To rclaXf pl a y disc golf instead
By Brian Pearson
Senior Staff Writer
/\ny way you look at it,
disc golf is better than its more
pedestrian counterpart. For
one, you don’t have to wear flu
orescent, plaid, poles ter pants
to play. And compared to regu
lar golf with its skinny metal
sticks and dimple-faced balls,
disc golf is as challenging, less
expensive, more casual and
more creative.
A round of disc golf can be
played almost anywhere. Every
thing within sight outside your
front door — trees, fire hy
drants, the windshield of the
neighbor’s new car, the garbage
cans and that pesky dog that
knocks them over — has the po
tential to be a target.
A disc will not usually crack
a window or hurt anyone, so it’s
a matter of naming the “hole”
and getting to it in the fewest
possible strokes.
A full round of regular
golf — including driving, chip
ping and putting — can’t be
played safely in a populated
area. Regular golf lessens the
dangers of smashing bay win
dows or bopping tricycling chil
dren on the heads with flying
golf balls because it’s played on
a specially designed course.
Disc golf courses exist, too.
Nelson McNorton, production
manager for the Professional
Disc Golf Association, or PDGA,
says there are more than 300 of
ficial courses in the United
States.
Targets on an official course,
called “pole holes,” are metal
poles that stand 52 inches off
the ground with a basket se
cured around the pole half-way
up. Vertical chains attached
from the outside of the basket
to the top of the pole, stop the
disc in flight, causing it to fall
into the basket.
The average length of
holes on a disc golf course, Mc
Norton says, range from 60 to
100 yards. Regular golf holes
can exceed 450 yards.
Disc golf courses do not need
greens, defined fairways or spe
cial types of grass. Besides verti
cal obstacles — such as trees,
bushes and hills — and water
hazards, it doesn’t matter if the
terrain has short grass, tall
weeds or thick sand. You could
be up to your eyeballs and sur
rounded by prickly pears and
still wing a disc into a basket.
Disc golf obstacles and haz
ards are similar to ones in regu
lar golf. There are out-of-
bounds shots and the water
hazards, one-stroke penalties
each. Like regular golf, a disc
golf course has trees and
bushes, but it’s a stroke penalty
if a disc gets treed six feet up.
For $4,354, the PDGA
will come to a selected site, de
sign a course and cement nine
pole holes into the ground.
This, McNorton says, is the “no-
frills course.” The “deluxe cour
se” costs $5,370 and has nine
portable pole holes which can
be relocated to change the
course. A no-frills course of 18
holes costs $8,172 and the 18-
holed deluxe course costs
$10,307.
Fred Collins, manager and
head golf professional at Bear
Creek Golf World in Houston,
said it costs big bucks to build
and maintain a regular golf
course. Excluding money spent
on purchasing the acres needed
for a decent 18-hole regular golf
course, it costs about $2 million
to develop a golf course terrain
and $1 million to build a course
clubhouse. He says an average
18-hole course costs about
$500,000 a year to water, ferti
lize, and maintain a fleet of
lawn mowers and maintenance
employees.
Most disc golf courses, on the
other hand, are found in city
parks or on college campuses.
Considerable less expensive
than its countryclub coun
terpart, it can cost less than $2
to set up a permanent course
without the poles.
The poles are not strictly nec
essary for the recreational disc
golfer. If the city or college will
not pay for pole holes, any
hardware store will sell you a
roll of fluorescent pink or yel
low ribbon. Pick yourself out 18
trees, (light poles or similar ver
tical objects) and put one ring
of tape around the object about
knee high and another about
shoulder high. Pretend the area
between the ribbons is the bas
ket.
On most disc golf
courses, anyone can play and
there's no charge. Collins says
the average cost for green fees
on a regular golf course is $12.
The only mandator}' equip
ment required for disc golf is a
golf disc. The cost for a golf disc
is about $7.50 and although one
disc can be used to play a
round, but most players use
more. Like clubs but consider
ably cheaper, discs are designed
for either putting, driving, chip-
Dave Hubbard putts for a tree target on the AfrM disc
golf course as Scott Fisher watches.