What is the 'identity' of disc golf?

[denglish]

I think it's great that there's a cheap, interesting way to get Americans to abandon a cheeseburger and go walk outside chasing plastic for an hour or two.

^^^^^ THIS!

That is why i started playing, cheap way to get out of the house and walk/exercise. Its fun relaxing and challenging. I like where i am in the sport and where this sport has taken me in a body health stand point. sure nice courses are nice but is there really a lot wrong with our current courses? a complaint here a bicker there but you still play the course and LOVE the sport/hobby

Edit: and im sure if you love the sport then no matter where it goes you will still play.

 

[thrembo]

There is nothing wrong with disc golf. Quit trying to fix it. If you can't deal with it, leave us alone, and find another sport to try and fix!

 

[Jedi-D85]

Personally, I would like to see more "ball golf" type options (country club, private courses, dress codes, etc…). One huge advantage disc golf will have over ball golf is cost of courses, both in construction and maintenance. Thus, I do not think disc golf private courses will ever be as expensive as ball golf courses and public park departments will still be able to install and maintain public free courses.

I would like to see this as well. I will always love my free courses with my buddies for a causal round, but there is a certain appeal of the club house and great fairways that is a huge draw. It would give us more respectability and could help the sport gain more attention from the athletic companies and have our tourneys be a more grand event!

 

[CaptainAnhyzer]

You REALLY don't want it to become mainstream.

Showing up at your fav course to play a round with just your buds? Gone.
Having a choice of which free course to play? Gone.

 

[zepphead33]

I hate to say it. It is seen as an easy hobbie for potheads. Sorry everybody, but it's the truth.

 

[Discette]

.... It is a fringe activity for now and might always be. I've spent a fair amount of time in the world of pinball and it's tournement scene. Disc golf also feels like that. Just enough interest to keep it going without too much of anybody getting rich on it. I would suggest the film....

....Fistful of Quaters: The King of Kong: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923752/


Diehard video game fans compete to break World Records on classic arcade games.



This movie really could be about Ken Climo, Nate Doss or Avery Jenkins. In our world, they are stars. In the real world.....

 

[juju]

I hate to say it. It is seen as an easy hobbie for potheads. Sorry everybody, but it's the truth.

So what?

 

[Pwingles]

So what?

So, some of us are not interested in that aspect of it and would like it to change for the better.

Some of you guys are totally happy with getting ripped in the parking lot at your local pitch and putt and leaving your cigarette butts and keystone cans laying about, and some of us are better than that, and want more for disc golf then what dbags like that can ever hope to give it.

 

[thugjitsu]

So, some of us are not interested in that aspect of it and would like it to change for the better.

Some of you guys are totally happy with getting ripped in the parking lot at your local pitch and putt and leaving your cigarette butts and keystone cans laying about, and some of us are better than that, and want more for disc golf then what dbags like that can ever hope to give it.

To be honest i see more cigs strewn around my local ball golf course than my disc golf course.

Suprisingly see a lot of DG'ers starting to hold their butts til a trashcan or having like an empty altoids box they put them in.

Beer bottles is a different story, I have to say though if it wasn't for a few strewn glass bottles; i may still have a few discs stuck in trees that i couldn't retrieve.

 

[Pwingles]

To be honest i see more cigs strewn around my local ball golf course than my disc golf course.

Suprisingly see a lot of DG'ers starting to hold their butts til a trashcan or having like an empty altoids box they put them in.

Beer bottles is a different story, I have to say though if it wasn't for a few strewn glass bottles; i may still have a few discs stuck in trees that i couldn't retrieve.

Thats good to hear, honestly though the littering mostly comes from noobs and bros and whatnot and not most serious or semi serious golfers. But they are the people along with your hippy stoner guys who do absolutely nothing for disc golf except tarnish the publics view of disc golf. Not to say there arent some serious golfers who are takers from the sport but those are a more rare POS person.

 

[mashnut]

One of the things I love about disc golf is how inclusive it is. Anybody can come out and play a casual round, it's open to all ages and genders and I've played rounds with people at just about every part of the socioeconomic spectrum. The characteristics a lot of people in this thread are arguing about tend to be specific to a local course or area rather than generally across the disc golf population. I've traveled to play in a lot of different areas, and every course seems to have it's own demographic and vibe.

 

[ZAMson]

One of the things I love about disc golf is how inclusive it is. Anybody can come out and play a casual round, it's open to all ages and genders and I've played rounds with people at just about every part of the socioeconomic spectrum. The characteristics a lot of people in this thread are arguing about tend to be specific to a local course or area rather than generally across the disc golf population. I've traveled to play in a lot of different areas, and every course seems to have it's own demographic and vibe.

good post. i'm not a "grow the sport" guy, but i'm all for lessening the exclusionary practices. that umbrella for me is mainly indiscreet substance use (smoke and particularly alcohol), and being ultra hardcore about serious disc golf (dismissing the validity of beginner fun with bad discs and poor form).

"grow the game first" may not be a very accurate battle cry, but i feel that the game has a lot of room for growth... and the game CAN be grown. the sport however, needs to calmly sit in the back seat and let the driving force - the casual player - move it all forward by sheer numbers.

tl;dr - the sport = 1%, the game = 99% ... grow up, disc golf

 

[Lewis]

One of the things I love about disc golf is how inclusive it is. Anybody can come out and play a casual round, it's open to all ages and genders and I've played rounds with people at just about every part of the socioeconomic spectrum. The characteristics a lot of people in this thread are arguing about tend to be specific to a local course or area rather than generally across the disc golf population. I've traveled to play in a lot of different areas, and every course seems to have it's own demographic and vibe.

Thanks for the breath of fresh air, Mashnut. We all tend to extrapolate what's under our noses to infinity, so I appreciate the perspective of someone who has played all over the country. And I disagree strongly with the claim that "disc golf is seen by the world as a hippie game." That may be the case in some places, but it's not the universal perception, and I don't believe it applies in my neck of the woods.

And the open accessibility of disc golf to people of all kinds is one of its strengths, both as a "game" and as a "sport." It has the potential to reach and be enjoyed by a wider range of people than just about any other sport I can think of.

Also I agree with ZAMson that the driving force behind the growth of disc golf has to come from growth in the numbers of casual players. The 1% can have all the fun they like trading rare collectors' discs they won at Worlds back in the 1990s, but it's the 99% that are going to provide the raw numbers that can create new opportunities for the entire disc golfing world.

I am the 99%.

 

[DBdiscgolf]

I see it as a generally misunderstood hobby. I believe the misunderstanding comes from the fact that the majority of people who say "I'm going to go play some disc golf" are either rednecks that go to drink and be loud, idiots who think they are great at everything they do that no one likes to be around, or pot heads that realize that it is an easy place to "toke down".

 

[JTacoma03]

Personally I think the identity of disc golf is sort of like bowling. You can take it really serious or you can bring your kids and make a mess of the whole thing. Pro bowlers obsess about shoes, balls, the wax on the lanes, pin wear, etc.

Lanes are oiled, not waxed, you frolfer!

 

[Hippy]

Hippy sport.

Thanks!!!!

 

[mashnut]

Let's keep the illegal drug talk out of the thread please.

 

[KniceZ]

I'm not a big bowler but I do see a lot of similarity with bowling. Can be fun and casual or serious. Family friendly or trashy. Not really a sport in an athletic sense but requires skill to be good. Disc golf has a little more outdoor enthusiast demographic similar to whitewater paddling.

What's wrong with it being what it is - a good healthy past time that's accessible to almost anyone. It's already growing rapidly so why worry about changing it into something else - just shut up and throw!!

 

[Dookville]

I recently travelled from Socal with my daughter to play a tournament for women in Northern California. They really get it up there. I know they are not the only region on the planet getting it, but they are the people I've had contact with that most closely represent what I at least am looking for in a disc golf experience.

They seem to have all the stereo types we have been mentioning, and then some. The differnece, compared to at least where I normally play in Socal, is they all come together to promote the sport. Not that they are rule book thumping, PDGA joining, tournament or die zealots. They are grass roots, family oriented, put that crap away when the kids are around, fun loving bunch. They have a real good mix of courses that cater to the casual golfer and pro alike. Tourneys seem to be a mix of Local Series events, Sanctioned PDGA events, non sanctioned; and they are for the most part pulling participants into all age and gender divisions.

My daughter and I just felt really welcome up there. It was an awesome Ladies event with great local support form local companies that where glad to promte at a disc golf event because the disc golfers are a visible, non-blemishing part of the community. A real nice testament to Norcal Discgolfers.

Just my two cents.

 

[DavidSauls]

We all have a limited view, heavily influenced by who we play with, where we play, and who we talk to.

Including me. I've been playing for 17 years, played PDGA tournaments for 16 years, played courses in 16 states. I'm older than many folks here. And only a handful of times have I run into substance-use issues, either legal or illegal, on a course. I've been a club board member for 14 years and a small disc golf store owner for 3, where I get to meet a greater cross-section of the local disc golf scene.

I've described the people I've met playing disc golf as similar to the people I've met on hiking trails---all ages, all walks of life, perhaps on average a bit on the mellow side of normal.

Over the years, the reaction when I tell people I play disc golf has changed. 15 years ago, no one had heard of it. Nowadays, an astounding number of people have. Last month when I was depositing tournament proceeds at my bank and they asked what I do---spurred by the stack of small bills, I guess---I answered and 3 people working in the bank had played disc golf.

Mine may be a minority experience. Even a rare experience. But I volunteer it as a example of the spectrum of disc golfers, and even disc golf impressions among the wider public, and an example that there is no one "identity" of disc golf.