Feature article
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In Search of A Different Kind of Sport or A Way to Spend Time With Family?
By Brad Lifford
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There are no holes and no little white balls to chase around. No motorized carts to rent and no greens fees.
But disc golf does bear some resemblance to links golf, especially in one crucial area.
"Disc golf," said Brandon Bedingfield, "has some of the same frustrations as golf."
Bedingfield feels that way because he’s serious about his game, to the same extent that a weekend golfer with a set of Pings is serious about his. In place of the Pings in a water-heater sized bag, Bedingfield carries around a shoulder bag not much bigger than 1 foot square, but thick with the 15 or so plastic discs inside, all of varying colors and thickness at the edges. In disc golf, not all discs are the same — and they are certainly not Frisbees.
"You can play with a Frisbee, but Frisbees are made to glide and not hurt anybody and these are for competitive play," said Tim "Tic Tac" Owston, a Kingsport native who plays professionally throughout the Southeast and also sells discs out of his house. "It’s the aerodynamics of it. Frisbees will probably fly 100 feet with a good throw. I think the record throw with a disc right now is 712 feet. Discs definitely are not made for throwing back and forth with your buddy."
Disc golfers in the Tri-Cities not only have myriad discs from which to choose, but also more than their fair share of courses. There are three within a 40-minute drive of each other — Borden Park, Warriors Path State Park and Winged Deer Park in Johnson City — and serious players make the circuit of all each month, getting together for evening tournaments.
Players in much bigger cities aren’t as likely to have the choices of those living here: A Web site maintained by the Professional Disc Golf Association lists just two public courses in Knoxville, only three in Nashville.
Borden Park undoubtedly offers the easiest experience for disc golfers, while it’s up for debate about which is the hardest, Warriors’ Path or Winged Deer. The course at Borden Park is the choice for Carol Bedingfield, who often plays with her sons Brandon, Mitch and Joshua, daughter Jamie, and occasionally her husband, Jerry.
"As far as the starting disc golfer, Borden is the best place to come out and get your putts and your drives and everything down," she said, "before you go out to Warriors’ and compete with the big dogs."
There is one common denominator for all three local disc golfer courses. They’re free.
"When you’ve got a family of six and you try to pay green fees [to play golf], it’s tough. This is poor man’s golf," Carol said with a laugh. "When you’ve got four kids playing, it’s a wonderful time to get outside with your children and be a part of what they’re doing. It’s something you can get into quickly and cheaply.
"I tried it about five years ago, and I pretty much became addicted to it right away."
The initial expenses can be less than $20 if you want to take a utilitarian approach to your disc collection, or more if you take the Brandon Bedingfield approach. Discs available at sporting goods stores and other retail outlets cost anywhere from $6 to $10 depending on the manufacturer and the type, and a beginner will need at least two discs: a driver designed for long to medium shots and a "putter," which is more flexible and dies when it hits the chains that serve as a guide into the basket. Other discs will provide variations on right or left spin, or make the disc easier to roll — a tactic that’s sometimes used to avoid a natural hazard.
The goal is to get from the tee pad to a steel basket about the size of a big truck tire in as few throws as possible. Owston, who has been playing over five years, said beginners frequently encounter the same common problem.
"One thing a lot of beginners do is they throw too high," Owston said. "You want to throw across your chest and try to keep it low. Don’t try to throw it too hard — just throw smoothly."You’ll see that it’s not really force. It’s mostly technique and putting the right spin on the disc and getting glide out of it."
Scoring is just like links golf, with birdies, pars, the occasional bogey and the rare eagle. Most courses feature nothing but par 3s, with a few exceptions. Almost all have trees that serve as obstacles — the Borden Park course winds through light forest, the Warriors’ course through heavier forest.
For his money, Owston fears Winged Deer most. An average disc golf hole might be 200 to 250 feet — Borden Park’s average hole is right at 200.
"Winged Deer is as tough as if not tougher than Warriors’," Owston said. "There’s a lot of woods and some tight throws you have to make. There’s one hole that’s probably 600 feet."
Amazingly, some professional disc golfers would have a chance at making a hole-in-one on a 600-foot hole. Owston isn’t one of those — he tops out at a little over 400 feet, while another Kingsport professional, Jason Light, can throw over 500.
Owston and Light travel throughout the Southeastern states playing for money as well as pride, but professional disc golf isn’t even remotely akin to the PGA. Owston has played disc golf’s version of Tiger Woods, who happens to be 10-time world champion Ken Climo.
"I played him once," Owston said. "He toasted me."
Owston said that even Climo wouldn’t expect to take home more than $20,00 during a successful season.
"He has a carpentry business on the side," Owston said.
"It’s something you can jump into and pretty quickly," she said. "It’s a wonderful time to get outside and get some exercise. You can play a round in 30 or 40 minutes, and a lot of times if I want to blow off some steam I just go outside and walk and play a round, and I’m finished in 30 minutes."
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