Disc golf is my new sport

Recently, I’ve been really getting into disc golf. Also known as Frisbee golf. Also known as frolf.

I’ve never been into sportsball. PE (Phyiscal Education) was such a struggle at school for me and I was always strangely sick exactly on the day of the athletics and swimming carnivals. Non-swimmer was never an option growing up in Australia but that’s a longer story.

I’m still active as I love walking and riding a bike, but I’ve never been big on playing team sports nor watching sport on TV.

And definitely I’m not a fan of golf, mostly because it’s a significant use of land and water and yet can only support golf (and other related variations at a pinch). You can definitely get me onto a mini golf course - that’s lots of fun.

I know that disc golf really annoys golf players and their ‘proper golf’ which is a huge bonus.

Some other reasons why it’s been good is the low barrier of entry. A 3 pack starter set of discs can be had for under $40 AUD and that’s all you really need to get going.

I’m able to wander down to the local park and throw some discs around without having to worry about proper golf being something that is banned in public parks. Nobody is banning Frisbees surely.

It’s a very low key sport in that it just requires couple of discs (which weigh around 170 grams each) and something to throw the discs at: typically a basket, but sometimes people have been able to fashion hanging metal objects that make a delectable ding when struck with a disc.

It must look a bit funny for on-lookers who wonder why I’m throwing a frisbee by myself? But I don’t care because it’s quite a joy when I can throw the disc ‘just right’, get that perfect s-curve and watch the disc sail easily 80m or more.

I’m still working things out, but what I’ve found is that my forehand is much better than my backhand. So I’ve been concentrating on forehand shots - at least to get some distance.

For the unintiated, disc golf is really not very popular in Australia. It’s even less popular in Sydney with only a few free courses (Whalan, North Ryde & Newington Armory) dotted around the place, a few paid courses (Sefton, Marrickville and Five Dock) and one gorilla community course (Malabar) set up by locals. The gorilla course is actually pretty good and very challenging despite occupying a small piece of parkland.

The target is a metal basket draped in 24 heavy metal chains, designed to reliably stop your disc once it strikes the basket. These work fairly well although the odd shot will bounce off to much disappointment. There is a ‘donk’ sound, a sound of much shame if this occurs.

As far as rules go, it’s pretty similar to normal golf. There are holes and a certain par for each hole. Sometimes there’s harder and easier starting markers, with the harder course variations bringing longer distance and generally more technical shots with more obstructions like large trees positioned just exactly where you want the disc to fly. A tree is like an instant brake on a disc and will pretty much drop it to the ground immediately on contact, or catch the disc high up into the tree much to your disappointment.

Sometimes there are “mandos” which are mandatory objects you need to go around, such as trees. These are sometimes denoted on maps with a small Mandalorian helmet, perhaps because Star Wars fans have a decent overlap with disc golfers.

There’s also rules for the disc landing out of bounds, which really stings as it means adding 1 shot penalty as well as fetching your disc from (often) rugged terrain. Or perhaps even from a direct shot onto tar/concrete, which will usually mean tearing up your discs depending on what plastic it’s made out of - more on that later.

When starting out, it was quite shocking how many throws it would actually take to get to the basket.

A simple hole which is par 3 would easily take 6 or 7 shots.

“So how is this game even possible?” is a question asked during our first rounds.

Once I shifted to forehand throwing (which looks a lot like pitching a baseball or stylishly serving a slice of pizza), I was getting much, much more distance. It’s probably an odd look for people who are used to throwing a frisbee amongst friends and family using the far more traditional backhand throw.

Right now, with the right disc and a bit of luck, I’m able to throw almost to the length of the football field at a local park, which I think is pretty for my level of sportsball skill.

I’ve bought a bunch of discs and often they come in random colours - you don’t always get to pick. I’ve had some other dark colours like purple before and they’re definitely not recommended. You can tell from my collection that I’ve got more yellow than anything else. Or maybe that’s more survival bias as the dark purple disc has definitely gone to the big disc heaven in the sky (or maybe just stuck in a hideously large spiky reeds). Some of our discs have ended up in other places like in the ocean (turns out a beach is not a great place to test your form).

Watching other players on YouTube has been good to learn tips but wow, the courses in America are just so much more full of trees to hit. Bad for me as I’m still learning to aim. I guess everything is better in America too and disc golf is no different.

I’ve been playing for a few months now with a few friends on a Saturday or Sunday morning, and am still really enjoying it - enough that my collection of discs has increases from my initial starter pack of 3 discs to 9 discs now. I’ve even got one disc that glows in the dark although I haven’t had an opportunity to play at night yet. It charges up quite well using a UV torch.

On the types of plastic used. My original set was some basic plastic and I thought at the time that it didn’t really matter too much - how much could fancy plastic actually matter? Eventually I bought a more premium plastic and apart from the different feel, the premium plastics are definitely better at resisting giant dents from landing at full-tilt on conrete and tar. So I do prefer the stronger plastic so I feel less guilty when the disc inevitably dives straight into the ground. I guess I’m a plastic snob now.

The other fascinating part is the discs are different specs and it gets pretty technical. I’m still working it out. But I can definitely see how some of my faster discs (represented by a higher ‘speed’ number) fly further and have a more flatter shape with a more pronounced width around the rim. You get the feeling that the increase in inertia is helping the disc cut through the air.

And yes, there’s a putter for those final little shots to get into the basket.

From here, I’d like to build up more skill, improve the aim of my shots, and see if I can build up a backhand through as good as my forehand.

Until then, I’ll keep chucking the discs in the park and maybe eventually I’ll work out how it’s all really done.

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