Introducing the World to Disc Golf!

Support women's sports and SHARE this story with your friends!

“So what do you for a living,” they ask. “I am a Professional Disc Golfer, and I travel the world playing tournaments," I respond. “Wow, you’re Professional Golfer!” “No, it’s Disc Golf. You know, Frisbee Golf?” “Oh yeah, I had this dog once…”  This is how the conversation generally starts, and then ends with a lot of explaining about a sport I have played all my life.

While, I guess I shouldn’t say “unknown”… I have to admit that more people are beginning to hear about it. It does still ride the coattails of Ultimate Frisbee and Frisbee dogs, but we are growing strong with the number of new players every year. Disc Golf courses are popping up in parks and unused lands all around the world, maybe right in your own neighborhood!

Before I continue to rant about how people have never heard of Disc Golf, let me stop and explain what “Disc Golf” actually is.  Disc Golf is a sport played much like golf (or as we say, “Ball Golf”), in that we are playing from a teeing area and want to use our equipment and reach the target in the least amount of strokes. Our equipment includes our choice of aerodynamic Frisbee-like discs and our target is an elevated metal basket with hanging chains (to stop the disc from flying and drop into the basket). Here’s a picture to explain my loaded sentences.

I have been playing Disc Golf all of my life. My parents learned how to play in 1986 (the year I was born), and they started competing in tournaments around Ohio soon after that. My parents are both athletic and competitive people so they got really into the sport quickly. With Disc Golf being an inexpensive sport (FREE to play, and about $10 per disc), they were able to travel around with us kids and make a vacation out of it. I played some when I was kid, but as I grew to be a teenager I was more focused on being with my friends and going to the mall. When I was about 15-16 I started to get back into playing and started competing in tournaments with my parents.

Much like many of the sports out there, Disc Golf is male dominated. Luckily, I had my mom to look up to and a few other females to compete against in my divisions. I think this helped me gain more confidence in my game and allowed me to become to so devoted to it. We all know there is a high intimidation factor when it comes to learning a new sport and especially in front of an audience of strangers. This is the main reason I think many women shy away from learning and committing to our sport.

To encourage more women to come out and play, Women’s Disc Golf Leagues around on the rise. Women get together, encourage each other, and make it a fun experience to play Disc Golf. Rather than dealing with the intimidation of keeping up with the men, these Women’s Disc Golf Leagues are there to welcome beginners and create a schedule to keep women coming back. In 2011, there were 11 Women’s only tournaments, which kept the theme of Women’s Leagues and allowed women from all over the country to unite!

With my 10 years of playing tournaments and touring around the world, I have only recently started to notice a dramatic difference in the number of women on the course. This last year I created a website dedicated to Women Disc Golfers, www.DiscGolf4Women.com. The site offers instructionals, a Women’s League Directory, Women’s Only Tournament Schedule, and contests to get women involved. By providing women a website to go for instructions and help build confidence in their game, we can get more women playing Disc Golf!

I appreciate the chance to be able to share my story here on WomenTalkSports.com. I’ll have more articles to come that reflect how our Disc Golf is a great sport for the competitive woman who enjoys being outside, socializing, and creating a stronger mental and physical body. Thanks for reading!

Support women's sports and SHARE this story with your friends!

• Golf
• Sports
• Disc Golf

This article was written by a WomenTalkSports.com contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own women's sports content.

View DiscGolf4Women's Full Profile