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Feature May 2008 In Melbourne, there are 12 disc golf players. More people speak Latin. The sport is so obscure that it is yet to be officially recognized as a sport in Australia. But for the few who play, it has become part of their lifestyle. Chunzi Xu takes a look at their rare passion for a rare sport…
Gentle, urbane, shrouded in a quiet aura of self-knowledge, Paul Arden is not your average sports fanatic. But after a few rounds of disc golf, he’ll loosen up and tell you that if he didn’t have to work for a living, he would do nothing but throw discs. How do you play disc golf? In Melbourne, you go to parks on weekends and set up a temporary disc golf course by placing meter-high steel-chained targets – known as baskets – at strategic locations. Then you flip discs across green fields of waving grass, over wooded hills and between tree branches toward the baskets. The discs cut through the air with a crisp “swoosh” and slam the basket chains with a distinctive “ching”. If you’re a disc golfer, that’s music to your ears. The charm of disc golf is intangible, but if pressed, golfers will tell you what pleasure it is to unfold the unexpected complexities of the game, and how gratifying it is to learn to appreciate the subtleties and temperaments of each different disc. And yes, it’s called a disc, not a Frisbee. Even though George Costanza called disc golf “frolf” (short for “Frisbee golf”) in an episode of Seinfeld, most golfers consider it a crass term favoured only by the uninitiated. Golf discs are smaller and firmer than traditional Frisbees. They come in varieties of weights, shapes and degrees of stability, with names like “Cheetah”, “Valkyrie” and “Cobra”. A beginner needs only a driver, a midrange disc, and a putter to start. Or, if you’re like Paul, only a putter. Disc golf and Paul Paul thanks the day he found disc golf. He and his mate Ian Bycroft found a putter in the shop at Whittlesea disc golf course, an hour’s drive out of Melbourne. Not really knowing what it was, they played nine holes with it. “Why haven’t I been playing this all my life?” was all Paul could ask. Twelve years and 310 discs later, he still can’t get enough. “I don’t like winters,” he says. “It gets dark too early and I can’t practice after work.” Unfortunately for Paul and Ian, the Whittlesea disc golf course, built on a ball golf course, is the only one in the state of Victoria. Even though they were new to the sport, the pair knew Whittlesea’s long holes and flat landscape was not ideal for beginners. They had to improvise. Paul and Ian started making up their own “object-holes”, using trees for targets. Then they bought buckets, placed them upside down upon stakes in the ground, and threw at those. The discs made a dull sound when they hit the buckets – not quite the aesthetic “ching”, but a step forward nonetheless. Then came the portable baskets, or “life-savers”, as Paul describes them. “Getting the baskets was revolutionary”, says Paul, “they were magic.” Permanent courses in Melbourne are still a dream to Paul. But as a computer engineer who travels frequently for work, he gets to check out disc golf courses all over the world. To him, disc golf baskets scattered in natural landscape is a beautiful sight that makes the heart swell. Paul has played disc golf on four continents, and rubbed shoulders with some of the world’s best players at tournaments. Although virtually unknown in Australia, disc golf enjoys mild popularity in countries like the US, Sweden and Japan. There are over 2000 disc golf courses in the world. Guerrilla golf in the city Paul is one of 18 PDGA members in Australia. Andrew “Fergie” Ferguson from Geelong is another. Fergie caught the bug when he was living in New Zealand last year. The day after returning to Australia, he set up an object course in a park near his house by tying ribbons to trees. It was getting lonely after four months of throwing by himself, so Fergie looked up Australian Disc Golf on the internet and found Paul’s number. Never having met each other, the two talked for 40 minutes. They were excited to find another member of this rare species: “[Fergie came] and the community grew by 50 per cent,” says Paul. The community has since expanded to 12 people, including two women. The golfers now have permission to set up courses in a park on the outskirts of the city, on condition that they don’t tell people about it unless asked. It is frustrating for Paul, whose initial reaction to disc golf was “Why hasn’t anyone told me about it?” “Guerrilla golf,” as the golfers call their renegade style, takes a lot of effort to play in a city where there are no courses and nowhere to buy discs. Golfers have to order their gear from abroad. But a decidedly long-term commitment involves patiently explaining the sport to onlookers, who tend to regard them with the same interested expression one reserves for robot-imitating mimes covered in feathers and silver paint. But they like it. Nothing pleases a disc golfer more than to introduce the sport to someone new. The few who play it tend to become evangelists for what the New York Times calls “golf’s poor cousin”. The very obscurity of his passion is an injustice, and the aficionado takes it upon himself to bring light to those in the dark of this esoteric sport. Spreading the word Paul and his comrades are disheartened that there aren’t more players in Melbourne. “It’s just much more fun with more people. Anyone can play it, you don’t need to be a great athlete.” Driving around the city, Paul analyses the potential of building disc golf courses in various parks. “Bundoora park is perfect for a potential course”, says Paul, “close to trams, universities, and separate from the picnic grounds. Just perfect.” But the Melbourne city councils remain to be convinced of the merits of installing a disc golf course, which can be built on two acres for as little as $3000. Fergie has managed to gain support from the Geelong city council to run a disc golf pilot event in Geelong’s Eastern Park in November, 2007. To promote the sport, Paul help started Australian Disc Golf (ADG), the official national disc golf association last year. “If you’re going to play it, you’re almost certainly going to be involved in organising as well,” Paul says. “If you don’t, no one will.” ADG has organized several national tournaments. Currently, Paul and Fergie are the second and third highest ranked players in Australia, according to ADG rankings, which are based on tournament performances. Ian, who discovered the sport with Paul, ranks number 10. Paul is looking for a house out of the city. It has to have a big enough backyard to fit a disc golf basket for him to practice putting. “200 putts a night and I’ll be good,” he says.
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