Below is the story of ‘Curt’s Tantrum’ which is contributed by Brother Cow.
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It was one of our ANW trips for the ages. The weather was a challenge. The wind speeds were directly out of the north blowing south with constant wind speeds of 20-30 miles an hour on the beach. The sound of an angry Lake Michigan and the crashing surf were deafening. Wind gusts were constant…reaching up to 50 – 60 miles an hour and were unjudgeable as to when they would come and go.

A true nightmare for the players.

The scene was Hole # 9 (Ed. Note: Get a view of Hole #9 here) which was originally named “Travis’s Head”. The target at the time was a large black rock that was shaped like Leo’s sons Travis’s head. But following this trip , it was re-named Kurt’s Tantrum.

We were teeing off in one of the middle tourney rounds and throwing directly into the Norse Wind that included rain squall burst up the beach. On this hole a long straight shot is needed even in good weather. A slight pull to the left or right would leave you in the woods or worse the lake.

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From Brother Leo
The best of us were finishing the hole that year with a 5 or 6. The only way to get there was by throwing very short, low shots. We were, without exaggeration, laying on the ground to throw and trying to keep the disc no higher than 6 inches from the sand.

It was EPIC!
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The wind this day off of Lake Michigan in my humble opinion was like that of the October/ November Gail’s that sank the Edmund Fitzgerald. As we readied to teed off, members could be heard humming the Gordon Lightfoot song of the doomed ship.

The wind was so strong that any disk throw more than a foot off the ground was being grabbed and blown backwards over the throwers head behind the tee box. Leading off of the tee on this hole was not an advantage! How to play the hole was a mystery.

All players, but in particular Kurt, struggled. Several times his disk was thrown forward and caught in the wind and blown backwards behind him. On one throw his disk was grabbed and taken off the beach by the wind and blown a good 50 feet into the woods and some 90 yards behind where he had thrown from. His subsequent shots went everywhere. Some into the water which cause a “play it from where it lies disrobing”. Some into the woods.

Kurt’s anger and frustration grew. Then finally after 12 or more shots he exploded in a profanity laced tirade, disk bag throwing and beer can throwing, followed by his picking up and taking a 12 on the hole without finishing it. His anger, driven by brothers laughter, and his beer bong and shot penalties wer a memory to be saved.

A day later, as the tournament came to a close and the four day tally of scores were compiled, Kurt became excited to learn he had beat his big brother by a mere stroke and would not be taking home the “Meat”. His excitement was immense and could only be rivaled by the time in which he beat Vin at Boggle! He was friggin’ stoked!!!

Vin, at this time, calmly pointed out that Kurt had picked up the day before and therefore had an incomplete score and the “Meat”! A large argument ensued but the ANW brethren sided with Vin over Kurt in a landslide vote. As Kurt’s “picking up” was indeed viewed as decorum at its lowest level during a tournament of ANW’s level and would never be accepted in any tournament.

The Meat and the anger of a lost argument was Kurt’s. Which, in this writers opinion, may have led to Kurt’s departure from ANW.

Editors Note