October 2020 - Helix Mini Road Trip Monthly Results
On Saturday, October 3 we had our regularly scheduled Helix Disc Golf monthly. However, it was not your average monthly. Our normal venue, Palm Royale Country Club, is currently closed for their fall overseeding. That left us looking for somewhere else to host this event.
We looked at some other parks and courses, but decided to try something a little different this time. We headed over to Nicklaus Disc Golf Park in Beaumont for a special 27-hole challenge. We called it the Helix Mini Road Trip Monthly. It was indeed a mini road trip for those of our regular club members coming from the Coachella Valley (about a 40-minute drive to Beaumont). The name “Mini” was also inspired by the fact that we recently got in our custom Dynamic Discs DYEMAX mini markers, which can be purchased in the Helix Disc Golf Shop now. Last but not least, this is kind of a miniature disc golf course.
Nicklaus is a 9-hole pitch-and-putt layout mainly designed for beginners. The holes range from about 140-240 feet and are pretty straightforward. Still, it’s a fun little course and there is rarely anyone there, so we figured it could be a place to just show up with a bigger group and do what we wanted to do. It worked out well because we were pretty much the only ones out here all day. We ended up with 24 players, which is probably the most players this course has ever seen at one time!
We did mix things up, though. For the first nine holes, we played the standard course layout to let everyone rack up good scores and learn the course a little. For the second nine holes, players were limited to only one disc for the entire round. Most people used a putter or mid, while a few brave souls used drivers. For the third nine holes, we designed our own safari layout that combined several of the primary holes and then utilized some nice land around the perimeter of the neighboring dog park. This layout was definitely trickier with some mandos and more OB in play, but still offered some generous birdie opportunities. The idea was to have a lot of fun and allow players in each division put up some really low scores. That plan worked. The hot round was put up by Helix’s own, Keith Lindsey, who shot -18 to win the Intermediate Division.
The current ace pot ($250) was on the line, and we were shocked that nobody hit an ace. There were plenty of close calls, but nothing in the bucket so the ace pot survived another weekend!
To keep with the mini theme, we also brought along a mini basket and had some mini marker disc contests. There was a CTP going all day with every player getting three chances. Also, any players who bought one of the new Helix mini markers were eligible to participate in the post-round mini ring of fire. That was something to see. We will be bringing out the mini basket to more events in the future, so those who have a Helix mini marker will have more opportunities to win prizes with various mini contests.
Here are this month’s official results (par was 84):
Advanced Division:
1st - Jon Berg: 69 (-15)*
2nd - Cory Marsteller: 69 (-15)
3rd - Jeremy Long: 56 (-8)
Intermediate Division:
1st - Keith Lindsey: 66 (-18)
2nd - Edward Montano: 68 (-16)
3rd - Christopher Dippner: 70 (-14)
Recreational Division:
1st - Nathan Long: 70 (-14)
2nd - Suzette Simons: 80 (-4)
3rd - Jay Boyd: 81 (-3)
CTP:
Hole #9 - Jeremy Long
Safari Hole # 7 - Nathan Long
Mini Disc CTP - Jacob Yousef
* Tiebreaker determined by sudden death CTP on safari hole 5.
Thanks to everyone for coming out. It was a real blast, and it seemed like people had a really good time. We will definitely do this again at Nicklaus Disc Golf Park. We hope to see you all out at our next monthly—tentatively scheduled at Palm Royale on Saturday, November 7!
