Problems with people taking your discs from the fairway and walking off

[F.Luke]

Spectacular.*

 

[R-Ogre]

I will throw another story out, this time a more innocent incident.

I was playing Riverside in Saint Cloud, the course that I learned to play this sport. It was a mid-afternoon spring day, and for better or worse, Riverside is a multi-use park despite it being a heavily played course. That means a lot of walkers and people being oblivious of discs flying everywhere.

The course is right off the banks of the Mississippi River. It is on high enough ground where it is not an issue on 16 of 18 holes, but it can be mildly scenic. That means there is a dirt path that many people use to walk through the park and look out on the river.

The particular hole I was playing was about 260 feet, crosses over this dirt path and the basket is nestled between two mature trees and a light pole. Not a difficult shot.

An elderly couple was walking toward me on this path, so I paused throwing. There was no one behind me for several holes, so I was taking a few practice drives. I waited on the tee despite two of my discs already sitting near the basket. The elderly woman, and because this story ends well I have no ill feelings toward her, picked up my disc that happened to be laying near the path and the basket and threw it into the more central part of the course. They could see me, and the husband knew I had seen the whole thing.

As they walked closer to me, she says, "isn't it wonderful that the park department leaves all these frisbees around so everyone can play?" The husband knew better and gave me one of those apologetic shaking of the head in shame nods. All I could do was smile, and I decided to not throw any more drives on this hole. I walked off to go after my disc. It was my beloved dyed Star San Marino Roc that has two aces on it. I found it easily, so no harm no foul.

Someone else who learned to play at Riverside! Used to be there pretty much every day from May-September in high school.

 

[Casey 1988]

My reaction would be wait for them to throw and simply walk off with as much of their stuff as you can, then go toss it in a toilet and simply deny everything.

Mine would be to throw you most basic disc you have in the bag and can afford to lose the disc on at his head while he is facing away from you like say a putter of some kind. Hopefully he is then dumb enough to toss the disc in his hand back at you and he goes after the other disc. If not and he is a bit smarter just taking the other disc and running off with both disc or he is throwing the basic disc back at you well yeah.

Worst I ever had was when my 2000's well mid 2004 DX Valkyrie got swiped by a guys hunting dog and the owner was so out of it either drunk or having a type 2 diabetes problem yeah he could have been just by guessing. We, my dad and I had to wrestle the disc from his hands and it was ruined, same dog tried to bite me after we got the disc, luckily nobody got hurt.

 

[4ormal]

Had this happen to me a few years back at hole 19 or 20 at Timber DGC (the long straight one under the powerlines). I was playing with a few newer players and I crushed a drive right up the fairway. Had to wait 5 minutes for the rest of the group to throw a couple times to catch up. When I got up to where my disc "should've" been, it was nowhere to be found. There were groups playing all around and my first assumption was it got picked up. Brand new bright orange star Valk. Asked all the groups and nobody bothered to return it. Classy. I haven't bothered to throw that course since. For the same driving distance I can just go across the river to Milo McIver instead.

 

[brutalbrutus]

Never happened to me but Sisyphus had a random dog grab one of his discs and take off with it at Idlewild a few years ago.

 

[J_Helms]

I have never had something like this happen at larger courses in the area, like Idlewild, Lincoln Ridge, and Mt. Airy. But the course it happened on, Woodland Mound, is more of a family tossing cheap frisbees to play place since the holes are short and the pars are ridiculously easy.

 

[wolfhaley]

Spectacular.*

You mean you don't pack heat out on the course?

 

[Jay Dub]

I have never had something like this happen at larger courses in the area, like Idlewild, Lincoln Ridge, and Mt. Airy. But the course it happened on, Woodland Mound, is more of a family tossing cheap frisbees to play place since the holes are short and the pars are ridiculously easy.

I used to play with a guy whose main drivers were/are CE Firebirds in different stages of break-in. He threw one on 18 at Mt Airy that went past the short basket and hyzered behind the pro shop. By the time we got there it was gone.

We had noticed two younger guys hanging around but were not there when we got to the basket. We looked for 15 minutes and as you know a disc can't get lost in the area next to the pro shop.

That's the only time I remember it happening to me or someone on my card.

 

[GoobyPls]

First shot at Mt. Airy during a tournament. Hole 6 I believe (the first one after you cross the road). Turned over a drive right to the edge of the road, wasn't sure if it was OB. After the rest of the card was done I started walking toward where I thought it might be and didn't see it. A middle aged woman started walking toward me holding my disc, telling me she found the frisbee I threw.

I still don't know what the ruling should have been.

 

[ohtobediscing]

Hole #18 at Pier Park parallels Columbia Drive, though its 25 yds right of the teebox.The group in front of us was teeing off, and a guy shanked it into the eastbound lanes, where it spiralled to a stop. A station wagon pulled up beside it, and the driver got out and picked it up. The guy in the teebox waved his arms so he'd know who to throw it to---and the driver hopped back in his car with the disc and drove away. Floored all of us.

 

[smarkquart]

Never happened to me but Sisyphus had a random dog grab one of his discs and take off with it at Idlewild a few years ago.

Ha. Play long enough and you have every kind fo story to tell.

Acorn in Roseville, MN.

The course has several walking paths run through the park. Most of the holes stay clear of crossing the paths, but Hole 3 goes right over one immediately off the tee. You cross the path immediately, go relatively sharp uphill for about 200 some feet and then dogleg left. Something stable to overstable thrown flat but slightly nose-up should do the trick, but that still requires some decent snap to make it through the initial bottleneck on the other side of the path.

A friend crossed but then hit the first tree on the other side, kicking deep left but back near the path. A walker with his dog come across the disc, and the dog picked it up. He shook it a few times, digging his fangs deep into the plastic. It took us yelling at him before he scolded his dog. He told us to calm down because it was only a plastic frisbee worth just a couple of bucks. Ah... No... Star plastic plus tax ran about 17 dollars. Plus, it was his favorite driver. He refused to believe us and kept walking, leaving us with a destroyed driver.

 

[F.Luke]

You mean you don't pack heat out on the course?

Always. I celebrate each birdie by tossing my beer bottle into the air and blowing it to smithereens. It's the calling of the goon squad that amuses me.

 

[Carolina Crushers]

Just get the disc to land in the basket off the tee, and avoid all risk!

 

[c_a_miller]

Had it happen once. Guy tried to run off with my custom dyed buzzz. Could literally see it in his bag, because of the green and pink dye. There were four of them, only one of me. It was only hole 5, for them. I was on three. I obviously always carry a gun, but I didn't think it was worth it to pull it here.

Called a few buddies, ones that don't even play disc golf. When they got to 18 and came back to the parking lot, we were there, and I outnumbered them this time. They gave the disc back at that point, we all had a laugh. Then we beat them up pretty bad and threw I threw all of their discs in random directions.

Not sure if a $13 piece of plastic is worth taking a gun out and/or beating someone up, but that's just me.

 

[jtowneagle]

I played an early morning round one day, while my wife had Cross County practice(she's the coach) in the same park. I threw a longer hole that crests up and then goes down. The green is blind until you get 250 feet up the fairway, 415 feet total. The boys cross country team ran by just as I finished teeing off. I looked down to the green and did not see my disc or anything. I did not search very hard as I knew what happened. When the teams met my wife saw the disc and started laughing, she told the kid to look inside the rim, and he saw my name. Obviously same last name and I was his freshman Biology teacher. She got a good laugh and the kid actually apologized in the hallway at school.

 

[JuanA]

Not sure if a $13 piece of plastic is worth taking a gun out...

But if not to get your disc back, why bring it in the first place?

 

[lines]

I walked away from a lost disc once when it was getting dark after a round. I planned on going in the morning to look for it. When i got there it was gone. I called it a loss and and decided to toss a round since i was already there. After the last hole i walked past a guy throwing discs in the open field and saw my disc in his pile on the ground. He already blanked my name and number off the rim and put his on the flight plate. He told me he bought it from PIAS. That was not possible.

I'm 230 pounds and he was about half that. I put the disc in my bag, called him a f***** a****** and called it a day. Never saw him again.

 

[ru4por]

Not sure if a $13 piece of plastic is worth taking a gun out and/or beating someone up, but that's just me.

Trolls only troll, to be fed.

 

[VictorB]

Just had somebody pick up my 2017 Big Jerm thunderbird from the fairway of a hole next to their tee and walk off and deny that they took it(This course is small and has a lot of tees right next to holes). Has anybody had problems like this too? I'm pretty bummed out about it.

During a league round when the course was busy, I threw a sick BH roller on a hole from the long tee, and a group played through the short tee. Never found my disc, even though my whole group thought it would have been C1 at worst, but more likely parked.

I was more upset with slowing the course down trying to find it and then having to re-tee, over losing the disc.

 

[b-mart]

I don't have any direct experience, but it reminds me of the Terrace Creek Wraith Saga. So I thought I'd share.

Back in about 2011 I was playing Terrace and found a 175g Star Wraith on the shared 2/4 fairway. I called the number on the back and was told to keep it. So I took it down to Chainbangerz and sold it because I didn't have the arm for such a heavy disc. Or a Wraith for that matter. While there I dug through the used bin and found a 167g Star Wraith, so I figured why not. I threw discs around that weight. Of course it was a meathook for my 3 mph accelerating backhand, but the thing flew like a dream sidearm (which I discovered years later).

Anyways, Terrace was my home course, so I bagged the Wraith and went back there over and over (and over) again. One such trip I left it on the shared 2/4 fairway because I forgot to pick it up. I did get a phone call that it was there, so I told them to leave it by 1 and I'd come right over. They did. I did. It wasn't there. I played a running solo round because I was already late for a meeting at work, but nobody had seen it.

Fast forward to two or three years later, and I get a phone call. "Found your Star Wraith on the shared fairway of 2 and 4 at Terrace." That hole is haunted if you throw Wraiths.

(I wound up ill advisedly selling the Wraith to a friend because I was discing down, but when I started throwing a minty new one I ruined my shoulder by overflexing it. So now I'm Wraith free. He wound up walking away from the 167g one too, but he never plays Terrace so it couldn't have been there. And it has his ink on it. Meaning that even if it's found I won't hear about it again. Or maybe I'll get a phone call tomorrow that someone found my Wraith at Terrace on the shared 2/4 fairway, with my ink and without his.)