Fore! The Love of Disc Golf

I’d bet $100 that you’ve heard of the PGA before. You know, the Professional Golfers Association. Am I right? Well, let me raise you one letter… how about the PDGA? Ever heard of that one? The PDGA stands for the Professional Disc Golf Association.

Before I start throwing more niche terms your way, let’s take a step back. If you haven’t heard of disc golf before, it’s essentially golf (or as I like to specify, ball golf) but with a frisbee. Don’t call it frisbee golf though; that will just annoy fellow players. Anyway, the same rules apply to disc golf as normal golf. Except it’s free! And it takes about half the time a round of normal golf takes- usually about two hours. Sounds great for a broke college student right? It is.

You’ve probably seen one of these in your local park:

No, it’s not some revolutionary bird feeder or an unusual piece of modern art… it’s a disc golf basket! The ultimate goal is to land the disc in the basket in the correct number of throws.

At this point, you’re probably thinking to yourself, “cool, but who cares?” That’s what I thought in 2019 when my dad gave me a starter set of discs for Christmas. I unwrapped the three plastic frisbees and thanked my dad, never expecting to touch them again, let alone play 18 holes. I was correct, at least for a while. The discs sat in my closet, gathering dust through the end of my freshman year at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Then came the COVID-19 pandemic. By now, I’m sure you’re sick of hearing those words, so I’ll spare you. The point is, I was stuck at home with hours aplenty. One afternoon, my dad convinced me to dust off those discs and drive to the park with him. There, I played my first round of disc golf. I was terrible. Genuinely awful. I think I finished the round 50 strokes above PAR. But that round reignited my competitive spark; I wanted to improve, so I began playing more often.

In the fall of 2020, UNC attempted to go back in person amid the pandemic. It was a disaster, and students were sent home within a week of classes beginning. During that week, though, I discovered that one of my friends had also begun playing disc golf. We decided to try out the UNC disc golf course. It was a success, and although we were sent home a week later, the seed had been planted.

In the years that followed, disc golf quickly became one of my favorite hobbies. Many of my closest friendships developed on the disc golf course. It even helped improve my mental health during the pandemic. Today, I play as often as I can, sometimes even competitively in tournaments. There’s something special about waking up early on a crisp Saturday morning and playing a round with friends. In fact, I’m headed to the disc golf course right now. I hope to see you there.