Why are disc golfers so sensitive and angsty about comparisons to ball golf?

[curmudgeonDwindle]

"Everybody" doesn't agree, and therein lies the problem.

Most of the posts I see citing (ball) golf, imply that we should change something because golf does it. (Excluding all the threads about getting disc golf courses on (ball) golf courses.)

I agree we should take what's useful to us, but only because it's useful to us, not because it's useful to golf.

Historically, golf has encountered and 'solved' many of the issues faced by disc golf. It's a truism to save time and effort by modeling, which doesn't mean 'copying'. A better word might be 'adapting'...

 

[John M. Fretz]

I'm glad we have the rules and etiquette from golf. Too bad more disc golfers don't know or follow them.

 

[ru4por]

Historically, golf has encountered and 'solved' many of the issues faced by disc golf. It's a truism to save time and effort by modeling, which doesn't mean 'copying'. A better word might be 'adapting'...

Such as.........?

 

[Three Putt]

Trying to start something? I saw you drop the F bomb! I think that's the term most likely to offend our crowd....

It's hard to hate "ball" when we both share the "golf" name.

I mean if we had chosen to use the term "Disc" instead of "Frisbee" I could maybe see why anyone would care, but we didn't. We wanted to call it "Frisbee Golf" but Wham-O said no. They owned the trademark to Frisbee and we couldn't use it, so we used "disc" instead because...what are you going to do?

Seven or eight years after the fact, beveled discs came on the scene and maybe "disc" was a better description than "Frisbee" at that point, but even after that people realized that regular Joe's would have a better idea of what we were talking about if we could just call it "Frisbee Golf". I've mostly called it "Frisbee Golf" or "frolf" over the years; the game is just now in the last 5-8 years gotten common enough that I can call it disc golf and not have to go "You know...'Frisbee Golf'" right afterward to describe what I was talking about.

tl;dr: frolf never hurt anyone.

Can we add "stick golf" as well?

My wife's family are all gear heads; motorsports are the only things they follow. They call everything else "ball and stick sports". I asked my father in-law what disc golf would be since it uses neither a ball or a stick; he grumbled something about stupid hippies ruining everything.

 

[Three Putt]

Historically, golf has encountered and 'solved' many of the issues faced by disc golf. It's a truism to save time and effort by modeling, which doesn't mean 'copying'. A better word might be 'adapting'...

I'm going to have to ask for some examples here, because I don't know what you are talking about.

 

[hiflyer]

This.

To answer the OP's peeve - generally childishness dressed up with some snarky sarcasm combined with ignorance and lack of worldly experience, however, if you are a sufferer of child abuse, I can see how you might like to increase the 'social distance'...I'm reminded of the old saw about apples not falling too far from the tree...

you have much deeper problems than anyone with an objection to the traditional/disc golf comparison.

 

[ballgolfconvert]

I only refer to it as "ball golf" just to freak the squares.

Try saying "Real Golf" and see how they react.

 

[Cgkdisc]

Try saying "Real Golf" and see how they react.

I always thought "Real" golf was played in the UK, especially Scotland. Except for maybe Whistling Straits and a few other courses, it's "Modern" golf.

 

[teemkey]

Real golf died with wooden shafted niblicks and gutta percha balls.

 

[Casey 1988]

I as of 2007 always carry 2 golf balls in my bag for getting discs suck way up in trees down from said trees.

I was tired of having Waterbottles come open and loose the water/sports drink from the bottle during the round in the Summer. Some even broke, and having to find rocks/lager sticks was not fun either so I found an old golf ball during play one time kept that and got another one to put into the bag. Also have a crappy hacky sack that is too full of the rubber beads to use but that does not get used much for getting discs down, it has almost gotten stuck itself. My dad does the same with an old Penn Practice tennis ball he found in his house for getting his discs down.

 

[wolfhaley]

The trees suck your discs? That's why you always have 2 balls in your bag? Makes sense.

 

[autocrosscrx]

I was tired of having Waterbottles come open and loose the water/sports drink from the bottle during the round in the Summer. Some even broke, and having to find rocks/lager sticks was not fun either so I found an old golf ball during play one time kept that and got another one to put into the bag. Also have a crappy hacky sack that is too full of the rubber beads to use but that does not get used much for getting discs down, it has almost gotten stuck itself. My dad does the same with an old Penn Practice tennis ball he found in his house for getting his discs down.

One time I got a disc stuck up in a tree. I threw my water bottle up there and ended up knocking my disc down along with a shoe. When I reached to catch the shoe, I saw that it was being trailed by a golf ball, which ended up hitting me right on the collarbone. Hurt so bad that I threw 1 more shot and bailed on my round (I was on hole 2).

 

[ejvogie]

Carry a hockey puck instead of golf balls. It's heavier and can double as a mini. In fact, mine rides in the mini pocket in my frolf sack.

 

[Doofenshmirtz]

My biggest annoyance in the comparison is that people say "ball golf".

. . . when they really mean "real golf" but just don't want to say it.

 

[Casey 1988]

I only refer to it as "ball golf" just to freak the squares.

I call it Traditional Golf as that is the first Version of Golf to Stick around, there was another where you threw what looked like at ~1100 AD a Shuttle Cock for Badminton of the eras Shuttle Cock to the hole in least number of strokes but when a Stick from the game Kolf came as well as the small ball from that sport then the sport of throwing the ball to the hole stopped in the 1200's. Kolf is a court game with two holes on either end where the two players tried to get there ball in the hole first to win, hitting stroke is not counted.

Edits: Why Do I hear your Quote as a Frank Zappa Voice?

 

[Casey 1988]

The trees suck your discs? That's why you always have 2 balls in your bag? Makes sense.

No but Russian Olives seem to want discs to eat, I have seen it. The trees are mostly the type the branching starts way up like Russian/Chinese Elms and Cottonwoods or are trees like Ceder that have too small branches to climb worst are Russian Olive, native Locust trees, or some kind of wild Lilac that discs are hard to get out of the tree/bush.

 

[Tpro]

Just call Discgolf "Trashcan Frisbee" (Drew Garabo) and call it a day.

 

[Jukeshoe]

I call it Traditional Golf as that is the first Version of Golf to Stick around, there was another where you threw what looked like at ~1100 AD a Shuttle Cock for Badminton of the eras Shuttle Cock to the hole in least number of strokes but when a Stick from the game Kolf came as well as the small ball from that sport then the sport of throwing the ball to the hole stopped in the 1200's. Kolf is a court game with two holes on either end where the two players tried to get there ball in the hole first to win, hitting stroke is not counted.

Edits: Why Do I hear your Quote as a Frank Zappa Voice?

What the **** are you talking about?!

 

[Jimb]

In my area (Calumet, Michigan) we get a lot of hockey players playing disc golf, way more than any other sport.
In my opinion if someone was looking to "grow the sport" in an area they would do much better going after other sports before golf.

:thmbup::hfive:

 

[disco40]

I can't imagine why a game played mainly by pot smoking, long haired hippies is a little peevish about being compared to a game played mainly by wannabe financiers in polo shirts.

Maybe the crowd where I play is different, but while there are plenty of stoners kicking it around, most are about like muni golfers, if you're looking at the spectrum of players.