How I sees it
by Susi ~ PDGA 7002
The Woodshed and Whippin’ Post are the culmination of Spencer Thurman’s dreams. He wanted a mountainous setting with enough acreage to change the way disc golf courses were designed and built. Seeing how technology was changing the distances in which we could hurl a disc…the disc golf courses were not following suit, hence “pro-par” came about in the early 80’s. Spencer wanted to make a course that had a TRUE disc golf par five on it (which I believe he accomplished in the Gauntlet). Spence’s hole design policies were; “as far as you can throw, twice, plus 40 feet” (We were micro-guns back then) and “you can take a tree down, but you can’t put it back”.
In September of 1993, bored with usual courses in the Mid-Atlantic, a few of us went with Spencer to see the 25 acres he had purchased in Paw Paw, WV. Upon arrival we were in awe of the disc golf potential this old horse farm had, the pond, the elevation changes, the fields and of course the woods.
Then came course design…we played and threw discs everywhere! (and remember, the 18 foot fairways you know and love were only three feet wide then). In fact, for awhile, we had a hole that was a reverse of #2. During it all we knew that #13 was going to be a hole as well as #1 and #10, after that, everything else fell into place, well almost, hole #14 is what would be called “a filler hole” that was made to fit and link everything else together..
We mostly figured out the design by the end of November 1993 and continued to play the natural object pins until December 31st
During our round, we came to hole #12 which had no natural object to putt at (we had been using a 2x4 in a gopher hole but it would fall over) so we stopped and went and got one of the brand new pole holes Spence had purchased and planted it on hole 12. We had intended on only planting the one hole and continuing our round but, 11 pole holes later it was dark and time for dinner. We ate drank and celebrated the new year and the awakening of the Woodshed. At first light, on January 1st 1994 we looked out the barn window and saw POLE HOLES waiting to be played! We were like kids on Christmas morning scrappin’ with each other as to who’s going to be the first to play!!!!!
We were patting ourselves on the backs for maximizing the holes and using almost all the space allotted and just generally thinking we were the best course designers. Spence decided to show his Dad the place…well the first words out of Spence’s Dads mouth were “Wheres everybody going to park?”. OOOPS…OK, so we’re good at course design.
Thus came the Don Jess campground and parking lot.
Now building the Woodshed wasn’t very easy as the only power tool we had for the first year and a half was a chain saw. And many of you will say we didn’t use it, but we did. The lack of power tools and modern conveniences caused ingenuity to take over and from that were borne many West Virginia icons you come to know and enjoy…
Log Cabin tee pads – all tee pads were to be made level and we had a chain saw and shovels. (I personally can accomplish a lot with a shovel) Basically we used everything we could. The Tees on #3 and #14 have a number of cases of crushed beer cans in them to firm the mud up…ain’t you never heerd of WV pavin’ stones before?
W. Va. Tacos – January 1994 had a MEAN cold spell, it was down to about -10, being so cold, I had Spence give me my pancake in my hands to warm them up…as I was cuddling the pancake and absorbing it’s warmth my egg and pieces of bacon became ready and I told Spence to just throw it on my pancake. (as I was counting on the additional heat from the egg and bacon) After a few quiet moments my pancake egg and bacon, I folded it up and began to eat it…and damn if it didn’t look like a taco!!! Linda Fowler the next winter introduced the sour-dough pancakes and we been eating them ever since (in fact we have been eating the same batch of sourdough for the past eight year and the batch is more than twenty years old…scary, huh?)
WV. Roller – The power two finger roller…remember “when in doubt, throw hard…REAL HARD”
WV Kite – A brick with a piece of flagging tied to it. They fly reeeel purdy.
WV Pole Hole Cement – 1 part Portland cement, 1 part dirt, 1 part snow, 1 part rocks, 1 part beer/beer cans and 1 part used beer. Layer these ingredients in the post hole and mix vigorously with a length of rebar. Serves a medium size family.
WV Sleigh ride – A boat tied to the back of a 4x4 truck. I’m pretty sure when Spence got it into third gear we were air born!
WV Courting – Doing J-stops on a one lane dirt road in a pick-up your best girl ridin’ shotgun and your dog sittin’ bitch!
WV Birdie Pot – You ain’t gettin’ an ace here!!!!!
The first WVO had about 30-40 people playing, by the 5th WVO we were relishing in a full field plus a few fivesomes. I believe it was the 6th WVO that had a few sixsomes and tales of the 5 hour round! Fortunately the God’s smiled one us and made the property next to the Woodshed available and the Whippin post was born.
The Woodshed has molded quite a few world class golfers over the years and brought many world class golfers to their knees…some swearing never to return, other just swearing. It has become a home to many who seek the beauty of woods and pastures, good friends and solitude, or to just play disc golf .