The greatest sport you've never heard of is a perfect pandemic hobby
Have you ever been out hiking and thought, “This is great, but I wish it was more competitive and made me a lot more angry?” Boy, I have got the game for you.
Picture this: You’re deep in the woods covered with mosquitos, dirt and sweat. You’re holding a brightly-colored disc in your hand that you just finally found after searching the thorny bushes for 10 minutes. You look towards a metal basket with chains, some 100 feet away. You squint and line up the shot. You take a deep breath, cock back your arm, and release. The disc flies straight into a tree with an embarrassingly loud thwack that makes heads turn all through the forest. You move forward five feet, and you go again.
That’s how I’ve been spending many of my weekends, early mornings and evenings for the last year. I picked up disc golf during the pandemic and am hopelessly addicted. It may sound like a strange thing to be obsessed with, but there are tens of thousands of us, and it’s an army which has grown exponentially during the pandemic. Since August 2020, I’ve played more than 90 rounds, equaling more than 1,600 holes, on around 30 different courses.
How it works
The basic anatomy of the game is pretty similar to ball golf (call it just “golf” at your own peril, you risk angering a certain subsection of the disc golf community.) You play at a course specifically for the sport, usually with 9 or 18 holes, in fields or on hills or in the woods. Each hole has a tee area, and a metal basket with chains. You have to throw a disc into that basket in as few attempts as possible, and a lower score is better.
After that, things get pretty rabbit hole-y fast. There are different kinds of angles to throw in, forehand and backhand, “hyzer” and “anhyzer.” There are four different types of discs (putter, midrange, fairway driver, distance driver), and within each category, dozens to choose from with different flight characteristics.
Just when you think you’re as addicted as can be and starting to get the hang of things, you play your first tournament. That’s right. Pretty much every weekend, in every state around the country, dozens of people get together to huck discs and compete with themselves and eachother. You get an official rating from the Professional Disc Golf Association (yes, there is one, and yes, I’m a member). There are in fact pros and superstars, and they play in huge tournaments during the summer months with prize pools which can be upwards of $100,000. The best player in the world (and the mostly undisputed GOAT) just signed a $10 million contract.
The feeling
But all of that is probably getting ahead of myself. The biggest thing I want to impress on you here is that if you’re a competitive person who enjoys the outdoors, disc golf is an extremely underrated hobby (and wildly more accessible than ball golf). There’s no better feeling than shaving a stroke off your best score at a tricky course, or finally nailing the birdie on that one killer hole.
There’s also a unique sense of zen and relaxation to the sport which I haven’t found anywhere else. Visually, it’s incredibly fun to watch discs soar through the air once you get a hang of the technique, especially throwing downhill or weaving between trees. And the sound of a disc hitting chains is one you’ll quickly learn to love as your brain gets use to the dopamine hit. I particularly like playing in the early morning, alone on the course except for a few deer, letting my mind settle before work.
Heard enough? Download uDisc, find a course, buy a starter set, and go chuck some plastic.