You're probably wondering, "What are Todd and Al doing in St. Louis?" Well, as many people know, May 15 & 16 is "World’s Biggest" weekend. That means that there aren't very many PDGA events. I think there is one event in Iowa. We decided to play a non-sanctioned tournament in St. Louis instead. It will be Saturday only at Jefferson Barracks Park.

We rolled into town yesterday and played the Jefferson Barracks course. 18 holes, 3 sets of tees, most baskets were situated on an incline of some sort. Difficult from the long tees and easy from the short tees. A nice mix for all levels of players.

We met Dave McCormack of Gateway Disc Sports and he drove us over to Endicott which is a 9 hole course that is setup in a similar way to the Barracks. We shot a quick 9 holes and evaluated some of the newer gateway discs. For those of you who don't know about it....

Gateway is actually making their own golf discs. His first model (which is PDGA approved) is the Sabre. Flies like a cyclone, but without the right turn at the end when it slows down. They're durable and he's bought a lot of plastic, so that he can make the discs consistent from run to run. What that means is that a Sabre you buy in 2 years will fly the same as a Sabre that you bought today.

Fling-A-Thing Pro/Am Doubles was on May 8th (Saturday) in Kentucky. Dave Feldberg brought some pals down from Michigan. The teams were to be Todd/David, Al/Todd Keyser, and Darren/Phil Perkins.

• Greenwell tore it up with his partner. He managed a -41 for the tournament.
• Brad Shick and partner threw a -39
• Another team was tied with Brad at -39
  
• Dave and I were 4th with a -38. I got $160 and Dave got some discs.

After the tournament Darren took stock of his finances and decided that disc golfing on the road wasn't going to be his cup of tea. I drove him to the Louisville bus terminal the next morning and Al and I continued on to St. Louis.

It is likely that Dave Feldberg will join us for the KC Wide Open and then travel back to Michigan with us.

Tuesday May 11, St Louis, MO

Last night (Monday), Dave McCormack drove us down to his "Sabre Plant." The Sabre is Gateway's one PDGA approved disc. Al and I got to mix plastics, polymers, hardeners, dyes, and polypropylenes. We poured them into a big hopper on top of a plastic mold injection machine and every 40 seconds a golf disc popped out. I trimmed off the extra long nipple in the middle and Al weighed the disc and marked it. Lots of fun for a disc golf addict to actually make some discs. Dave explained the process to us, showed us his mold, and let us have some fun. We made about 200 discs and headed back to the camper.

During the day Monday we played a couple other courses in town....

Sioux Passage Park:
Very beautiful. Of course we played the long tees. Very long. Most of the time you can't see the basket from the tee area which makes it hard on first timers. Lots of big hills to walk up and down. The course was a workout for both the arms and the legs.

Creve Coeur Lake Park: Small and Flat course next to a large lake. The lake has a cement roller blading path that gets a lot of use. Many potential disc golf groupies skated by while we were playing. While we were playing truck drivers would regularly rate the female skaters with toots of their horns.

Now it's Tuesday, May 11th I believe. Happy birthday Brenda!!!! (my sister) It's raining in St. Louis. We'll most likely do some laundry.

Thursday May 13th, St. Louis, MO

Two days of rain have made for no golfing. Breaks in the rain allow for putting practice. Ron Russell showed up at the McCormack homestead yesterday. He, Al, and I have gone out to eat a few times and been playing video games in the Winnebago. Hail fell yesterday and caused a few small dents.

Hyzer isn't getting enough outside time with the rain falling all the time.

-Todd