What is a Disc Golfer?

What is a Disc Golfer?

Disc golf has become a huge part of many peoples’ lives, and will continue to do so as the years progress- but what does this mean? Many of us closely identify ourselves with the sport, maybe writing about disc golf in our social media bios, or talking about our incredible putts at work.  Do these things make you a disc golfer? Like everything in life, the question of how to classify somebody is not as simple or binary as “yes, you’re a real disc golfer because you’ve collected over a thousand discs” or “no, I’m sorry, you are not a true disc golfer because you didn’t buy the new DGWT DUDE hoodie”. Most likely this kind of conversation concerning being a disc golfer will never end with a simple definition.

As the snow melts around the country, and the days get longer, you might be so fortunate as to find yourself on the course more often. Whether you took some time off during the winter months, or you managed to keep your driving distance up all season (props to you!), hopefully you had a chance to reflect on 2015, and thought about what you wanted to do in 2016. I know I did, and right on top of my goals for the year is “give my good friend Dylan a run for his money at the Trilogy Challenge this year.” (On a side note, who else is super excited for the new Trilogy Challenge discs: the Falchion, Marshal, and Sling?) Whether your aspirations for the year included disc golf or not, you probably did get the chance to think about things you wanted to do.

What do your plans or other commitments say about you though? My personal goals range from disc golf to a biology research project. In this community we have a huge variety of people, from vastly different walks of life. We are fathers, mothers, daughters, brothers, and grandparents. We are accountants, web developers, machinists, drifters, and potters. It is this variety that ultimately defines the sport, at least for me. I don’t think of the group as a bunch of disc golfers, but rather, a huge ecosystem of diverse and amazing people who all enjoy throwing plastic and rubber at metal baskets.

Again, these are just my thoughts concerning this topic. What really makes it a conversation is the sharing of thoughts. Asking others involved in the sport about what they thought it meant to be a disc golfer wrought responses like “one word: friendships” from twitter user @TheWiffle24 and “camaraderie amongst generations” from Robert Lair. Please let us know what you think it means to be a disc golfer, so that we can keep growing the discussion. Thank you for being you, it really is our diverse set of perspectives that makes this sport so awesome to be a part of.

3 comments

  • Paul laboyteaux

    A true disc golfer is one who thinks of others. All the great shots they have witnessed. And sharing those memories with others. Ive lived this game I love for 36 yrs, but that has no bearing on me being a disc golf or not. I truly dislike playing by myself, because its about involving all people ,young ,old and everything in between.

  • A disc Golfer is an individual that follows the rules even when playing alone, like I have since 1957. After all you’re only cheating yourself if you don’t follow the rules when playing alone.

  • This is an interesting subject to me. In other sports\hobbies etc it always comes up with motorcycles it’s how many miles have you ridden or what brand makes you a biker. Scuba was how deep have you gone or how many dives? The reason I like DG is I can play by myself because my only competition is the course. If I can beat the course and learn new shots and technics then I leave with a since of victory. So what makes me a Disk Golfer is the quest to be better than I was the last round.

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