Disc golf is said to be one of the fastest growing sports. It basically involves playing golf with modified Frisbees. Instead of a hole in the ground, the discs are tossed into a metal basket with hanging chains to stop the disc.
A couple of years ago, an 18-hole disc golf course sprouted a few miles from our house in a county park. I’ve always been an avid Frisbee player and after the course opened I bought my first set of discs – a driver, a mid-range, and a putter.
My regular partner is a big guy named Bill, who’s about three decades younger than me. He’s got long arms and a big throw, but he lacks my Frisbee-playing background and so I used to beat him regularly. Not so anymore. Now our games are always close.
The most treacherous part of our course is the 14th hole, which requires tossing the disk over a pond. It’s covered with lily pads and looks like a great place for gators to hang out. This is South Florida, after all. I heard a gator croaking one day, but so far, Bill and I have only seen an otter in the pond. Maybe the gators are on vacation. Maybe that’s a good thing, considering my last two games.
Both times on the 14th hole my driver shot fell short, dropping into the water close to the far shore. Both times I threw yellow discs.
The first time, my throw struck a wall of reeds that rise several feet above the opposite shore and the disc bounced back into the lily pads and sank. We walked around the pond, worked our way through the reeds, and spotted a yellow disc about five feet from shore. The problem was the disc was in about 5 feet of water, but fortunately I had worn board shorts. So I dove in, felt around the bottom for about ten seconds, and finally latched onto the disc. I popped up, held up the disc and Bill said, “That’s not your disc.” And he was right. I’d recovered someone else’s. Same color, different disc.
Since I was already in the water, I continued searching for mine, but didn’t find it. Maybe the alligator ate it before I got there!
The next week, literally the same thing happened. The disc fell short. Again we spotted a yellow disc resting on the bottom. This time I figured it was the one I lost the previous week, because the location wasn’t right for the one I’d just tossed into the pond. I dove in, recovered it, and again, Bill said, “That’s not your disc.” He was right.
So I was two for two. I’d lost two yellow discs, recovered two yellow discs. But neither were mine. What were the chances of that?
Not my pond, but about the right size.
Reminds me of the novel “Nine Kinds of Naked”.
“In his debut novel Just a Couple of Days, Tony Vigorito recounted the end of the world. In his latest book Nine Kinds of Naked, he celebrates a new beginning. A day-glow orange frisbee comes whizzing out of the eye of the storm, which serves as the catalyst to bring a collection of oddball and enchanting characters together in this exploration of chaos and synchronicity.”
I really liked this novel when I read it,too.
https://www.modernhippiemag.com/2009/07/book-review-nine-kinds-of-naked/
I liked that book, too.
yellow – the color of the mind and intellect?
Gators in the pond gives the game a certain risk factor, that’s for sure.
Risk, yes indeed!You find find me (Trish) wading into one of these lily ponds!
Have never heard of Disc Golf previously. I entered “two yellow discs MacGregor” into Google search and the first entry was for MacGregor Park, a disc golf course!
A synchro!
Originally, there was a brief video with this post that showed a close-up of the pond, bubbling waters, then Rob popping to the surface, arm extended overhead with yellow disc in hand. You could here Bill’s voice calling out, “That’s not your disc.” Unfortunately, the video is no longer accessible.
oh, too bad about the video! would have loved to see it!