Night Golf at Shawshank DGC with Steve Dodge and Vibram Glow Discs

Nathan recently posted about his experience meeting Steve Dodge of Vibram Disc Golf when he was at Disc Nation during his visit to Texas. At the conclusion of his post, he mentioned that I had “an invite in fact to play a round with Mr. Dodge this weekend…” and that it was pending “permission from [my] wife…” As you can see from the title of the blog post, permission was granted, even after the minor medical emergency that we had with our 4 year old daughter, the urgent care center, and a bunch of stitches.

I am not going to lie, when I got the Facebook message from Steve about meeting him at Shawshank Disc Golf Course, I was pretty pumped. I even laid out my various Vibram shirts and Fiver Finger toe shoes, trying to decide what to wear, before settling on the “don’t look like a stalker, dress normal” look. I even played out different scenarios in my head where I would casually drop hints about wanting to be a Vibram sponsored player, or joining the street/promotional team, etc. but once again went for the “don’t be a crazy person routine” and decided to just hang out and make it as enjoyable for everyone as possible. After all, I am sure that he is nagged all the time from people wanting something from him. The goal I had going into the meetup was to act normal.. or at least as normal as I could, and not give away how excited I was to hang out.

I have been a Vibram junkie since the Five Finger shoes came out. I currently own 5 pair, and have worn through another 3 through the disc golf trenches. In February 2013, I was at the Houston Ice Bowl, one of the players saw my toe shoes, and showed me a floppy Vibram putter (Soft Ridge). Since I was enamored by the shoes, I wanted to find out more about the disc golf side of the company. Needless to say, the night of the Ice Bowl, I went home and read every page of the Vibram Disc Golf website, and quickly realized that Steve feels the same way about disc golf that I do. On Feb 17, 2013, at 1:44 AM (yes, I went back and looked it up) I sent him an email and committed to the cause of growing the sport. I expressed my desire to support like-minded companies, and let him know that even though I did not own any Vibram discs at the time, that I would be changing that soon.

Fast forward nearly 2 years, I own over 80 Vibram discs, most of my bag consists of Vibram discs, I will be hosting Birdie Bash 3 and 4, I am organizing the qualifier portion of the The Bridgeland Open, a Maple Hill Open Qualifier (at Steve Dodge’s home course), and tonight I was able to play a round with someone I look up to in the disc golf community, and Mr. Vibram Disc Golf himself. It was pretty awesome.

This was my 3rd time at Shawshank, though I had never played a round of night golf there before. When we all met at hole one, it was decided that Steve Dodge, and Steve DuFrane would be on a team against myself and Brady Fuller, it would also be a putter round, so my glow Ascent, Trak and Obex had the opportunity to go back into the car, leaving my glow Ridge to be my workhorse. Prior to tonight, I had never used it for a driving putter, and was surprised that it was more stable than my bagged Ridge, and more surprised that I was able to get it 290-300′, in the dark, without hitting a bunch of trees. Without going into the gory details, the Steves did not come out victorious.

After the first 9 hole round, Steve DuFrane requested a solo round, using only his Shawshank stamped Glo Rocs. As weird as it may sound, tonight was the first time I had ever thrown a Roc more than a toss here or there when someone wanted me to try out their disc. For this round, DuFrane brought out his infamous “Glow Kart.” It was pretty cool. An off road baby stroller that was converted to a battery operated speaker system, complete with a glow box full of LED lights. The kart would carry our discs and charge them between holes. (Of course, I gave the Vibram glows a chance at the box and it was like throwing a flashlight. They put the other glows to shame when it came to how bright the Vibram discs could be.)

After the second round, Brady and I gave the Vibram glows a run through the dark, while the Steves went to check out the rest of the property, including the new bunk house that is being installed for golfers that come into town and want to rent a room on the property. Bed and breakfast, disc golf style. Brady seemed to really get a kick out of the Vibrams and he could not get over how bright they were. He speaks Trilogy, and I speak Vibram, but I think we figured out the best “this disc will fly like your XYZ disc” from Trilogy for comparison purposes.

Shawshank is an amazing course. I enjoy it every time I get a chance to play there. Adding the opportunity to play with the owner, Steve DuFrane, and the head honcho at Vibram Disc Golf, Steve Dodge, made it that much better. Could there possibly be a better hole than this to end on?! I think not.