Memories
My son and I started playing together at Turtlecreek. I have played more rounds at that course than I have at any other and it holds lots of great memories.
The 2009 Turtlecreek Open was my first PDGA tournament, my first PDGA win (albeit Rec), and I had my first ever ace - tournament or otherwise - on the next to last hole of the day on #8. It was the only ace that day so I got the entire ace pot of around $200. Needless to say, that experience fueled the fire that is my current addiction to the game.
At the 2010 tourney I moved to Advanced Masters and had one of my best tournament days ever. I threw my first 1000-rated PDGA round and would have tied for first in Open. In fact, the only player in the entire field to have a better score for the day was my son, who won Advanced. I also won the division in 2011 (Ricky Wysocki won Open that year) and was able to three-peat in 2012.
It was always a very popular tournament, so to satisfy demand the TD added what few temp holes he could given the limited area there was to work with (resulting in weirdness like the picnic table hole). Finally in 2015 it was replaced by a split-field tournament (Turtlecreek and I believe Monroe) where all divisions played rounds at each course. That was the tournament JohnE attended - he and Dutch Napier tied for fifth.
For me, two things will stay with me that made Turtlecreek unique. One is the contrast between the first part of the course (wide open with frequent high winds) and the second part (very wooded with no two tee shots the same). The other is its next-door neighbor - the RC plane airstrip with the near constant buzz on the weekends of planes flying overhead.
These neighbors were responsible for the scariest/strangest disc golf experience of my life. We (my son, his friend, and I) had just started walking up the fairway after teeing off on 6 when one of the planes crash-landed right behind us, missing my son's head by a couple of feet in the process. The plane landed hard on its belly and we walked over to it to survey the damage and in general to check it out. As we approached we noticed that the plastic cockpit cover had popped off, revealing the "pilot" - a Winnie-the-Pooh character attached to the seat.
I'm gonna miss you, Turtle.