Disc Golf - Way of Life

Disc golf is an amazing sport. It gets you outside in beautiful parks and wooded settings and you can play by yourself or with friends. If you are not familiar with disc golf, it is a game very similar in rules to golf (ball golf), except it is played with a disc that is thrown and the target is not a hole in the ground but a basket up on a pole. Another important difference is that most disc golf courses are free to the public to play and are located in parks. This is a great sport for the whole family to get into as all different ages and ability levels can play together, and the equipment to get started doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

The iconic hole 9 basket placement at Whistlers Bend disc golf course along the North Umpqua River - you tee off from elevation down to this basket, which perches on top of a small cliff overlooking the river. If you overshoot the basket at all, your disc will be in the water. Not my picture but I love Whistlers Bend.

Each disc golf course will have a number of different baskets, each with an associated tee area that you start from. In a holdover from golf, these are called "holes" despite no actual holes being involved. The object of each hole is to throw the disc into the basket in as few throws as possible. A full size course will have at least 18 holes, but some smaller courses in small parks might have only 9 holes or even less.

Every hole has a "par" score, which is the target number of strokes (throws) e.g. for a par 3 hole you are aiming to get the disc in the basket in three throws or less. Most of the terms are similar to golf; if you take one more throw to put the disc in the basket than the par number, it is called a bogey. If it takes you two more throws, it is a double bogey, three more is a triple bogey, etc. If it takes you one less throw than the par number you have scored a birdie; if it takes you two less throws than the par number it is called an eagle; and (very rarely) if you make it in the basket in three less throws than the par number it is called a double-eagle or an albatross.

In disc golf, throwing the disc directly into the basket on the first drive is called an "ace". The golf equivalent is a hole-in-one, but "basket-in-one" just doesn't have the same ring.

Yesterday my wife Emma unexpectedly got the day off work and I was able to leave my work early so we had an afternoon to enjoy together with our older son already in daycare. We went out to our favorite local disc golf course, an 18 hole course in the park at Dexter Reservoir.

Emma, Yeti and our younger son Oliver at the bench at hole 7's tee pad at Dexter

We managed to get 14 holes in before we had to go get Leo from daycare. I shot even par with one birdie, one bogey and 12 pars on the day.

Dexter Hole 11 - the basket is at the base of the two trees in the center of the picture

Emma took a clip of me driving on hole 11. I have aced this hole several times in the past, it is a wide open 355' downhill pin location that plays much shorter than 355' because of the elevation drop. I tried to get an ace to share with you all here on Steemit but alas I didn't put enough oomph into it and my shot ended up perfectly in line with the basket but about 40' short (I went on to miss my birdie putt).

Emma provides some brutal commentary during the video but honestly she is right. That drive was a disc-grace. We haven't been able to play much lately with a 2 1/2 year old and a 7 month old, but if I was playing regularly this is a hole that I birdie almost every time.

The last time before today that we made it out disc golfing was on our anniversary in June. We hired a baby sitter and got to play a round all by ourselves, which was magical. I did get an ace during that round, I aced hole 15 on a low forehand drive that went in straight on the fly (here is my disc sitting in the basket - unfortunately did not get the drive on film!).

Here we are smooching at sunset after finishing our round. We love disc golf - it is one of our favorite pastimes. Well that is probably obvious considering this is what we did on our anniversary when we had a baby sitter and could have done anything in the world!

I hope you give disc golf a try. Pick up a starter pack of discs at a sporting goods store - look for something that has a putter, a driver and a midrange. And have fun!!!