Update on Fire-Related Disc Golf Closures
***Update*** All of the courses affected by the fires have re-opened!
While the fires have been put out (for the most part, at least), the Cocos Fire (San Marcos) continues to have an impact on our local disc golf courses.
Kit Carson Park DGC – While Kit Carson was in no danger of burning, the entire park, including the disc golf course, has been closed since last Thursday while the park has been used as the staging area for the fire crews battling the Cocos fire. Fire crews have been using KCP to park their fire engines, set up tents for sleeping and set up mobile kitchens and dining areas. The City of Escondido website currently says that the entire park is closed through end of the day Thursday (5/22/2014). If this changes we will announce it here.
Cal State San Marcos DGC – The fire came very close to CSUSM (I was there, I saw it!), but the campus sustained no physical damage. CSUSM was also use as an emergency command post through last weekend, so the campus (including the disc golf course) was closed. Graduation ceremonies had been scheduled for last weekend but were postponed to this coming weekend (Sat/Sun, 5/24-25).Because of all the set-up and tear-down work that has to be done around the track area, the campus has closed holes 1-8 from 8am on Thursday (5/22) until 5pm on Monday (5/26).
Thank you for your patience!
Kit Carson Park DGC has been closed for the next few days (hopefully not longer) as it is being used as a staging location for the firefighting efforts related to the Cocos (San Marcos) fire. Please do not get in the way of the firefighting efforts by trying to play disc golf!!!!
The campus of CSUSM is also being used for firefighting staging, plus it’s too darn close to the flames – so please do not try to play there as well.
Montiel Park in San Marcos has not been closed, but it’s awfully close to the firefighting traffic as well, so we recommend staying away until the Cocos fire is out!
Brengle Terrace Park, Morley Field, Sun Valley and Sycuan sound like much better alternatives! Please keep our disc golfing friends who live in the danger zone in your thoughts and prayers.
Local Course Closures this Summer
The San Diego Aces have been informed of schedule closures of some of our local disc golf courses during the summer months. Details so far are as follows:
Cal State San Marcos DGC: Holes 1 through 8 will be closed from Wednesday, May 14 to Sunday evening, May 18, as CSUSM holds it’s graduation ceremonies. Parking in and around the campus will be in short supply on Friday and Saturday, so it may even be difficult to play holes 10-18.
Brengle Terrace Park: The entire course will be closed on the following days:
- Saturday & Sunday, June 28 & 29 (Scottish Highland Games)
- Friday, July 4 (July 4th Celebration)
Holes 5, 6 and 7 will be closed at 4:30pm and the fairways used for parking for the Moonlight Amphitheater on the following days:
- May 16, 23, 24, 28, 31
- June 10-15, 18-22, 26-28
- July 5, 16-20, 23-27, 31
- August 1-2, 13-17, 20-24, 28-30
- September 10-14, 17-21, 25-27
Sycuan Golf & Tennis Resort: The course will be closed Thursday, August 28th and Friday, September 19th for special events.
Please note: When course closures are announced in advance, please do not attempt to play the courses or holes that are closed, even if it “looks like it would be OK”. Our hosts depend upon our cooperation. Thanks!
Here’s a message from Randy Wylot, who is organizing the SD Aces May Monthly at Emerald Isle on 5/10/2014:
Hello Disc Golfers
Emerald Isle disc golf layout will be set up for random draw doubles (A & B pools) this Friday starting 4pm. Cost is $5 doubles plus $5 green fee to walk or $10 green fee with cart. We need baskets…if you can bring a basket please contact me. Help get the word out!!!
Saturday’s event will begin 1pm. Please arrive early for check in and reserve a cart. There are only 32 carts ($5 a person) so pair up with someone who is on your card. The scorecards will be arranged on the score point leader board. In the interest of time, we will be playing 36 holes without a break. There will be carts delivering food and beverages, and the snack shop in the middle of the course will be open.
San Diego Aces and SoCal DGA memberships will be available. Bring your Aces tag!!
Thank you for signing up for the event and I look forward to seeing all this weekend.
Randy Wylot 619.709.7927
Thanks, Ladies! EI One More Time!
Thank you, thank you to the PDGA and this little thing called the “Women’s Global Event”. The WGE is an opportunity for lady disc golfers all around the world to compete virtually with ladies playing the same day at other courses. Cross-course competition is made possible by the same kind of ratings-based system used for the Performance Flight at the USDGC (look it up). Last year our closest WGE was held at La Mirada, but this year it will be much closer to home. Can you say……..Emerald Isle?
At the time of this posting we didn’t have all the background info, but it looks like Brittney Breed from Emerald Isle and SoCal President/Aces VP Randy Wylot were able to convince the decision-makers at Emerald Isle to allow a 1-day disc golf event to support women’s disc golf. (Skip Winship was probably involved as well) Thank You!
The guys are going to benefit from this too. Since it will be hard to fill a 72-player field with only lady disc golfers, an unknown number of spots in the field will be open for men. The ladies’ field will compete in the PDGA-sanctioned Women’s Global Event, while the men will compete in a non-sanctioned Aces Rotating Monthly.
The event is scheduled for Saturday, May 10th and will be two rounds on the original Emerald Isle layout. Carts will be available for rent for an additional charge. Registration is live now at DiscGolfU.com: http://www.discgolfunited.com/disc-golf-tournaments/tournament-dashboard.cfm/tourn_id/1295
Montiel Park DGC Reopens!
After a few months of closure, Montiel Park’s disc golf course will re-open for play on Friday, March 7th. The course has been closed since December while the city worked on improvements to the upper portion of the park. The main focus of the park remodel was to “reduce environmental impacts in spaces that are more vulnerable to climate changes and temperature increases because of their proximity to urbanized areas like the neighboring SR-78 and I-15 freeways”, according to the city’s website. A large grant from Caltrans allowed the city to plant trees and ground cover throughout the park and add irrigation that will keep these new plantings alive. Also of major importance for this project was the addition of significant erosion control measures, including four silt retention ponds along with shaped berms and rock-lined water channels throughout the property. Last weekend’s heavy rains were an opportune test for the erosion control measures, which passed the test with flying colors!
Kiosk sign for Montiel Park DGC
The disc golf course has given up some space for the addition of an informational garden exhibit (between holes 1 and 9)and additional walking trails. This should be more than compensated for by the addition of trees, ground cover, steps to hole 3 and tee 9 and other interesting obstacles. Overall this is a big improvement to the park and the course and is a reflection of how well San Marcos embraces our sport. San Diego Aces club president Allen Risley has worked extensively with city staff and project contractors throughout the planning and construction process, to make sure our oldest free-to-play San Diego County course received an appropriate facelift. It’s this type of cooperative effort by the San Diego Aces that we hope leads to more courses in the future.
Because of the delicate condition of the new plantings at Montiel Park, we ask you to walk carefully while you play the course for the first few months. Also, be aware that there may be additional park users drawn to the garden and hiking trails, so play safely and courteously.
The City of San Marcos is holding a ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday, March 7 at 10am. There will also be a community tree-planting event from 10a-12p as part of the re-opening. We encourage local disc golfers to attend and help plant even more trees at Montiel Park. More information on the event can be found on the city’s website.
San Diego Disc Golf Loses a Gentle Giant
Our local disc golf community lost one of it’s most-liked young disc golfers this week. Daniel Boe, an up-and-coming MA1 player, was killed early Friday morning in a single-car accident on Interstate 8. Daniel was on his way back home after competing in the Memorial disc golf tournament in Scottsdale, AZ. Daniel was alone in his SUV when he lost control and crashed.
Daniel was a fixture at North County disc golf events, calling Kit Carson Park as his disc golf home. His strong play on the course coupled with his affable personality made Daniel a universally-admired player on the local disc golf scene. Daniel was a powerful thrower, but the best shot in his arsenal was probably his Yeti Aviar putter, which he would use to sink puts from all distances. His strong play earned him a spot on SDSF’s sponsored team, and he closed out the 2013 season with a second-place finish at the SoCal Amateur Disc Golf Championships.
Details on memorial services for Daniel were not known at the time of this writing. As more information becomes available it will be posted on the Aces web page and Facebook page. In the meantime we will all keep Daniel, his family and loved ones in our thoughts and prayers.
Coverage from the San Diego Union-Tribune can be found here: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/feb/28/poway-man-el-centro-crash/
Golden Sombrero Ice Bowl Series Wraps Up This Weekend
The 2014 Golden Sombrero of Ice Bowls has will be the biggest
in the series’ history. Begun as the “Triple Crown of Ice Bowls” (Redlands, Palm Desert, San Marcos) in 2008 by Bill Maury-Holmes and Allen Risley, the series has evolved into nine charity events crammed into the first two months of the year. The series changed its name one year later with the addition of a fourth event (Sun Valley/San Diego) to the Golden Sombrero Series and has kept that moniker ever since.
Each year the series has crowned a champion, who is awarded a golden, decorated sombrero at the series-closing event. In the early years the champion was the player who beat the most other players at all of the events combined. As the series grew it was decided to put a cap on the number of events included in a player’s points total, and that cap has been set at four events. Players receive a point for each other player in an event who they beat (no points for players tied). Since many of the Ice Bowl events allow for the use of mulligans ($1 each), some have argued that it’s possible to buy a series win. With the addition of the Ice Bowl in Paradise in 2011 and inclusion of the San Marcos Super Ice Bowl – neither of which included mulligan use – that claim is harder to defend.
2010 Golden Sombrero top finishers: 1st – A.J. Risley, 2nd – Patrick Paramore
This year’s series has had a record number of players so far, with 318 participating in the first seven events, thanks to big turnouts at Chavez (83), Yucaipa (64) and Murrieta (64). This year’s series championship is still up for grabs going into the final two events this weekend – the Wrightwood Ice Bowl and the San Diego Ice Bowl @ Mission Bay. The current top 5 players are listed below with their point totals (and number of events played in parentheses):
- A.J. Risley – 214 points (5 events played)
- Danny Zwolenski – 176 (6)
- Chris Horn 173 (3)
- Allen Risley 152 (5)
- (tie) Bill Maury-Holmes 148 (3), Jason Perdue 148 (3)
Four-time defending champion A.J. Risley is currently in the lead with 214 points. Since neither A.J. nor 2009 champ Allen Risley are playing in Ice Bowls this weekend, their scores will not change. But other players still have a shot:
- Danny Zwolenski can catch A.J. if he can beat 72 players in one of the events and none of the other top players pass him.
- Likewise for Chris Horn, who needs to beat 42 players at Wrightwood to pass A.J. (Chris needs to hope for more walk-up entrants on Saturday, current registration is 37).
- Bill Maury-Holmes needs to beat at least 67 players at Wrightwood, which is not likely to happen (sorry Bill).
- Jason Perdue won the Ice Bowls at Sycuan and San Marcos, but he needs to beat 67 players at either Wrightwood or Mission Bay to pass A.J. He is unlikely to have enough players in the field at Wrightwood, but the Mission Bay field is 94 players, which gives him a strong chance.
So don’t expect to know the outcome of the Golden Sombrero championship race until late in the evening on Sunday (Mission Bay is played under the lights). But we already know the big winners from this year’s Golden Sombrero Series of Ice Bowls – the local charities that will be receiving cash and canned food donated by our players!
Aces to Begin Holding Rotating Monthlies
The Aces Board has put together a committee to organize monthly tournaments at various locations around San Diego County. The first monthly will be held at Sycuan Golf & Tennis Resort on Sunday, February 16th at 9:00 AM.
The cost to participate each month will be $15 (pros), $10 (advanced), and $5 (intermediate) plus cost of play band (where applicable). 36 holes will be played, with a 20 minute break from when the last card is turned in from the first round to the start of the second round. The top 30% of each field will be paid out. If you are not an Aces Member, the cost will be an additional $2 to play. Events will occur on the third Sunday of each month. Check the Aces website soon for the schedule of where the events will be each month. The current plan is to rotate each month between Sycuan, Kit Carson, Sun Valley, and Brengle Terrace, but there may be adjustments due to course availability.
San Diego Aces Disc Golf Club 