| Lost And Found |
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The year was 1998 and a buddy and I were walking toward our drives on hole #1 at the Vista Del Camino (Shelley Sharpe Memorial) disc golf course in Scottsdale, Arizona. The pin setting that day was in a difficult spot, just beyond a Palo Verde tree near the canal waters edge. Just then, we heard a voice calling from the #1 tee pad behind us, asking if he could throw. We waved him on and he launched a monster sidearm spike hyzer, parking the drive within 10' of the basket. As he approached, I offered that he was welcome to join us for the round or play through. He said he'd play with us and that his name was Scott. "Scott Stokely", I asked? Sure enough. Here was the world distance record holder at my home course, in town for an upcoming Arizona overall flying disc event (disc golf, frisbee, max time aloft, double disc court,...). It was a fun round and Scott was cool, down to earth. We even had the privilege of watching him ace hole #14 with a sidearm shot using a Discraft MRX. I recall that hole at around 308' or so, and his sidearm shot went so fast that the midrange disc somehow retained it's hyzer orientation, never having time to flip! Anyway, a few holes earlier when playing hole #11 - a long shot along the canal - I pointed out that someone had lost their disc in the water. Scott acknowledged that it was in fact his disc, having lost it in an earlier round. I spoke up and said, "You probably don't want to go into that water...it's polluted and possibly toxic". While the disc was only knee-deep, the water there was nasty, a green-colored soup which essentially sat there all summer, thickening as it reduced in the Arizona sun. Well, after the round was over and Scott took off, I did go back to that hole and removed my shoes to wade into the sludge and retrieve the disc. It was a nice, new 174 gram Discraft X2 with a cool Yin-Yang Discraft Fall Doubles stamp on it. He probably had gotten it from Dan Ginnelly that day. Sometime later, when I began to experiment with dying discs, this light-orange colored X2 received a nice, outter edge dye job. Well, having moved back to Michigan a year later, I found myself at Hudson Mills that summer attending the DGLO (Discraft Great Lakes Open) tournament. One of the discs in my bag for that tournament was the very X2 I'd found in Arizona. And, in the parking lot talking with Mark Ellis and others was none other than Scott Stokely. I made my way over to their area and, at a lull in the conversation, I addressed Scott. He said that he remembered me from our round in Scottsdale, and I told him the story of how I went back and retrieved his disc from the water. I removed it from my bag and offered it back to him. He laughed at the story and told me that I could keep it. Thanks, Scott! |
