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1:31 PM, Wednesday, June 24th, 2015:   And finally, it is done...     Sadly, minutes after I shot this, the wonky head annoyed me, I tried to fix it and broke the entire apparatus.   <blink>   But tore it all apart and was able to make it work again. I designed it so it could be taken apart, not easily, but not encased in concrete either. Works great, very happy. Whew.

 

 

So there it is, the final look of The Gopher Hole. I initially figured I'd have the dynamite plunger behind the "bank" on the right, but it left the other end of the hole too barren. I figured the sign worked well on the bank and moving the plunger to the top of the hole allowed me to string the wires all the way to the gopher which is a nice touch. And let me get this out of the way, "No, the dynamite plunger is not attached to anything"   Believe me I thought of it. The best would've been the ability to turn the gopher on and off with it. Right now that's done with a light switch to the left of the tee box. The problem however would be 1) wiring that with all that damn cement around and 2) the inner-working of that dynamite box would have to be pretty well designed to be able to turn something on and off... but also be sturdy enough for a village idiot or a toddler (two very, very close brothers right about now) to ram it one way or another. That's something I ran into with the gopher itself. Sure, nobody SHOULD step on it, but what happens if they do... can it make it? I believe the gopher can. Maybe. LOL. But all "ideas" on GolfKon have to be run through an insane checklist of possiblities when you have hundreds of strangers involved and, well, kids. And we're not just talking kid-proofing for THEIR safety, but for my sanity from having to constantly fix shit. Oh and DOGS! Dear JESUS dogs. Which brings us to the gopher himself:

 

 

So the final line for Gopher ends up gving you the ability to avoid him all together, but then you can't hit the bank behind him for the birdie set-up or the hole-in-one eagle. Depending on the situation? I can totally see playing it safe. Why not? Hit it onto the green, into the corner... and have a nice shot for par. Go for the bank, hit the gopher and get an off-course? Hmmm.....   Now to that end, let me say that in reality that gopher will be hard pressed to truly mess someone up. His movement is a nice steady slow rhythm and you can pretty easily hit it when hes down. Even if you graze him, your ball doesn't move too much and the whole thing is more for the "theater" of it all, then really making the hole more difficult. I also cannot fathom how someone actually full-on hits him unless they're just having a meltdown. What it DOES do however is make you have one more thing to think about on an already difficult hole. Remember, it's a left-hand shot to boot. So you cannot be anymore out of your comfort zone than this. But it was crucial to me to not effect the par of this hole and the gopher in no way does that.

 

 

The end is basically unchanged as the dynamite box simply adds a couple inches to the back wall. You were either going right or left no matter where you hit the back, so it changes little as to the trajectory of the ball. The wires themselves may end up needing to be placed differently, but we're all gonna test it out tomorrow night to see. It may actually lead to some interesting shots we've never seen before because you're still allowed the "putter's length" from the walls so if the wires do stop a ball? We now see a completely different putt. I certainly like that aspect of it.   So there it is! A week early to boot. I did that so just maybe Joel and Brian could shoot their piece early but alas? Joel will be out of town and Brian is shooting a movie. Whew. The good news is, Ann Ryerson (who was the girl behind the legendary Baby Ruth scene) responded and will be able to make it and we're hoping to have one more cast member to jump in and play with her. The charity however is a little up in the air, because before we had Joel's charity and everyone kinda likes to see the synergy of why we're doing things. The business sponsors liked that the Golf to the Future hole was dedicated by Claudia and Don and that Claudia had a charity close to her heart that we now donate to. Not sure if it makes sense to use Joel's charity until he can be at an event to tie it together. Time will tell! All I know for sure now is? THAT HOLE IS COMPLETE.   Screw that gopher man. What a pain in the ass.   Adam