New Years Day Disc Golf

Yeah, it’s been a couple of weeks since New Years Day 2007 passed us by. I’m delinquent in putting up this post about the event I attended that day. Here it is, finally.

As I have mentioned before, I am a disc (Frisbee) golfer. I have been disc golfing since March of 1994, and have been a part of the Friends of Sedgley Woods Disc Golf Club since moving to Philly in March of 1995. This is a great group of people who disc golf in Philly and maintain the course, located in the Sedgley Woods section of Fairmount Park.

A little history about Sedgley Woods. In March of 1977, Jim Powers and a group of dedicated disc golfers and Frisbee-sport fans were able to install the Sedgley Woods disc golf course, and it has been intact since that time. This March will mark 30 years of disc golf in Philadelphia. On the first New Years day that occurred after the course was put in, that would be January 1, 1978, the disc golfers had the first of what would eventually become an annual tradition. Since that time, a New Years Day disc golf tournament has been held at Sedgley Woods every year. This year marked the 29th Annual New Years Day Tourney. For me, it was my 11th one in a row.

This turns out to be the best tournament held at the course every year. Everyone who shows up is hung over, still drunk, or still drinking. Most everyone who plays in this event has no vision of the winning the tourney, they’re just happy to be out playing disc golf with their great group of friends. There is always a group of people who set up grills, heating trays, gas stoves, and pump out food all day long. This year, the cooks were serving up breakfast: scrambled eggs, pancakes, bacon, English muffins, and quiche. For lunch, there were two huge trays of Buffalo wings, and a big pan of meatballs and an enormous cheese/cracker tray. As the golfers were making their way back in after the one round tournament, they found that still more food was being served, including roasted pork, roast beef, and much much more.

This year, the weather was warm (mid 50s), but it ended up raining most of the day. Sometimes it was just a drizzle, but nobody cared about the weather. 115 people showed up to play in the New Years tourney this year! Though not the record (last year, in beautiful weather, 150 or so showed up), it was still impressive based on the less than stellar weather.

As I am moving back to Maine in July of this year, this year’s New Years Day tourney will be the last one I can attend. Sad? A little. The people within the Sedgley Woods disc golf club and the surrounding disc golf courses are some of the greatest people I have ever met, and I will miss them, and disc golfing with them when I leave Philly. But, I did golf with “the group” this year. “The Group” is a core of 4 of us who have been in the same group for the last 6 years. AK, JC, DC, and myself, have golfed on New Years Day together since January of 2001. For the past 3 years, CP has been permanent in the group and we always add a couple more on the day of the tourney.

So, while most people stayed home with their significant others on New Years Day after having spent the previous night drinking and bringing in the New Year with lots of “banging”, and others just didn’t get out of bed due to the after effects of too much alcohol on this second-most overrated holiday of the year (the most overrated? The night before Thanksgiving…aka Amateur Night. New Years Eve = amateur night, part deux), there was a dedicated bunch of us who once again migrated to the disc golf course at Sedgley Woods in Philadelphia, and played a round of disc golf. It was absolutely awesome.