Last October my friend Dave told me he hurt his ankle playing disc golf. I thought he was going through a midlife crisis and said "well brave sir knight, you gonna make it?" A few weeks later he took me and I was hooked my first time out. I made a par that bent around this tree and made the chains on the goal ring. Everyone in our group exploded with joy. That sound of the chains ringing stuck with me.

 I think it helps to have a background in golf, like you have played before. I find golf to be a major snobby sport with a course full of entitled people, who have no empathy for anyone else. It used to be a gentlemans game but it seems so many courses are full of punks with no etiquette. I love the sport but when you show up with long hair and don't look like you belong, you get attitude. I like nothing more than strolling on a course, looking like I do and laying a whipping on someone who has some major coin invested in their golf bag.

 But disc golf felt like home. No charge to play. No carts. You walk and get exercise. It's been around for over 20 years and I can't believe it's not a bigger sport. The people I have encountered on the course are awesome. I have made some friends when I played with people I didn't know, they gave me some extra discs they weren't using. 

You have discs for driving like golf, and a putter like golf but instead of the irons you have midrange discs that have different flight characteristics. There are so many ways to throw the disc too. Underhand, overhand, sidearm. You are only limited by your imagination. My wife got me a disc bag for Christmas and some discs. I played all winter, through the snow and wind. All the way up until April. That's when I was cutting wood and put my knee up against the tree I was cutting. The tree split sending a shockwave that dislocated my medial collateral ligament and meniscus. I had to take a few months off while I recovered and had to miss my golf league. Around June, I was cleared to play disc golf with a brace but I still couldn't swing a club. To occupy my time I would go down the street and play disc golf for about 2 hours a day. Before I knew it, summer was over and I had only played golf twice and did not miss it at all.

Around August, my lifelong bestie Brandon came home from Colorado. My friend Dave and I were talking so much smack about how we were going to whoop him at disc golf. Little did we know our friend Brandon was a former Ultimate Frisbee player. Man, did he tear us a new one. JP                      

My new favorite pastime
My buddy Brandon at The United Bretheren Church course in Fowlerville.
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