throwfromthewoods
Double Eagle Member
I know there was a thread for last year's event. But I wanted to post up some thoughts and experiences from this year. I didn't get to go last year, so this was my first foray into the chasm. The tournament was on September 21st. It's WAY up in New York. And it's only in its second year. I'm hoping it keeps growing. The work that the crew at Ausable put into this event really deserves all the praise and exposure they can get.
A brief background. The Steady Ed Safari is a tournament sponsored by DGA. It's two rounds, but the morning round is a safari course inside the chasm proper. The second round uses their Campgrounds course. Last year Campgrounds was just 9 holes, but the course is now a solid 18 and building into 27.
I mean, wow. I don't want to gush to badly, but the round inside the chasm was the single most enjoyable round of disc golf I've ever played. The crew at Ausable created a Frankenstein of a safari course that went up and down and through the chasm. We had to take rafts to ferry us to baskets. We had to traverse the chasm and throw over rapids. At one point I was standing 200 feet in the air throwing from the top of a cliff and watching 4 other cards play different holes at the same time. It was some awe-inspiring fun.
There was a catch, if you can call it that. The round inside the chasm requires players to use ONLY the discs given to you in the player's pack. Those discs would be the Steady Ed signature discs; the Blowfly, Blowfly II, Blunt Gumbputt, and Powerdrive Gumbputt. There were two reasons for this. The first is to protect the chasm. Players launching their own discs at full power have the potential to dislodge or damage the formations in the chasm. The second is to prevent players from losing their plastic in the rapids. Two of the DGA discs are floaters and actually handled the rough waters remarkably well. Ausable employees kayaked through the rapids during the round, retrieving any discs that met a watery end. To the credit of the course designers, each hole is set-up with the DGA discs in mind. They don't expect players to reach a 300 foot drive over the water.
And honestly, once I got over the fact that I was holding a Gumbputt, I realized it's more fun finding ways to throw the disc for a birdie opportunity that aren't just straight at the basket. For example, if a basket happens to be placed against the backdrop of a steep wall, forget about ranging your drive and just throw it high and watch the disc hit the wall and drop straight down for an easy putt. Another hole consisted of a 6 foot wide fairway down 150 feet of steep, narrow steps. One player on my card bounced the disc down the stairs like a slinky and made his birdie. I had witnessed three aces during the round, so the DGA discs didn't seem to slow many players down.
The other tournament round at the Campgrounds course allowed players to use their own discs. The course itself is also slightly out of the ordinary; with about an equal mix of short ace run holes, long wooded golf holes, and holes built within a huge pine tree farm. The pine tree holes were an interesting challenge. At the outset, it looked like one massive grid of trees. I had to search out the fairway lines, and it wasn't always easy to see. But even if I found myself off-course, there were always lanes to get back into the fairway. The course is still a work in progress, and within a few years could be home to a truly unique tournament experience by itself. It was an enjoyable compliment to the safari round. The most challenging aspect of the round was deprogramming my arm from the hours I had just spent dialing in a Blowfly.
This was the kind of tournament that reminded me why I picked up a disc in the first place. I can't wait until next September.
A brief background. The Steady Ed Safari is a tournament sponsored by DGA. It's two rounds, but the morning round is a safari course inside the chasm proper. The second round uses their Campgrounds course. Last year Campgrounds was just 9 holes, but the course is now a solid 18 and building into 27.
I mean, wow. I don't want to gush to badly, but the round inside the chasm was the single most enjoyable round of disc golf I've ever played. The crew at Ausable created a Frankenstein of a safari course that went up and down and through the chasm. We had to take rafts to ferry us to baskets. We had to traverse the chasm and throw over rapids. At one point I was standing 200 feet in the air throwing from the top of a cliff and watching 4 other cards play different holes at the same time. It was some awe-inspiring fun.
There was a catch, if you can call it that. The round inside the chasm requires players to use ONLY the discs given to you in the player's pack. Those discs would be the Steady Ed signature discs; the Blowfly, Blowfly II, Blunt Gumbputt, and Powerdrive Gumbputt. There were two reasons for this. The first is to protect the chasm. Players launching their own discs at full power have the potential to dislodge or damage the formations in the chasm. The second is to prevent players from losing their plastic in the rapids. Two of the DGA discs are floaters and actually handled the rough waters remarkably well. Ausable employees kayaked through the rapids during the round, retrieving any discs that met a watery end. To the credit of the course designers, each hole is set-up with the DGA discs in mind. They don't expect players to reach a 300 foot drive over the water.
And honestly, once I got over the fact that I was holding a Gumbputt, I realized it's more fun finding ways to throw the disc for a birdie opportunity that aren't just straight at the basket. For example, if a basket happens to be placed against the backdrop of a steep wall, forget about ranging your drive and just throw it high and watch the disc hit the wall and drop straight down for an easy putt. Another hole consisted of a 6 foot wide fairway down 150 feet of steep, narrow steps. One player on my card bounced the disc down the stairs like a slinky and made his birdie. I had witnessed three aces during the round, so the DGA discs didn't seem to slow many players down.
The other tournament round at the Campgrounds course allowed players to use their own discs. The course itself is also slightly out of the ordinary; with about an equal mix of short ace run holes, long wooded golf holes, and holes built within a huge pine tree farm. The pine tree holes were an interesting challenge. At the outset, it looked like one massive grid of trees. I had to search out the fairway lines, and it wasn't always easy to see. But even if I found myself off-course, there were always lanes to get back into the fairway. The course is still a work in progress, and within a few years could be home to a truly unique tournament experience by itself. It was an enjoyable compliment to the safari round. The most challenging aspect of the round was deprogramming my arm from the hours I had just spent dialing in a Blowfly.
This was the kind of tournament that reminded me why I picked up a disc in the first place. I can't wait until next September.
