Disc-Golf Mania

0 Comments | Insight on the News, August 13, 2001 | by Gabriella Boston, | Jennifer Harper, | Robert Stacy McCain

You get the fresh air and green surroundings of golf, but without the cost of expensive clubs and fees. Disc golf -- the art of tossing Frisbee-like discs into metal baskets -- demands no special clothes or shoes and the courses often are free and open to the public.

"You can have a great time doing this when you're young and poor or when you're old and have lots of money," says Craig Gangloff, 37, of Darnestown, Md., one of about 10,000 players who belong to the Professional Disc Golfers Association (PDGA), in addition to 2 million amateurs who enjoy the sport in the United States.

As with "ball golf" -- a term disc-golf players use to differentiate between the different golf varieties -- the object of disc-golf is to complete the course with the lowest number of "strokes," or throws. The "holes" are in the shape of metal baskets, with chains that work like the backboard of a basketball hoop to stop and guide the flight of the disc. The shorter holes might be 200 feet, and the longest ones can be as long as 1,000 feet. Difficulty of holes is categorized by pars, as in regular golf, and disc-golf players use different kinds of discs for different situations and conditions.

Nationwide there are more than 800 courses; worldwide some 1,200, according to the PDGA. While the popularity of the game is increasing, it's still not well-known. "I continually meet people who have never heard of it," says Gangloff, "but a lot of people get hooked right away." For a listing of courses see www.discgolf.com.