Frisbee Golf

Ah summer, how we long for it through the 50 below winters and the seemingly endless classes. This summer I decided to spice up my life a little bit and take advantage of the long summer days by learning something called "frisbee golf" or "frolf". Luckily for me, my best friend happens to be an avid frolfer and a very patient person. I am now on my fourth or fifth week of training and I must say that I thoroughly enjoy it (though my friend tells me I don't swear nearly enough to be considered a serious frolfer yet).

The object of the game is to throw your frisbee into the basket in as few tosses as possible. The baskets have open sides and are metal with chains to help catch the frisbee, the UAF baskets have a big yellow band at the top so they are easier to spot. All of the 18 baskets are a par 3, meaning that you should theoretically be able to get your frisbee into the basket in 3 tosses. So far my record is 26 over par.


Discs can be purchased at most sporting good stores for around $10 each or rented from Outdoor Adventures for $3-$10 (http://www.uaf.edu/woodcenter/outdoor/rates/). There are several different kinds of discs (just as there are several different kinds of clubs in golf), putters, mid-range, distance drivers, and fairway drivers are the main ones you will find. I started out with a mid-range disc because it was more capable of putting than a driver and more capable of driving than a putter. I now have a putter, a mid-range, a distance driver, and a fairway driver. When looking to get your own discs there are several things to look at. I am not under any false belief that I can accurately explain this to you, but a really good resource that I've found is http://www.innovadiscs.com/discs/disc-comparison.html. Every disc has its own unique name and I find them all very entertaining (possibly even my favorite part of frisbee golf).

Overall, I am pretty terrible at this sport but I still have a lot of fun playing so don't be afraid to give it a shot! Even if you're awful, you will most likely have a good time! The UAF course map can be found at http://www.uaf.edu/files/src/18course.pdf and it includes the rules of the game also. Another useful link is http://www.pdga.com/ where you can look and see just how serious frisbee golf can be. I strongly recommend trying it at least once before the end of summer!