A Beginner’s Tale: My first few months of Disc Golf

Mid September I moved to Grants Pass, Oregon and at that same time began playing Disc Golf regularly. Prior to then I had played the game 5-10 times. Grants Pass has 2 courses and more courses lay in seemingly each direction. I like being outside, so it just seemed natural to begin playing more. Before I knew it I was running off to the course each free day I had.

I found myself playing alone quite often, and like all beginners’ sometimes ran up ridiculously high scores. Rather than keep track in my head, “+13…..+17…..+19….” facing my crooked numbers constantly I got in the habit of just writing down my score on the back of a business card. That way I could measure my success, but also help keep from dwelling on my score and getting distracted by internal dialogue.

So by Mid November I began documenting all of my scores. This of course meant I had to play by the rules if the scores were to mean anything. And from my own urges and watching others I know this is easier said than done. The urge to take a mulligan after shanking one when playing by oneself can be withering. When that urge is too strong or if I just feel like messing around, I will throw a second disc but am always always sure to play from the first disc to keep an honest score.

The other really common way I see people skim scores is by “forgetting” about strokes on 5’s or 6’s. It may be honest, and probably is usually, but it is human nature to always “forget” a bit more in the way which favors us. We have to keep an eye on ourselves, it turns out.

So..(AHEM)...I certify all 5’s and 6’s are logged as performed, there were no mulligan’s, and I always play shots in the rough as if it were a tournament. What is the point of keeping score if it’s not the real score? Someone could stay home and play video games if they want a fantasy world. I enjoy the real world…even if it does hurt sometimes =). And regardless, I believe taking every stroke serious, and recording it has helped me to furhter enjoy playing disc golf.

These numbers span 6 different courses. I will break them down by course soon

Here is the scatter plot. Any bad day I have playing Disc and I just come home and look at this...

Here are the raw numbers.
I can't get the resolution big enough yet but you can get the gist from the colors...

Dark Green = 2
Green = 3
Yellow = 4
Orange = 5
Red = 6

The second from left column is the location. Pink = Tom Peacre, Yellow = Bear Creek, Blue = Lake Selmac, Brown = Forrest Creek, Green = Frog Creek , Orange = Indian Mary

As you can see there is a decent amount of data. I will be breaking it down further and of course adding to it!