Marcos!  Since the summer semester has very few classes, campus is pretty near empty.  That means the course is wide open for play most of the time, although the best time to play at CSUSM is still after 2pm on weekdays and any time on weekends.  Holes 4, 5 and 6 have still not been installed, but just today the construction crew got back to work on the field grading project, so we may be able to install those holes soon.  The university recently opened its first parking structure ($5 for 3 hours), which is now the closest parking for the disc golf course.  In the works:  A tournament at CSUSM is scheduled for October 30th, 2010.  Dubbed “The First Gentleman’s Classic” this tournament will be a fundraiser for Ace Scholars, an organization that helps foster youth fund their college education.  The tournament will be hosted by Jim Mickelson (no relation to the lefty ball golfer), husband of CSUSM President Karen Haynes.

Sunset Park – Our little hidden 6-hole course is there for you if you need practice with approach shots.  This course was designed to be a place for beginners and kids to learn how to play the game of disc golf, and it seems to fit that role well.  The Aces Course Representative has been working with the City to move the locations of baskets 4 and 5, which were not placed in the designed location and are thus too close to O.B and the park’s signature snake head play structure.  Sunset Park may someday be the host of a PDGA-sanctioned Superclass tournament – a tournament format where all players are required to use larger, blunt-nosed discs (think Ultimate disc or beach Frisbee).

Along with these course updates, the board discussed many of the usual topics:  new course development, recruiting new members, improving communication with the membership and fundraising.  If you’d like to attend a future board meeting, they are held monthly on the second Monday of each month at 6pm.  Meetings in even months are held at Brickman Group Inc. offices in San Diego, meetings in odd months are held at the City of San Marcos San Marcos Civic Center.  Feel free to contact a board member for more information, or to pass along a comment or suggestion.