Georgia Traveler “Courage on Display at Lake Blackshear”

Right now I’m buckled in a white mini-van, driving along Highway 280 past thick fields of Georgia grown cotton, heading back to GPB headquarters in Atlanta. It’s November and still over 70 degrees. That makes for a comfortable ride on a high-powered wave-runner at Lake Blackshear Resort and Golf Club. Our crew was out today shooting the beautiful Georgia Veterans Memorial Golf Course in Cordele for the final segment in the Georgia Traveler Golf Tour of Georgia. Not only does Blackshear offer regular golf all year round, you can also take on the frisbee, or disc golf course.

After putting on a clinic with his clubs, golf pro Ryan Snider goofed around with us for a couple of hours on the heavily wooded frisbee course. Ryan and I started off in a dead heat for the lowest score, but the game quickly morphed into a skills challenge. Cameraman extraordinaire Mitch Zastrow needed close-up shots of the discs hitting the “holes”, which are odd looking contraptions that resemble a parking meter decorated in a halo of chain-links. These chains, when struck by the discs, make a loud and strangely rewarding clang/jingle noise…that sweet “disc golf” sound of accomplishment!

With all of the action going on during this shoot, it’s a wonder that we only had two injuries. Traveler’s sadistic associate producer Sammy “slammy” Jones took several takes to successfully hit me with a disc while I was swinging my golf club. There was a point to this stunt…It’s the only way I could think of to transition from regular golf to disc golf. The problem is that these discs are rather heavy compared to regular beach frisbees, and Sammy drilled me in delicate spots like the ankle, elbow and most painfully, the hip. Never again will I ask someone to throw hard objects at me over and over again.
Injury number two is a mystery. Cameraman extraordinaire Mitch Zastrow, who I introduced earlier in this story, twisted his ankle…however, he doesn’t remember when…Hmmmm…As the day went on, the ankle progressively got worse to the point where he could barely walk, more importantly shoot, but today he showed the true courage of a grizzled and dedicated veteran, and continued to work until the shoot was a wrap.

So readers, when you ever feel like giving up on anything in life, think of Mitch and how he finished the Lake Blackshear shoot with a bum ankle… Until the next Georgia Traveler adventure…Pleasant Journeys.

David Zelski

P.S. My hip still hurts and Sammy cut his finger on something…