Disc Review: Black Jax Axe

I like to play disc golf at night. It is cool and quiet. It is surprising how easy it is to find glow

In flight the Axe looks cool

discs at night in the woods and how cool glow discs look flying through the night air. I have never thrown discs with the tape on LED lights, but tonight I got to throw the Black Jax Axe: a golf driver with built in LED lights. The Axe has wide rim and feels good in your hand. It is made from a nice plastic that stands up to trees and feels grippy. The rim is wide like a modern driver. The flight is overstable, but with a bit of anhyzer or power straight drives can be obtained. However, this is not a max distance driver – it is not up to my current nocturnal standard: the Lightning #1 driver (which is not a wide rim driver). At the Harrison Road course it is just right for RHBH drives on holes like #4 and #6 (even though I hit trees on both drives).

This is a novelty disc, the built in LED’s are why it is bought – so how does it work? The LED’s are super bright and the disc is fun to watch fly and easy to find once on the ground (not flying very far makes it easier to find also). The brightness of the LED’s is a drawback as they make it very difficult to see where you are throwing because they ruin you night vision (think about oncoming bright lights when you are driving a car). The LED’s can be set to flash, this looks pretty cool in flight, but may induce seizures in the teebox.

The battery pack and electronic array are in the center of the disc. They were not in the way of my grip and not noticeable when throwing. The added weight in the center of the disc probably adds to the over stability. The wires that run from the center to the rim where the lights are the reason this disc is not PDGA approved. Of course, playing disc golf at night is already proof I am a bad-ass, throwing an illegal disc just shows what a golf rebel I truly am.

The big downside to this disc is that it is overly bright. It would be great for night golf if it were played in an urban park with lots of ambient light (like Milan), in the woods at Harrison Road it is too much and destroys your night vision. With practice I will learn to throw this disc better and I look forward to many nocturnal adventures ahead. While I often throw my glow plastic discs during the day, I doubt the Black Jax Axe will see much action during the daytime.

Did you smell it?

The mystery kielbasa of Milan, TN

The bad hole

Thursday Morning I was playing with Blake and Charlie. It was wet and cold AND I was throwing pretty well. Charlie was scoring big because he forgot that the goal of putting is to have your disc land in the basket, and his number one tag was on the line. When we came off the front nine I was one stroke ahead. We met Stan after hole 9 and he joined us for the back nine. The back nine was going quite well for me… until I released my drive from #17 tee box it looked like a good anhyzer shot, but it wanted the tree more than it wanted to turn the corner. Oh well, I have played from here before – I actually shot a par in the rain on this hole glow golfing on Tuesday, no biggie. My plan for the second shot was a hyzer shot to set up the final approach. The brush didn’t allow a run-up and I threw too aggressive and high: my throw touched a small branch which sent it in a crazy anhyzer line into the brush between 17 and 13. OK, I can still pull this off. I choose a line through the trees and launch a mighty hyzer that smacks one of the large ‘fairway’ trees that guards the approach to the hole. My disc had bounced far enough from the tree that my fourth shot needed to be low and straight in order to set up a putt for the bogey (but it was still looking good) – of course I threw high and hyzer. I watched as my disc sailed over the edge of slope to the hole 13 fairway. When I got to my disc it had caught on a branch halfway down, “this isn’t so bad”, I thought. My (for a bogey) putt hit and then rolled back down the slope past where I was standing to the edge of the 13th fairway. My next shot had a tree filled line and I thought an overhand shot would be the ticket – unfortunately a small branch foiled my great plan and my disc jauntily rolled past where I was standing to the far side of the #13 fairway! Shot seven was uneventful: hit a tree, rolled back to the #13 fairway. Shot eight was an underhand shot into the woods on the other side of the #17 basket and the disc did not roll! My putt out of the woods hit, but did not stick. My next putt (thankfully) went in the basket! I shot a ten and nobody had to worry about their tags! It was a great round of disc golf with one bad hole…

An unbelievable drive

First Newsletter

MARTIN DISC GOLF CLUB

Hey club! This is your newsletter! Hopefully, this avenue of communication can help us to grow. As such please submit your: photos, news, stories, haiku poems, announcement of aces, comic strips, and the like to: martindiscgolfclub@yahoo.com.

2013 Glow Disc Golf League

Meet at Harrison Road Disc Golf Course @ 6 pm every Thursday. This is a great chance to have some fun and play some golf. We will track and report scores in this newsletter – fame and bragging rights are up for grabs. The goal of this league is fun: we will play various styles: sometimes solo, sometimes team, sometimes match, sometimes scored – the goal is fun! Glow golf can be played with glow discs charged with a UV flashlight or with translucent discs (champion plastic) with LED lights taped to the flight plate. You will need clear safety glasses (it is easy to get poked in the eye by sticks at night) and a small flashlight (do not get one that is too bright and wreck your night vision). When it is dark and you can’t see the trees are they harder to hit? Come join us on the night shift.

League dates are: 7, 14, 21, & 28 November and 5 & 12 December 2013

WHAT ARE THE CURRENT BAG TAG STANDINGS?

Please email us at: martindiscgolfclub(AT)yahoo.com to update us on what tag number you have and we will post the results here.

Stopping to smell the roses…

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to play the disc golf courses (there are two 18-hole courses) at Meeman-Shelby State Park near Memphis. Both courses were really fun. They had the short, technical sort of shots that I can’t accomplish but really enjoy.

The courses are heavily wooded and the woods are very mature. I was very surprised to find my drive sitting next to Indian ghost pipe (Monatropa uniflora for you botanists out there). Indian ghost pipe is a plant that has no chlorophyll. It is found in deep dark woodlands, often where it is too shady for photosynthetic plants. As you may have guessed, the plant is parasitic. This plant is not parasitic on the nearby trees, but parasitic on the mycorrhizal (root-associated) fungi of the trees (typically Russula and Lactarius species).

After this first encounter, I noticed many more patches (some quite large) of this really cool plant as I played these really fine courses.

We are placing a disc order:

If you don’t have glow discs, or if you just need some sweet plastic to fuel your disc addiction, we are placing an order with Lightning Golf Discs. Discs are available in standard, glow or pro plastic and will be $5 each (includes shipping). Please get your order to Kent at (573) 620 3682 by 27 October 2013. You can view the Lightning product line at: http://www.lightninggolfdiscs.com/Lightning_Flyer_11x17.pdf

If you need glow discs, a #1 Driver, #2 Slice, and an Upshot/putter should cover most of your nocturnal situations. These discs also come in super light weights which are great choices for those with less power (e.g. kids).

Disc Golf is older than you think:

This photograph is of classical Greek sculpture of Apollo playing disc golf. This sculpture is dated 440- 460 B.C. The PDGA section 3.4 of the Competition manual (Dress Code) was flaunted back then by most players, as you can tell by this statue. Also note the drying towel in Apollo’s right hand indicating that ancient Greeks played in rain and heavy dew conditions. Perhaps that is why Apollo is playing in the nude – a wet toga is cumbersome indeed and hampers a fluid x-step in the tee box.

There are no surviving texts that let us know if Apollo threw forehand, backhand, or overhand. Based on the fan grip he is holding the disc with in this statue the short game was as crucial then as it is today. It also appears that Apollo’s first shot has put him in the woods as evidenced by the tree trunk that this statue depicts him next to.

These early Greek disc golfers did not leave much of a record, but I bet they had big fun playing near the Acropolis and would find taking a snap shot with a cell phone much easier than carving course photos from marble…

Like us on Facebook

Johnny Razo has set up a Martin Disc Golf Club page on Facebook. If you use facebook you should probably head on over and check it out: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MartinTNdgClub/

A second ‘course’ exists in Martin…

If you are looking for a place to throw some new discs, just want to practice big drives, or are just tired of hitting trees at the Harrison Road course, then you may want to visit Harmon Field. Two baskets 410′ apart (with nothing between them but grass) await your driving pleasure. I know two baskets don’t really make this a second course in town, but it is a nice spot to practice.

Here’s your sign…

The sun has bleached most of the information from this sign at the Lazarre High Water course in West Monroe, LA, but it still provides enough information to get you down the fairway…

Throwing discs into water: part one

Throwing discs into water: part two