Golf Without Clubs or Balls
One day… back in 1927, a group of Canadian school kids came up with a game they called “Tin Lid Golf.” The idea was to throw a tin lid into a 4 foot circle. Little did they know they had actually invented a new game which would evolve and become one of the fastest growing sports in America… Disc Golf.
Fast forward to 2023 and that tin lid is now a disc, designed specifically for Disc Golf. (Warning… Do not… and I repeat, do not call it Frisbee Golf.) Disc Golf is a variation on regular old golf with the same goals. Get the disc in the basket in as few shots as possible.
Though the activity was somewhat dormant for a few years, it came back strong in the early 60’s as college students, in the process of coming up with new ways to avoid studying, also came up with new ways to use their ubiquitous frisbees. The result? Along with Ultimate Frisbee, a kind of football game with a frisbee, and Guts, the locally popular team competition, Disc Golf became another way to enjoy a sporting activity, outdoors, with like-minded friends.
According to Travel Marquette, disc golf has had a measurable impact on visitors to the area. “Marquette County really is a tourist hub for folks who enjoy all types of sports and outdoor recreation. Various groups within Marquette County have done a lot in the past few years to expand, maintain courses, and keep up with the growing love, passion, and trend that is disc golf.”
Fronting the growth of disc golf around here is the Upper Peninsula Disc Golf Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and developing the sport.
Having already put courses in Marquette, Harvey, and Ishpeming, the group is now focused on building a second course in Marquette to complement the existing Powder Mill track, near the River Park Sports Complex. The new layout will be called the Buck Buchanan Memorial Disc Golf Course, dedicated to one of the sport’s most fervent local advocates.
According to UPDGA President Tim Kopacz, “This is an incredible undertaking in which we seek to honor our founding father, Buck Buchanan, in the exact way he’d wish, which is to develop disc sports opportunities for all to enjoy.”
The UPDGA launched a fundraising campaign with the goal to reach $36,000 in donations by May 30th which would then be matched with the same amount by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Well, the disc golf community stepped up and raised the 36k and then some. “The support ensures we are able to keep on with our mission to develop disc golf courses for the benefit of others,” says Kopacz.
Donations to the project are still being accepted at www.patronicity.com/buck.
On a personal level, I was a “best friend” of Buck going back to the early 70’s when we were both students at Northern. He was a unique character who put everything he had into whatever he was involved with, be it adult recreation, youth sports, or anything that involved a frisbee. It was nine years ago when he left us, but his legend certainly lives on, as evidenced by the new course dedicated to his passion for the flying disc, as well as our local guts frisbee group’s tournament trophy that also carries his name.
Here’s the thing. Many of you who spent time with Buck probably also considered yourself a “best friend” of his. Well, you were. All of us were, because that was what his friends meant to him. So here’s to you Buck. We hope we’re doing you proud.
Potty Mouth
A Marquette native, transplanted to Madison, Wisconsin, is now the voice of something we’ve been too quiet about for too long. Bathrooms. Not just any bathrooms. The bathrooms we count on when we’re out, away from the familiarity of our own facilities.
Matt Tebo, MSHS Class of ’02, is a property manager and soccer coach by trade, but his new hobby is that of a bathroom critic, and he’s making a name for himself in the cheese state’s capital city.
A recent article in The Cap Times, an online publication about all things Madison, was all about Matt and his newfound passion… documenting the good, the bad, and the ugly one finds in local bathrooms.
The article quotes Matt… “Everybody posts about foodie things, and everybody writes about desserts and drinks. I was like, you know what, I want to know who has the nicest bathrooms.”
Matt’s criteria for judging the worthiness of a bathroom includes cleanliness, size, convenience and amenities. Note that the list begins with cleanliness. Not all bathrooms are decorated for a magazine photoshoot, but there’s no reason they can’t be clean. On that, we can all agree.
Tebo shares his intimate information, and encourages others to share theirs, on his Instagram account @places_id_poop_madison.
Let’s be honest here. Who among us doesn’t have a pretty good idea of which local bathrooms are the most welcoming, and which are better to avoid… unless faced with the most dire circumstances. I would suggest that some of us… okay, me, have occasionally made the decision of where to drink or dine based largely on the lavatory experience we expect to find.
Maybe one of our local entrepreneurs will take a cue from Matt and start a directory of Marquette bathrooms, and whether or not they meet the minimum standards for our powder room patronage.
If you want to give a shout-out to some of your favorites, feel free to do so with a comment here. For those bathrooms that don’t make the grade, let’s keep that to ourselves. After all… when you gotta go, you gotta go.
Letter Carriers’ Food Drive
It’s time again to Fill a Bag and Help Feed Families. The annual food drive put on by the National Association of Letter Carriers is a great way to contribute to our local food banks while at the same time recognizing the service of our mail carriers.
Remember that February day when it was snowing sideways with a “feels like” temperature well south of zero and you wondered who the heck would be out on such a day? Well.. you got your mail, didn’t you? Yeah… the post office folks were out, doing what they do, six days a week, with a valued service we too often take for granted.
When you donate to the Letter Carriers’ Food Drive, you not only contribute to a worthy cause, but you show the people who deliver your mail that you appreciate them, and what they do.
All you have to do is bag up some non-perishable food items and leave them by your mailbox for your carrier to pick up tomorrow, the 13th. All donations stay local and are a great way to honor our letter carriers and… help stamp out hunger.
And this just in…
It took a little longer than expected, but the Knognisjon Bryggeri is now open in the budding 3rd Street Marketplace. Early indications from last night’s debut are that the place has an interesting vibe and that with summer almost upon us, it should be a welcomed addition to the social scene on North Third Street. Looking forward to trying a pour!