And Now, Something a Little Bit Different! (Disc Golf!)

Last year around the beginning of October, a colleague of mine at work convinced me to go with him to play a round of disc golf.  I had, of course, heard of the sport but never gave it much thought - but one round in I knew I was going to be hooked!

Within a few weeks, I had purchased myself a couple of starter kits of discs as well as a disc golf bag to carry around all those discs out on the course.  Unfortunately, it didn't take long for the weather to turn crappy and for the course to basically become a sheet of ice (and thus unplayable).

It's been a long winter but in the past week or so we've finally hit 50 degrees on a couple of days (we also had a snowstorm but that's not the point here).  No matter, I'm itching to get back out on the course...and even more so now that I recently received a surprise mailing in the mail from my friend Ryan (who you may remember as the creator of those awesome Munnatawket A&G-esque custom mini cards).

Anyhow, this is what showed up in my mail box the other day:

Yeah, I knew that shape immediately!

Ryan sent me a trio of disc gold discs out of the blue - an awesome mail day indeed for me!  Since I am quickly becoming a big disc golf fan, here's a quick rundown of each of the discs:

Discraft Heat:

The Heat is an understable fairway driver (9/6/-3/1).  I think this instantly slots into my bag as my most understable driver that I own!  According to Ryan, the Heat is a great driver for those of us who throw shorter.  My goal for the upcoming season is to try and learn to throw 300-350' consistently.  I probably need to add about 100' to my current throw to make that happen but I'm hopeful with a bit more practice that I can get there.  Who knows, maybe the Heat will be my secret weapon?!

For those new to the sport, discs are commonly described using a four number sequence.  Basically, the numbering goes:  Speed / Glide / Turn / Fade.  A Turn of -3 (like the Heat) means the disc will have a tendency to turn hard to the right for a right-hand backhand thrower (such as myself).  

You can get super deep into disc specifics (I've only barely scratched the surface of understanding everything) but here's the flight path pattern for the Heat:

As you can see, as you improve as a golfer the same disc will behave slightly differently (and not just in the sense of flying further).  

Dynamic Discs Raider:

So far, my favorite discs that I've thrown have been made by Latitude 64, part of the "Trilogy" family (along with Dynamic Discs and Westside Discs).  As such, I'm super excited to try this Raider from Dynamic Discs (the only one of the three Trilogy companies that I don't own a disc from prior to this mail day)!  The Raider is a very overstable distance driver:  13/5/-0.5/3.  Ryan definitely is helping to round out my disc golf bag as this one slots in as my most overstable driver.  I mean, just look at this flight path:

Wow - I better be careful when and where I throw this one or else it will end up in a pond or something immediately!  Actually, if I can learn to master this disc having it be so overstable could be a big boon on a couple of the holes on the course that I most often play on.  

Gateway Chief:

The third and final disc from the package was this Gateway Chief putter.  I've never even held a Gateway disc before so this one is all new to me.  Ryan included a note in which he said he's been putting basically exclusively with the Chief so I'll certainly give this one a shot as well.

Putters are (generally) fairly straight fliers and based on the flight path for the Chief, I expect this one to work fairly well for me.

Currently, my putter of choice is either the Latitude 64 Dagger or Keystone - will the Chief end up replacing either of those in my bag?  Time will tell...when/if I can finally get out on the course!

Many thanks to Ryan for the great surprise package.  I think getting Disc Golf discs in the mail is actually even better than getting baseball cards in the mail - especially this time of year as we are rapidly approaching the start of spring (and hopefully warmer weather)!