My Tournament Experience at Hammonds Plains, Nova Scotia

I played my first tournament of this year in Hammonds Plains, Nova Scotia. Due to the cancellation of my original flight because of mechanical issues, my flight left at 9 pm Pacific Time on Saturday, April 15, 2023 and landed in Halifax at 6 am Atlantic Time on Sunday, April 16, 2023. After a quick breakfast at the Pur & Simple in Dartmouth with my sister Brenda, we drove directly to the Hammonds Plains Disc Golf Course where she dropped me off.

My first challenge was finding a place to stash my suitcase for the day. Having grown up in Nova Scotia, I knew Nova Scotians are a welcoming and friendly bunch so this would not be a problem. As luck would have it, the owners of the property on which Hammonds Plains Disc Golf Course is located also own Vernon's Thunderbird Diner, which is less than a minute walk from the course and they offered to hold my suitcase for the day. Of course I had my lunch there and bought another Strawberry milkshake when I picked up my suitcase at the end of the day.

As I had never been to this course, David Gillett, who I had met at nationals years ago in Prince Edward Island, walked me through the whole course and we finished just before my first tee time at 11 am. This course is a mix of wooded and open holes, leaning heavily towards wooded with no obvious advantage for either a right-handed or left-handed player. Given that one inch right or left in the wooded fairways could mean the difference between a birdie or a triple bogey because the rough is not at all forgiving, I was very pleased with my +3 for both my rounds. As a newer and developing course, I definitely had to keep my eyes on the ground as there are small stumps and tripping and rolling hazards through no fault of the course designers. It looks like major effort has been put towards the teepads which have a dirt and gravel base, wood frame and turf on top. A huge shout out to all the volunteers it would have taken to get the course to this point. I have no doubt they will continue to develop the course.  

It's not often that I get to play a new course these days so I was fortunate to have gotten a late spot in the tournament. The tournament was on time and ran smoothly with no backups or waits during either of my rounds. The forecast was for a rainy drizzly day, but luckily it turned out to be a cool overcast day with no precipitation so it was the perfect weather for disc golf for this time of year. According to the locals, it was drier than usual.

After the tournament, my sister Joanna drove me to Windsor where I said hello to my relatives and promptly fell asleep on the couch. It was 7pm Atlantic Time. I had been up for at least 24 hours and it didn't help that I hadn't played a 2 round day since my last tournament in 2022. I really missed my ZUCA cart too.

As this visit home was to attend a funeral, some of my relatives thought it strange that I played a tournament after walking off the airplane. They don't play disc golf but they do understand that playing is great therapy to let your mind focus on things that bring you joy. Thank you to the Tournament Director Evan White (he's the person on the left in the photo) for holding the event, all the players on my cards and the players I chatted with before and after my rounds for their friendliness and camaraderie. I hope I get a chance to play the Hammonds Plains DGC again soon.