Why did you start playing disc golf?

[12StonesScott]

I picked "media", since that was the closest option, but it's not really that accurate. In the late 1970s, I was doing a lot of freestyle with the stoner contingent among my high school band mates in Fayetteville, Arkansas -- we had an open campus for lunch, so we'd grab something out of the vending machines and head for the parking lot or tennis courts behind the band room and spend the whole hour out there. The local library had a copy of Stancil E. D. Johnson's Frisbee: A Practitioner's Manual and Definitive Treatise, which I read several times. About that time, the IFA was still active, and Wham-o was putting out their World Class series of discs, with marketing materials for the various IFA "master" levels and related proficiency exams. I practiced distance, accuracy, MTA and TRC, etc. as best I could -- no one else I played with was at all as serious about it as I was becoming at the time.

Somewhere in all of that, I read about disc golf and decided to give it a try. There were no courses within hours of me at the time (as I far as I knew), so I laid out an object course with trees and light poles and such at Butterfield Trail Elementary School in Fayetteville. I occasionally managed to get one of my buddies to go with me, but mostly played on my own. It was one thing I could always do whether anyone else was interested or not -- still is, I guess.

There are two pictures of me in the 1980-1981 FHS yearbook taking a stance to throw -- both were taken by a friend who was a photographer for the yearbook and who followed me around when I was playing that self-made object course.

 

[Trashthrasher]

I STARTED PLAYING FOR THE DG GROUPIES...I WAS SADLY MISINFORMED.

YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!!!:gross:

 

[Mike C]

Had a friend tell me it's a blast and that I should give it a try. I had never seen it played and didn't know anything at all about it. When we pulled up to the course I thought it looked kind of dumb, but I gave it a shot. I remember feeling frustrated that everything I threw went short and faded out hard left. Arboretum was the first course I played.

On his suggestion I bought myself a Star Leopard and Star Aviar. Liked the Leopard, hated the Aviar (And all putters at that point, my how times change). Played around with some of his discs he didn't use like a Gator and Eagle. Wasn't until a few weeks later when I traded a local pro that Gator (CFR version) for a FLX Buzz that I got hooked. The Buzz was the first disc that seemed to always do what I want. Putted with it too.

 

[great white buffalo]

My wife and I had flown to Ft. Worth Texas to visit a friend of hers that she had been best friends with in high school. The third day we were there my wife and her friend decided they wanted to go shopping. That left me and her friends husband Colin Evans together for the afternoon to entertain ourselves. He asked me if I wanted to go play disc golf with him. He explained to me what it was, and I thought it sounded pretty lame, but there was nothing else to do. So off we went to his local course. He was an awesome player, so I had the chance to see how it should be done. I totally sucked a$$, but had one hell of a good time. He gave me three discs. A cyclone. a roc, and an X putter. I took them back home with me and proceeded to loose them immediately in the creek at my local course. I swam in after them, and found a few others and I have been loosing discs ever since. I am still addicted over seven years later. I have turned several people on to the game, and a few of them are addicts now as well. I played 72 holes yesterday and finished 16 over, so I still suck, but I love the game. Colin if you are still out there playing, I hope that you read this, and know that you changed my life forever. Thanks man.

 

[fountg]

I was reconnecting with a friend over facebook, and noticed he had some pictures of him playing. He told me a little about it, I researched it a little more, Then I went out about a week later, bought my first discs and have been hooked ever since.

 

[Jukeshoe]

My boss at work forced, er, invited me to join him out on the course. He gave me a valk and I think a roc, and I meathooked everything into the rough. I hated the game. I made him give me a Ultrastar ("give me a damn frisbee, god-dammit!") shot much better, and have been in love ever since.

Maybe I need to put that Ultrastar into my bag....

 

[Star Shark]

A friend I worked with told me about it. As it turns out his home course was Vollrath Park in Wisconsin, Barry's home course. I played with his spare discs for a few weeks until I was sure I wanted in and then dropped by SportMart and grabbed an Aviar Roc and Valkyrie. Still have the first two of them. My home course is Sylmar if I can be said to have a home course as I haven't been able to play in about 6 weeks.

 

[mabraddock]

seems like we just kinda went out to madeline bertrand park one day with a guy who said "oh man you gotta try this sh*t" and just got hooked...

 

[tmahan]

I was always into playing long catch and frisbee game variations (used up play frisbee football before I ever heard anything about Ultimate). Was taking my then girlfriend (now wife) and her daughter to Burke Lake Park to ride the mini-train and carousel in 1983 and saw a sign for "frisbee golf course". Didn't take long after that. Started playing with SuperPros and World Class 141s 'til I saw folks out there with Whamo 86s and Phantoms. Found an 86 at Bradlees for my first golf disc.

 

[Jukeshoe]

seems like we just kinda went out to madeline bertrand park one day with a guy who said "oh man you gotta try this sh*t" and just got hooked...

Bertrand would be a fun first course!

 

[deBebbler]

One of the coolest cats I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, Sideshow Bob, looked at me one day in the summer of 1995 and said, "you are going to play frisbee golf." Took me and his roommate to Grand Woods Park, and I had a blast. I bought a bag and 4 discs the next day. Still have the bag, too.

He also took me to see Steely Dan and The Dead that summer.

Talk about a dude who could see right through me. I was a Lost Twentysomething (barely), and with one look, he knew me better than I knew myself.

 

[wolito]

To be honest I can't remember. I think I just saw some people playing and a freind of mine who was not a player as well, went to the store and bought a couple of discs. That was about 18 years ago. I only started playing again about 4 years ago. Again I am not sure the exact reason why I started playing again, but since I have, I haven't looked back.

 

[simpletwist]

My girlfriend and I went to a family picnic at a pretty popular State Park, Beaver Island. The shelter where our pinic was held was surrounded by the first few baskets. She and I were routinely playing catch with a big ole ultimate disc like your typical hippies do. We thought, hmmm, that looks fun maybe we should try that. We did some internet research into it. Then Walmart had a sale on a Wham-O starter set, I bought 3, one for each of us including our son. And the rest as they say is history...

 

[solomon.trenton]

friends were doing it and 20 bucks wasnt too much money so if i didnt like it i wouldnt be pissed

 

[Danger]

None of the above. I was unemployed and hiked a lot, until the fires of LA destroyed ALL of my favorite local trails. Needed something else cheap to do, and bowling was too expensive, so I went to buy a frisbee. Ended up buying and playing disc instead. Didn't turn out as cheap as I thought it would be at first, but now that I have my set-up its paying off

 

[weaktit]

Really, I think it was beer. It was a local activity that me and some buddies could do while sippin' brews.
The beer still goes hand-in-hand with DG but now the game is more important than the buzz.

 

[Zeke I]

i started this year in the end of july I got a innova starter set w bag for my bday the only thing i wish is this that I started when I was a teen but im not so 53 is a good of a place to start as any I guess i want to play this sport till I drop!

 

[thrembo]

My parents bought me my first disc somewhere around 1970. A Regular mold whamo, although they wern't officialy called that yet. In the mid seventies I stumbled across a book titled "Frisbee, a Practitioners Manual and Definitive treatise" by Dr. Stancil E. D. Johnson. This book changed my life. It described how to play disc golf by using objects as holes. We made up coarses around our neighborhood. The 1st basket course that I played on was Joliet IL in 1981 and I,ve been playing and collecting ever sence.

 

[SmoothSailor]

I was living in Oakland CA working at a pot growing warehouse and some buddies came into town and they had these bags that they almost never took off. They would leave for a few hours and return exhausted and talking about different courses. I finally asked them where they kept going as I didn't like people coming and going from this location, so they told me what it was and asked if I wanted to join them on their next trip - Arcata CA (redwood curtain). I agreed and we went out the next day for an evening round and a morning round the next morning before heading back down to the bay. I had a BLAST. We played two different courses, 1 in the woods and 1 along the Humboldt bay.

I was immediately hooked. It took me over a year to finally start playing on my own in Sacramento, but once I bought myself my first driver (Star Firebird 168 Blue with Red stamp) you couldn't pay me to come home during the day.

And here I am now, 3 years later a full on needle in the arm DG addict.

 

[Mad Scientist]

My brother told me about it when I was young. As my nephew grew older, we'd use Frisbees and make up our own obstacle courses in the yard with trees and such as the targets. Then a couple years ago, my dad told me they built a course nearby and I've been playing "real" disc golf ever since.