There's a gentle guy with a beautiful garden among us in Scotts Valley — who's a serial killer. A killer of moles, that is.

The ever-intrepid watershed walkers had trekked their way down the side of a slope at Loch Lomond to the water’s edge in the middle of the hottest day of July 2010. Graduate students from Chris Wilmer’s Puma Project Lab at UCSC, who collar the cats, held up their antennae and began receiving radio signals immediately.

Many folks know Pat Verutti from his years behind the counter at the Felton branch of the Veruttis’ liquor stores. What many fail to recognize is the athletic prowess he brought to the playing field for San Lorenzo Valley High School in the early 1960s.

Some might consider Robert Ludlow Jr. a “medical miracle”: In 1952, he severed his spinal cord in a swimming accident and was told that he would die within six months. Even if he did survive, the chances of becoming a successful businessman were low.

Early-round play in the World Disc Golf Championships found several locals in the hunt as play continues this week at four courses in the Monterey Bay Area.