Welcome to another edition of My Old Crusty VHS Disc Golf Videos! As we step out of the time machine, we find ourselves 22 years ago at Ludington, Michigan’s “Mason County Pumped Storage Park.” Michael “Wild” Wildner and I are playing the “Beast” layout, one of two courses there, on the old homemade baskets by Dan Gipe. The video tape says “September 1998.”
EDIT: I’m told Gipe didn’t make the baskets. I thought for all these years he did! They were made by Pentwater Wire instead.
We’re starting at the hole next to the other parking lot, not actually hole #1. However, it looks like we made it through the whole course. I think my battery died before we could tap out on the last hole, though.
Three of the baskets had been stolen, so we paced off our putts for those holes and did them later on holes with baskets so we could still keep score.
It’s a super windy day. Watch Lake Michigan’s gales take our Am-2 shots and make us look silly from time to time, even sillier than the bucket hat I wore with my shorts and t-shirt for some reason.
Keep your eyes peeled for “Chains” Aviars, X-Clones, and even some Lightning, including Wild’s legendary Dauntless! I’m pretty sure I’m throwing a white Whippet a lot here with those forehands.
1998 is the year I joined the PDGA as #14425. The 144,250th person joined this summer. Yes, that means there were approximately 1/10th the number of people playing here in 1998 than there are today! That fact is reflected in the number of courses. At the time of this video, I do believe we’re playing the farthest north basket course in the state of Michigan. Well, technically the “Beauty” course on the same property is north of the “Beast”…
Wild and I hadn’t put in McGraft Park yet, and I’m not certain if Bill got his baskets for Flip City just yet, but it’s getting close. I don’t think Hickory Hills or any of those other courses up there had been put in just yet. River Road in Petoskey was right around the corner. I think Alpena a little later too. Other than all of this, you had Johnson/Riverside/Brewer in Grand Rapids, Fitzgerald and Grand Woods in Mid-Michigan (Fitz had bike cables instead of chains on their baskets!!), Hudson Mills, Brown Park in Ann Arbor, Kensington, and the Detroit-area courses. There was Cold Brook in Kzoo and that’s it (other than Madeline Bertrand in Niles, which I’ve always considered essentially an Indiana course).
Enjoy!