ping or rolling. A player can
cany the collection in an $18
disc golf bag with ease.
Equipment for regular golf
costs at least 20 times more
than disc golf equipment . A
bottom-of-the-line set of irons
and woods costs about $200
while the best set of clubs can
cost over $500. Not included in
the equipment are little extras
such as gloves, balls, special
shoes, funny clothes, tees, and a
big bag for lugging everthing
around.
iMcNorton, who has
played disc golf for six years,
says that he stopped playing
regular golf, softball and tennis
when he discovered disc golf.
“I like disc golf better than
regular golf,” McNorton says.
“All I do for recreation now is
play disc golf.
“If I'm ever down, I go out
and play a round with the boys
and it brings me out of it. It’s
like medication or therapy or
something.”
Disc golf is more casual
than regular golf for a number
of reasons. For example, on a
disc golf course you can usually
drink beer, which is almost as
much a part of the game as the
disc itself. Like a koala bear
needing his daily eucalyptus fix,
a disc golf player will tote a
couple of brews around during
a game in his $18 bag.
A regular golf course doesn’t
allow a bunch of young, club-
wielding yahoos out on the
fairways drinking beer, driving
carts and tearing up grass un
less your father owns the club.
Some people sneak beer onto a
regular course, but those geez
ers that work at the clubhouse
get pretty hot if they catch you
with a bag full of cold ones. You
might lose your beer, green
fees, clubs or life, depending on
the extent of the old man’s gee-
zerness.
Not unlike the border patrol,
these guys occasionally check
your golf bags or “soft drink
coolers,” especially if you look
under 25, have a drunken
gleam in your eye or have just
run over the golf pro in your
battery-operated cart.
Ilou don’t need a reser
vation to tee off on a disc golf
course. Play moves faster be
cause the holes are shorter, so
nobody has to wait for more
than a four or five minutes on
players ahead.
On a regular golf course you
might have to wait for 15 min
utes on the groups of 100-year-
old duffers ahead of you hack
ing up the grass. These guys
usually take between six or
seven hacks before they’re
within spitting distance of the
green. Even with the cart, they '
take just as long to get to each
hacking spot.
Like regular golf, disc golf
has tournaments. McNorton
says the Professional Disc Golf
Association holds at least 50
tournaments around the coun
try every year.
Winners of local and regional
contests go on to the World Disc
Golf Championships. In 1985,
200 participants played for the
championship and $30,000 in
Tulsa, McNorton says. He says
the same number of partici
pants are expected to play for a
$40,000 prize in the 1986
championships in Charlotte,
N.C.
Scott Fisher putts around an obstacle on the A&M disc golf course
— 7 —