How often do good players lose a disc?
Im thinking it's rare and as a newbie, it more of a common occurrence. I've played maybe 4 or 5 rounds so far and have a one disc deficit due to tall grass along the boundaries of a fairway while my buddy lost two discs yesterday when playing. It seem that regardless of the color, they can bury themselves in tall grass and brush and not be visible from various angles of sight.
I will carry less favorit/cheaper discs for shots that are more challenging or high risk while using the better ones for the throws where there is minimal vegetation.
Educated guess based on some experience as a newer player, combined with reading posts from better players… At first you don't throw far enough to lose many. As you add distance, and fight with control, you can lose them more often. But guys that can really bomb a disc, say 400' plus, but are still not super accurate, will lose discs the most. Bad combination of big distance and iffy control - when a 400' plus throw curves a bit wrong, it can sail a long ways in a bad direction! Then, when you get really good, IF you ever get there, you lose less again as you put the disc where you want it most of the time. Also, big factor is what course(s) you play. I play a local, beginner friendly course, 9 holes, and there is only one real bad spot for losing discs, so you learn to be careful there. I rarely lose discs there. OTOH, there is a super challenging course in town, not at all beginner friendly, with multiple danger areas on multiple holes, including many areas with deep, tall grass or thick woods on both sides of narrow fairways, a few areas with blind throws in dangerous areas, and a 1,000' hole with over 500' of that type of dangerous fairway. Everybody that plays there loses discs!!! I talked to a newbie yesterday that rarely breaks 100', and he said he played there in a foursome, and on one hole, all 4 of them lost their tee shot disc and they did not find any of them, and that wasn't even in one of the worst spots! That said, if you are willing to spend some time hunting in rough terrain, you can find more discs than you lose - just a matter of if you find some that are not inked, so you get to keep them. Tip: on a bad shot, don't get mad and quit watching (which is instinctive and easy to do!) - watch and listen intently and give yourself the best chance of finding the disc! My worst shot ever was a grip lock, thrown dead right instead of straight, went hard and deep into thick bushes and woods, but I was listening, heard it smack hard into a big tree, and I was able to fight my way right to it, and I found another un-inked disc on my way there!