Lesli on Ace Run Challenge

We arrived at the Ace Run Ranch Monday night around midnight. Tuesday we set up camp behind Don and Francine's house, which looks out at the fairways for 17 and 18 on the course. It is a prime spot equipped with an awesome outdoor shower which includes hot water. Don and Francine have done a ton of work at the ranch to make a comfortable and convenient place for the disc golfers to stay. Well, let's just say they have succeeded. The barn behind the house is equipped with a refrigerator, grill, TV, water fountain, and some other things that make camping there really easy. The Ace Run Ranch is one of the coolest, if not the best place we have stayed on tour so far.

The course is great as well. It is a mixture of wooded and open holes. Wind is a big factor on the open holes and Don has brought in a lot of dirt to build some hills on the once flat peanut farmland. The hills really help to make the open holes not as easy. The signature hole, #1 open, is 600 feet with O.B. on the right. The basket sits on an island surrounded by water and elevated above the fairway. With the wind it makes for a difficult upshot onto the island. It is really easy to skip off the green into the water. I think it is safe to say almost everyone in the tourney had trouble with this hole at least once except Avery Jenkins, who scored a 3 on #1 all four rounds. There are also 2 other holes with water, #18 and #8 in the long. There are 2 pin placements on most of the holes. The first day we played shorts and then Sunday everything moved to the long positions. The tournament had a pretty good turnout except the women's division, it was just Sue and Myself. Almost everyone who played camped out at the ranch for the weekend. Saturday night a huge bonfire was ignited. There is smoke still coming out of the pile and it's 4 days later.

Sunday went pretty well for us. Cam won in a 2 hole playoff against Todd Branch, I won by 1 stroke over Sue and Worm shot great the final round to climb back up to 4th place behind Al Schack. There were a few aces during the tourney but a very bizarre thing happened to the guy who aced hole #18. He teed up on #18 and aced the hole, but on his way down the fairway to retrieve his disc he was bitten by a snake! That must've been an emotional roller coaster for the poor guy. At least he did get some cash for his ace.

The course is also great for glow golf. Wednesday night before the tourney the WinniCrew, Al, Sue, Don, Francine, and us played a glow doubles round. Were were going to have glow doubles Saturday night for everyone but rain set in and kept everyone inside their campers or scrambling for shelter. Ace Run Ranch holds 2 sanctioned tournaments a year and if you are ever in Virginia try to swing by the ranch and lend your support to Don and Francine. We are taking a break this weekend, our next tourney will be Waco Charity Open in Texas. Since we don't have to rush to Texas we went with the WinniCrew to Virginia Beach on Tuesday, it was a fun day of shopping and frisbees on the beach.