Most Inexplicable Throw

[ThrowBot]

Simple thread starter: what's the throw you've witnessed that blew your mind?

I'll start with an example: years ago, I saw this old timer guy absolutely PARK hole 3 Red at Diamond X for a birdie 3.

This is a 688' hole that's also ~75' of elevation gain... so it plays real long. I've gotten a 3 on the hole a few times, like less than once per year.

Despite being a pretty open hole, the green is actually very techy. Within 10 meters you've got OB right, giant nasty bushes left, 58 tons of sandstone long, and short is an uphill maze through bushes and boulders. Not easy to park!

So this guy's 2nd shot magically skips on this narrow foot path and just cuddles up right next to the bakert. It was either a Boss or a DD2; some wide rimmed distance driver. Dude put that thing on a postage stamp.

I can't umremember that throw. It haunts me.

 

[Discette]

Back before the turn of the century and before YouTube, I was watching the Final Nine at the 1999 Mad City Open in person. Jeff Harper has to make a dogleg left shot down a fairway lined with tall trees. From his lie it is over a 90 degree turn to make the dogleg. He lines up his shot. Looks like he is getting ready to throw a hyzer down the fairway. All of the sudden his shot goes straight up into the air like 200 feet. It flies up and over the pines and magically lands next to the pin. I was so amazed I immediately ran over and asked him what he did. That was the day I learned about The Grenade!


These days the Grenade is the only "overhand" shot I can still throw (with my 60 year old shoulder.)

 

[ejvogie]

Back before the turn of the century and before YouTube, I was watching the Final Nine at the 1999 Mad City Open in person. Jeff Harper has to make a dogleg left shot down a fairway lined with tall trees. From his lie it is over a 90 degree turn to make the dogleg. He lines up his shot. Looks like he is getting ready to throw a hyzer down the fairway. All of the sudden his shot goes straight up into the air like 200 feet. It flies up and over the pines and magically lands next to the pin. I was so amazed I immediately ran over and asked him what he did. That was the day I learned about The Grenade!


These days the Grenade is the only "overhand" shot I can still throw (with my 60 year old shoulder.)

Feldberg and Yeti both playing MA1 for that event

Des in FA1

 

[TheOtherBill]

Was playing the old Harry Myers layout with a local rec player, and I was not reading the wind well at all. I had just moved from the woods of Carolina back to DFW and the open windy courses were killing me.
We're on an open downhill hole with a big wind coming over the right shoulder. I think I can keep a downhill shot under the trees and out of the wind and fail badly. Dude says, "Why fight it, man, just ride it" and throws a spike hyzer straight into the air pointed about 60 degrees off the side of the pad from the line of the tee to the basket. Sure enough, it went straight up, caught the wind and blew all the way down the hill to inside the circle. Must have travelled 400-450 feet in total distance on a 150-foot throw.

 

[glassila]

I was playing a round about 7 years ago with a friend of mine.
The teepad and basket are level in height on this hole, but there is ditch with a 15-20 foot drop about 1/2 way between.
My friend throws backhand and the disc immediately turns into a roller heading straight into the ditch. :doh:
To our amazement we hear the disc roll across the bridge and watch it climb up the hill on the other side. :clap:
We were laughing about it for the rest of the round! It was a horrible throw with an unbelievably lucky result.

 

[Dcinmd]

When my good friend totally grip lock his shot in the middle of the fairway and it flew 20 feet backwards. And the wind was very calm that day.

He will never live that shot down. He is not a noob but rather a 4 digit.

 

[notapro]

Probably when I saw someone throw a Comet skip ace. In the air he called it, and I thought, uhhh... Comet's don't really skip my man.

Shows how much I knew!

 

[Luckj]

This shot here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/discgolf/comments/rbvqbn/heres_a_shot_ive_never_seen/
I saw it on the Disc Golf Guy channel. He hit the cage on the shot. I've heard this shot is used in the Carolina region but I've never witnessed it firsthand in the midwest.

 

[seedlings]

A buddy started playing league about a year after learning disc golf (2020). His very first league night he was first up on the tee, throwing to the long basket. He shanks his throw and black aces the short. He shrugs, and the other players are all, 'oh wow, sick ace! You just won the $215 ace pot!" That's when buddy learned that league plays both baskets. Everyone tees short first, then everyone tees long. Whenever we all play, we skip the short altogether, which is what he thought going into the hole.

He kept the money and never ratted himself out.

 

[Countchunkula]

Witnessed: McBeth during final 9 of the 2nd Lemon Lake worlds. The hole was a combination of the big downhill shot (14 or 15 red) followed by another few hundred feet doglegging slightly right. There is/was (damn EAB) a line of mature trees separating the big downhill hole from the flatter area that was used for the 2nd half of the hole. I have no hope of reaching that treeline on my best day. Saw McBeth throw a drive way over the treeline (400+ feet away from the tee and the tree tops were probably nearly level with it) that just kept going and going. To this day, the longest throw I've witnessed by a few hundred feet.

Thrown: Unintentional hyzer-flip to roller on the roof of a building running along the right side of the fairway on hole 18 Round Barn, Manhattan, IL. It rolled the length of the roof and landed on edge in the grass and continued to roll for maybe 100'. Absolutely thrashed DX Beast that had been my secret sauce/trick shot disc, but had just crossed over to uncontrollably flippy territory. BuiltTooLong witnessed.

 

[TheOtherBill]

For Pro shots this one is greatness -

Spoiler

Barry goes into a chainlink enclosure that wasn't marked OB and throws his next shot through the gap that was barely wide enough for hm to crawl through. yep, saved par IIRC

 

[ejvogie]

Thrown: Hudson Mills Original course, hole 4 short during a tournament. 390' and I didn't have the arm to get it there. So what's an MA4 to do? A forehand flex with a Star Boss. Apparently it was more beat in than I gave it credit, because it landed about 150' out and rolled pin high 50' left.

Of course I missed the putt, but a 390' throller is still my longest throw ever.

 

[Flick Maniac]

A late late flip. Super downhill hole. Buddy throws a Verrdict on a medium hyzer, well to the right of the target, to give it time to work to the left. Disc is in the air for a long time, gaining hyzer as it goes. Just before hitting the ground, it flips up to flat in a nanosecond and keeps riding to the left. Ends up nowhere near the basket.

Still have no idea what happened. Some weird gust of wind maybe.

Edit: Oh, that Barry video reminds me.

My friend also got a disc to magically penetrate a chain link fence. No idea how it did that. We were looking for a fault in the links for a good while. We saw it all the way from his hand, to the other side.

 

[Hampstead]

Thrown: Playing the OSU campus course on an especially windy day. The hole was next to a parking lot. Throwing into a headwind, the disc was pushed OB. It landed in the parking lot , stood up and turned into a roller. Going backwards. Aided by the wind, it rolled at least 300' behind me, only stopping when it hit a curb. Fortunately, it didn't jump back in bounds. That was a long walk before my next shot.


Witnessed in person: Pittsburgh Worlds, Scott Stokely throwing the infamous foot fault called by Ken Climo. The shot itself wasn't too special, but the moment was definitely interesting.

 

[thrembo]

Original Hudson Mills Hole 18. We were playing in a tournament and had to wait on 18 for a group ahead of us to throw. This guy steps up and uncorks a RHFH throw that starts heading off towards hole 17. It just keeps going up and away and I say to myself "he's never going to see that disc again" then when it reaches it's highest point it all of a sudden changes direction and comes back down and lands under 18's basket to the cheers of all of us watching.

 

[lee76007]

Last May at Bayville Virginia Beach I was getting ready to throw off #1, second round from the Pro toe boards 7069 feet moderately wooded and was asked by a young man 30ish or younger if he could join me, he went by the name DJ. DJ was thundering putters and mid's up into the canopy just about every hole, something I hadn't seen including a Pro I had played with the year before.

On #10 a short 318-foot hole has tree blockage impossible for me to reach. In the photo DJ went up and over in the canopy on the left and parked it, the basket is all the way down past those two trees in the middle of the photo. He parked it and just jaw dropping as with a few other holes. The park job just seemed impossible.

DJ was just a really nice guy to play with, he was encouraging on my good and bad throws. Fun to chat with. He had been playing since 2020, a year less than myself. He spent 2021 playing tournaments in our region, as far as Harmon Hills. His tee game was better than the Pro I played with, but he also has wild oats from the lack of experience, and I thought my approach game was better. It's possible if he continues to approve, he could be one of our rising MA from our area. Can't think of his last name at the moment even though I followed him on PDGA results last year locally, but he has played tournaments at Lake Marshall, and if Biscoe reads this, he might know whom I'm referring too.

 

[Jukeshoe]

Witnessed: McBeth during final 9 of the 2nd Lemon Lake worlds. The hole was a combination of the big downhill shot (14 or 15 red) followed by another few hundred feet doglegging slightly right. There is/was (damn EAB) a line of mature trees separating the big downhill hole from the flatter area that was used for the 2nd half of the hole. I have no hope of reaching that treeline on my best day. Saw McBeth throw a drive way over the treeline (400+ feet away from the tee and the tree tops were probably nearly level with it) that just kept going and going. To this day, the longest throw I've witnessed by a few hundred feet.

Thrown: Unintentional hyzer-flip to roller on the roof of a building running along the right side of the fairway on hole 18 Round Barn, Manhattan, IL. It rolled the length of the roof and landed on edge in the grass and continued to roll for maybe 100'. Absolutely thrashed DX Beast that had been my secret sauce/trick shot disc, but had just crossed over to uncontrollably flippy territory. BuiltTooLong witnessed.

RE: McBeth, I know which hole you're speaking of, that's pretty crazy.

 

[Countchunkula]

RE: McBeth, I know which hole you're speaking of, that's pretty crazy.

Until I saw it, someone throwing over those trees wasn't something I would have thought possible. He didn't just clear them, the disc was still in the turn phase when it passed over top.

For those not familiar, here's the tee shot for the big downhill. 478' to the normal pin. More downhill than it appears and the trees are much taller up close. For the final 9 they played from this tee to the basket for 17 or 18 I think. That added probably at least 300' to the normal hole. The layout has changed since so take that and my estimated distances with a big grain of salt.

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

1998 DGLO was the first tournament with touring pros I ever saw and I can still close my eyes and see Climo pinning Hudson Mills Original #2 making it look SO easy and effortless. I couldn't believe the effortless, clean throws these pros had and that was the first time I'd seen the world's greatest player do something like that. I was gobsmacked. I know now that's just a stock hyzer for him but at the time it amazed me.

On the next hole (#4, they skipped #3 for the final 9) Stokely threw one pin-high, a good bit left, but around 500' with an XL, easily the farthest throw I had ever seen in my life up to that point. It was something crazy to behold at the time.

Yes, I was filming, and if you haven't seen it yet, here it is. Climo's drive on #2: https://youtu.be/LYbXnl25_vg?t=282.

Stokely's bomb is on the next hole: https://youtu.be/LYbXnl25_vg?t=516

The other one I always think of isn't on film but it was the first pro throw I ever saw, at Grand Woods when a local pro named Chad Sheppard pinned #3 with a black Cyclone. J-Bird was there too. Late spring of 1996, right around the time I first got there and encountered an active club with people who knew what they were doing for the first time. Also right around then, I locked the keys in my car (this is before cell phones) so my wife and I headed across the street from Grand Woods to a house with a bunch of cars...signifying for sure somebody was home...so I could borrow their phone and call for help. It was MSU's Mushin Muhammad's house on NFL draft day, awaiting his pick with his family. His Mom was super nice and brought out their cordless phone so we could use it. He lived directly across the entrance to the park! The Carolina Panthers would take him later that evening.

 

[Dr. Bogey]

Bucknell University, hole 10. After a terrible tree-obstructed drive and what was probably an equally terrible second shot, I decide to throw my Lightning Upshot just because. There's a huge oak tree between me and the basket, and I go for a big, floaty hyzer around it. Instead of hyzering, the Upshot flips to flat, goes straight through the Y of the tree, stalls out, and drops right into the chains.