18 hole redesign

Bialy Grove will be getting a bit of a facelift with a new 18 hole design. Much of the course from last year will still be intact, but it will now have a full 18 hole layout. I removed some buildings and trees from the property this winter/spring that will allow for these new holes to be built and create a more unique 18 hole layout. I had a rough 18 hole layout in place last year that we played a few times, but a lot of it was just playing most of the holes backwards. This new design will create some new lines. The new layout adds some length to the course, with some lines being a lot further than before. Work will begin this weekend on clearing the fairways for the new holes. Pics are to follow. For now, here's the conceptual map.

Bialy Grove 18 DGC - 2014 Redesign 

Spring Optimism

Wow. What a brutally cold and long winter it has been! With the warmer temps we've finally been getting, my disc arm has been itching something fierce. I wanna get out and throw. Still a ways off, I know, but I can see the light at the end of this winter's tunnel.

Some changes are in store for Bialy Grove this year that I'm excited about. After a year of playing on the old design, I had a few new concepts to incorporate. In the fall I began work on two new holes and will finish that up in the coming weeks. There will be a new hole 1 (starts at the cabin) and I'm hoping to have a fully integrated 18-hole design this year that isn't just playing the same holes essentially twice. It's hard to make 18 unique holes on 2.5 acres of property but I'm gonna try my best. Last year I had 10 unique holes. Already in my new design I'm up to 12 and should be able to get that number to the magic 18 with some imagination. Stay tuned for photos and maps.

I also want to host the inaugural Bialy Disc and Duck Club Disc Golf Tourney this summer. I had planned to do it last year, but the timing never worked. This year it should, since most of the course is in place and ready to go. Now it's just a matter of the snow melting so I can get to work.

Melt snow, MELT!!!

Seasons End

Well the 2013 duck season has come to a close and for all intents and purposes, so has the 2013 disc golf season. I plan on trying to play more winter disc golf this year since we have Bialy Grove now (where I don't have to worry about losing discs in the snow because they'll be there in the spring), but now that there's snow on the ground the other courses are out of the question in my mind.

Starting with disc golf, it was a good year. Jason, the boys and I traveled all around Wisconsin visiting some disc golf courses we've never played before. We took a vacation day and went up to Mellen to play Highbridge and got utterly beat down. Up until that point we thought we were pretty darn good disc golfers, but the courses there whipped our butts. Most holes were tight and long, with some very unforgiving rough. We'll need to do some improving before we trek back up there again.

Marquette opened a new course this year and Jason and the boys came up to visit me and we had a fun time playing the red tees there. We also went over to Silver Creek and finished up the day at Al Quaal. I was suffering from a bad case of turf toe, but I hobbled along and did my best and still had a blast. I also got the opportunity to go play with Jason's daily disc golf partner Bob over in Woodruff. Brandy Lake is probably one of the nicest courses I've played, mostly speaking from a course maintenance standpoint. It's fun and is really accessible to beginners.

Unfortunately, we did not get a chance to play the Tailings in Iron River this year. I almost had Jason talked into it (arguing that we are way better players than we were when we first tackled that course) but the timing was never there. Duck season arrived and our gears shifted.

Most of the time, we played Bialy Grove. It's a challenging course and you could see all of our games improving from playing the tightly wooded course at camp. Now having a few months of playing it under my belt, I see a few other holes that could be created to expand the course and improve flow. Next summer I plan to host a Bialy Grove Tournament there. I think it will be a lot of fun. I wanted to do that this year, but the timing never worked out.

Moving to duck season. It was a memorable season. We never had a week where no ducks were around. We started off getting quite a few, then our shooting kinda slumped in the middle of season and picked up again toward the end. We picked up a new duck hunter--my good friend Beau. He came out for the first time ever and got lots of shooting (though he didn't get a duck) but he's hooked now. Tom Tipler and Ronnie also accompanied us on many hunts, as well as my brother-in-law Mike on opening day. Overall we shot 28 ducks as a group this year, the same number as last year. The last day we attempted to go out (Nov 16) the lake was froze except the middle. It was the worst closing day we ever had.

Jason and I made a big mistake by trying to drag our kayaks into a lake we saw on Google Earth. When all was said and done, we dragged the yaks 1.6 miles through swamp to a lake that had zero ducks. To top it off, it was the warmest day of the season (mid 70s) and we neglected to bring water with us. By the time we got back to the truck, we were parched to say the least and luckily had a few bottles of water there. It was a good lesson learned for the both of us.

2013 went by way too quickly. I can't believe it's nearly over. Here's to hoping that next year is just as good or better.

Introducing Bialy Grove Disc Golf Course

After quite a bit of hard work, Bialy Grove Disc Golf Course (DGC from here on out) is in a playable state! It still requires some polishing on the fairways, but we were able to play 3 rounds this weekend. My goal in building this course was to create something that challenged us so that we could easily work on our weaknesses. For me, my weakness is tight, wooded courses. I'm fairly accurate, but I tend to have a lot of movement on my discs when I throw them hard. Bialy Grove will force me to be accurate or pay the consequences (in the form of very tough rough). There are hyzer spike shots, anhyzer lines, times when you'll need to really debate which kind of shot you'll need to get out of trouble, hidden baskets and even a little elevation in the form of putting uphill. I used portable InStep baskets for the course, mostly because of their price. That gives me the leverage to move the baskets all over the place and create new holes constantly. For now, the 'official' course is 9 holes, with possibly a 9-13 hole layout also in the works. If I can find a cheap way to make some temp baskets that work well then I will expand the course in some of the open areas. Since it is a private course, there are some design no-no's that I employed, specifically fairway sharing/overlapping. Also, most of the baskets are dual holes, meaning that 2 holes play to the same basket utilizing different fairways. Below are some pictures and a map of the official layout. It will probably change as the year goes on, especially when we have the Bialy Disc Tournament sometime later this summer (with shorter teepads for the beginner division).

Fairway for hole 8

Looking down middle of fairway on Hole 1

Fairway to Hole 2 basket (hidden to the upper left)

Middle of fairway to Hole 3 basket

Middle of fairway to Hole 4 basket

My Dad on Hole 5. The basket just spit his putter out of the chains

Fairway to hole 7. Look closely to see basket.

View from Hole 9 tee. Basket is hidden to left down a small hill

Looking to hole 9 basket from atop small hill

View from Hole 4 tee.

As you can see, there are some things that need cleaning up yet, but as the year goes on that will get done, especially when I can recruit a few helpers. A couple extra hands on the course clearing some brush and logs will get it done very quickly.  Below is a map of the course.

Distances are not official (measured via Google Earth)

In the coming weeks I plan to borrow a measuring wheel to get exact distances for each hole. Being on-call for work every other weekend isn't helping my cause any (camp is a bit too far at this point for me to travel while on call, but I'm working on that!). That's all for now. It's bound to be an exciting year for those of us in the Bialy DDC. Stay tuned for more pics and tales from the course and the field.

Derrek "Course of Dreams" White

Spring Fling

Spring has officially arrived (as far as the calendar is concerned) but there is still a ton of snow on the ground and the temps are hovering around the freezing mark. I've been itching to play disc golf all winter and haven't thrown a disc since Thanksgiving Day of 2012 when I played Al Quaal one last time before the snows came. Well, tomorrow I will break that streak. I plan on walking my camp property to start getting an idea for a layout for the Bialy Disc Golf Course. I have two of the baskets already and will be setting them up in various positions and playing around with different tees. I'm gonna take out the snow blower and create some fairways and hope that I don't lose too many discs. It sounds like Jason and the boys will be coming over to toss a few discs as well. It's been a dream of mine to make a course ever since I began playing seriously last spring, so when I bought the camp this fall I couldn't wait to make that dream into a reality. I will post some pictures and maybe some video of tomorrow's fun.  So far I've tried using Google Earth to design some of the holes, but it's hard to do since much of the property is wooded. I'll have to get out and walk around and take some pictures. Overall, the course is gonna be a short course (obviously with only 2.5 acres of land) and will be 9 holes, with possible alternate tees to create an 18 hole layout. Most of the shots will be sub 200ft shots with a few longer throws. Given the wooded nature of the property, there will be very few (if any) 'bomber' type holes where you can toss with reckless abandon. The Long Lake Park is a better candidate for this and I'm sure there will be occasions where we move the baskets that are portable up to Long Lake for this purpose. Last year when we did the folding chairs that worked pretty well, too. Anything is possible with disc golf, which makes it so much fun.

The baskets on the course will be a mixture of InStep baskets and homemade. The two baskets I have now are InStep baskets. In the summer, I plan to have the inaugural Bialy Disc & Duck Club Tournament. The event will consist of a qualifying round, which will determine which players play in the Am bracket and which players play in the Advanced bracket, and the actual tournament rounds for both brackets. That should make it more fair for everyone involved. The winner from each bracket will be presented with a trophy. I am also thinking about doing an Ace Race as well.  There will be a cookout to accompany the tournament, so it should be a good time. Can you tell I'm dreaming of nicer weather? It's not far away--hopefully.

Duck Season is HERE

Wow, it came fast.  The 2012 duck season is finally here.  The club has started with a bang, led by Jason's 6 ducks up to this point (5 of which are mallards, 1 wood duck).  I was at Disney World with the family during opening weekend, so I got a little bit of a late start but I managed to get 4 on my first day back (3 wood ducks, 1 mallard).  So far this year we have been seeing a lot of ducks in Wisconsin.  We tried hunting in Upper Michigan near my home, but the water was so low in our hunting hole that there weren't many ducks around.  We were able to take a few shots, but most were pass shots, meaning the ducks were flying at high altitude and at top speed.  After that disappointing experience, we'll be hunting the rest of the year in Wisconsin. Unfortunately, Dad has yet to drop a duck.  I have a feeling his luck will change this weekend with fowl weather heading towards us.

The good news is that both of the new pups are natural hunters.  Jason's dog Coop has been getting quite the workout already.  My dog, Freya, did a great job on her first time out, chasing down a wounded wood duck through the long grass of the marsh and sniffing out a hidden mallard.  I would have lost both of those ducks if Freya wasn't with me.  She was quite a handful for the last couple months, but she definitely earned her keep on her first time out.  Her high energy and fearlessness serves her well out in the field.  It's hard to believe her and Coop are brother and sister.  He's so laid back and relaxed it's incredible.  I've never seen a dog so calm and listen so well at only 9 months (almost) of age. Both dogs did incredibly well hunting together, which was something I was concerned with since they usually liked to play when we have them together.  As soon as we get out to the field to hunt, they're all business.  Jason and I couldn't be more thrilled.

Next weekend we'll be hunting pheasants in the afternoon after our duck hunt.  It's something none of us has ever done and we are very excited to try it out. It'll be interesting to watch the dogs work.

Lastly, the Bialy DDC now has a headquarters.  I bought some land and a cabin last month and am pretty excited about it.  This winter I'll be drawing up plans for a disc golf course and in the spring construction will begin.  With duck season here, disc golf has been placed on the back burner for now.  In addition to a disc golf course, there will also be a horseshoe pit, clay pigeon shooting range and a game cleaning house.  That's all for now.  More updates to follow.

Black Bear Creek in Crandon

Jason and I traveled to Crandon on Sunday to play a round at Black Bear Creek Disc Golf Course.  It was much more difficult than I remember it being, but it was still a lot of fun nonetheless.  I shot a +8 and Jason shot a +12.  We caught some video of the first 2 holes and the first throw of the 3rd.  If we threw the whole course like these first few throws, we would have scored much worse than we did.  The course was pretty tight though and it was hard to get much footage of the discs after they left our hands, so we stopped after two holes.  Enjoy!