Disc Golf – A Newcomer’s Perspective of a Rapidly Growing Sport

Karl A. Lamothe

Perhaps you haven’t heard of disc golf. Don’t worry, many people haven’t despite its rapid growth in North America and it’s supposed roots in Canada. Nonetheless, disc golf has become one of my favourite sports and I have quickly become addicted, so I’m here to write a short post introducing you to the sport, how it benefits me, and how you can get into the action!

First – what is disc golf? Disc golf is a low intensity sport (no contact, no running) that scores similarly to traditional golf, where individuals are trying to minimize the number of shots they take to complete an 18-hole course. Sometimes disc golf courses are associated with ball golf courses, but more often you will find disc golf courses of their own or associated with public parks. To find a disc golf course near you, check out the Udisc app (more on this application later). As opposed to traditional ball golf where you aim to hit a ball into a small cup on each hole using different style clubs, disc golfers aim to throw a disc (or Frisbee) into a chain basket (Figure 1) using differing styles of disc that vary in their shape, weight, texture, flight length, and flight path.

Figure 1. Photo of myself with a Discraft Magnet next to an Innova brand disc golf basket at a disc golf course in Colorado, USA.

Generally, discs can be categorized as putters, mid-ranges, fairway drivers, or distance drivers, and similar to traditional ball golf, putters are used for the shortest shots, followed by mid-ranges, fairway drivers, and distance drivers. There are many brands of disc (similar to ball golf) and within each brand, there are many different disc types. Each disc is rated based on its speed, glide, turn, and fade, and provides a perspective on the complexity that disc golf can bring:

• Speed describes the rate at which a disc travels through the air and is scored on a rating from 1 to 14, where 1 is the slowest disc and 14 is the fastest disc;
• Glide describes the ability of a disc to maintain loft during flight and is scored from 1 to 7 where lower values indicate less glide;
• Turn describes the tendency of a disc to turn over during the initial part of the flight. Turning a disc over, for a person throwing a back hand shot using their right hand (Right hand back hand – RHBH) leads to the disc banking over to the right. A disc with a +1 rating is most resistant to turning over, while a -5 rating will turn the most.
• Fade describes the tendency of a disc to hook left (again for RHBH throws) at the end of the flight and is rated from 0 to 5, where 0 rated discs fly the straightest and 5 rated discs hook hard at the end of the flight.

Typically, disc golfers carry 15-20 discs in their bag when traversing a disc golf course, but beginners should start with a single putter, mid range disc, and fairway driver to learn the feel of disc golf discs – they aren’t the same as a typical beach Frisbee. I started with the beginners Discraft pack, which provided an Avenger (Speed: 10, Glide: 5, Turn: 0, Fade: 4), a Buzzz (S: 5, G: 4, T: -1, F: 1), and a Magnet (S: 2, G: 3, T: -1, F: 2) – now I own over 30 discs. Each disc has a unique flight path, and if controlled properly, can reduce the number of shots needed to take on a single hole.

Unfortunately, disc golf is not a nationally recognized sport in Canada (see National Sport Organizations), and as a result, efforts to progress the game are limited by funds. Nonetheless, there are professionals representing Canada making a name for themselves abroad. For example, Martin Hendel (PDGA #: 39469) and Thomas Gilbert (PDGA #: 85850) are currently (December 2, 2019) the highest ranked men in Canada with ratings of 1022 and 1012, respectively, and earning over $50,000 USD in prize money collectively over their careers.

At its current state, disc golf is mostly composed of male competitors, with estimates of a 90% male to 10% female participation rate commonly tossed around. Clearly this needs to change and more effort needs to be directed to promoting the sport to women. The top woman disc golfer, and my personal favourite competitor, is Paige Pierce (PDGA #: 29190). Paige is a 5-time world champion, taking home over $200,000 USD in career earnings and recently signed a six-digit contract with Discraft to continue improving on her craft. Check out www.paigepierce.com to learn more about Paige and support her in her career.

I noted in my introduction that disc golf benefits me personally, and it does so on several fronts. First, disc golf is an outdoor sport often located in beautiful and locally accessible areas. I love being outdoors and disc golf is a way to convince myself to leave this computer and enjoy the fresh air. Second, disc golf is relatively inexpensive compared to other sports. Some disc golf courses are freely accessible, and the cost of acquiring discs can be minimal, particularly if you look to local disc golfers for hand-me-downs. Third, disc golf is a great form of exercise. The most obvious benefit is the walking done on the course – playing disc golf tricks you into a many kilometer walk. Furthermore, as you build confidence in your throw, you start to put more and more effort behind that throw, increasing your need to improve strength in your core muscles. Most importantly, disc golf benefits my mental health. Mental health is something that everyone struggles with, and for me, getting outside and focusing on the flight of a disc is relaxing and enjoyable (despite that I might be playing terrible sometimes).

If you are interested in getting into disc golf, a great first step is to check out whether you have a local disc golf course nearby. The Udisc app is the official app of disc golf and provides users with locations of disc golf courses, electronic score cards, and the ability to record and track your scores over time. For someone interested in statistics and keeping track of my scores, this app is awesome!

Other great resources include:

• Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA): https://www.pdga.com/
• JomezPro: https://www.jomezpro.com/
• Disc Golf Answer Man: http://discgolfanswerman.com/
• The Disc Golf Guy: https://www.youtube.com/user/thediscgolfguy

If you have questions about disc golf, feel free to reach out and I’ll do my best to point you in the right direction!

My Experience at CCFFR 2019

Karl A. Lamothe

Last week I attended the annual Canadian Conference for Fisheries Research (CCFFR), this year held in London, Ontario, Canada. This was my third consecutive year attending CCFFR and, yet again, it impressed me how much dedication there is towards not only generating knowledge to better understand Canadian fishes and the organisms that support or benefit from these systems, but also the desire to communicate such work.

For those unfamiliar, CCFFR is an annual conference that has been ongoing since 1948, bringing together aquatic researchers from across Canada to communicate and discuss the advancements and challenges in fisheries science. Meetings are held in different cities across Canada, and like many scientific conferences, generally revolve around a theme, this year being ‘Resilience, Adaptation, and Mitigation Strategies for Conserving Canada’s Aquatic Resources.’

Based on attending various presentations at the conference and my own experiences as a postdoctoral fellow at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the choice of theme is reflective of the state of Canadian fisheries and perspectives of many Canadian scientists. Specifically, aquatic ecosystems are at risk and we need to work hard to conserve or recover these systems. The need to conserve freshwater was highlighted throughout the conference and a concerning topic for those listening in the audience.

There were many highlights of the conference, starting with the excellent plenaries given by the awarded Dr. Sean Anderson and Dr. Bernadette Pinel-Alloul. Dr. Anderson, a biologist at the Pacific Biological Station with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, gave the J.C. Stevenson Memorial Lecture on the prevalence of Black Swan events in fisheries science. Black Swan events are rare, highly impactful events that are only predictable retrospectively. Dr. Anderson warned that as climate change continues to impact the way aquatic ecosystems in Canada function, we might expect the frequency of Black Swan events to increase, causing major (likely negative) changes across the landscape. I will certainly be thinking about this in my future work.

Dr. Bernadette Pinel-Alloul, an expert zooplankton taxonomist, and someone who has greatly contributed to the field of limnology in Canada, gave the F.H. Rigler Memorial Lecture. Dr. Pinel-Alloul spoke about her work over the last several decades on the relative effects of abiotic and biotic disturbances on aquatic ecosystems across geographic and temporal scales. The ideas and expertise of Dr. Pinel-Alloul have been extremely influential to those interested in characterizing and quantifying patterns of freshwater biodiversity. Additionally, Dr. Pinel-Alloul was a pioneer in the field of Canadian limnology, the first women to earn a professor position in her department at McGill University, and paved the way for the increase in women that we see in aquatic sciences today.

Although there has been an increase in the representation of women in fisheries and aquatic sciences, there is still a lot of work to do. In a session showcasing early career women in aquatic ecology and conservation research, Dr. Christina A. D. Semeniuk presented data demonstrating the overall lack of representation of women, Indigenous peoples, and overall ethnic diversity in Canadian fisheries and aquatic sciences societies and a major fisheries journal. The legacy of the white male dominated field of aquatic sciences in Canada and abroad is still apparent and further work is needed to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion broadly in aquatic sciences.

Following the inspirational plenaries were two days of five concurrent sessions of invited and contributed 15-20 minute talks that covered a variety of topics. Many of the presentations were Ontario focused, likely a result of the conference location and prevalence of aquatic ecosystems in the province (> 250,000 lakes and ~500,000 stream segments in Ontario). Several themes were highlighted across presentations including road salt use, species reintroductions, consequences of warming waters, using fish behaviour to understand issues with species monitoring, and improvements in methodologies to better understand aquatic ecosystems (e.g., environmental DNA technology, aquatic ecosystem classification systems, stable isotopes). Biased by my own research, I mostly attended talks related to community ecology, species reintroductions, and general themes related to biodiversity and conservation (e.g., connectivity, movement, behaviour).

Based on my experiences as an American entering the tight-knit Canadian fisheries and aquatic sciences community, I have always felt welcomed. Perhaps this is easy as a white male with a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from a top Canadian University. Nonetheless, I am appreciative of the openness of Canadian scientists to share their work and ideas at a conference like CCFFR, all in an effort to improve the condition and status of freshwater ecosystems in Canada and abroad. In an age of big data and damming problems in aquatic sciences, collaboration is the only way to advance resiliency, adaptation, and mitigation strategies for conserving Canada’s aquatic resources, and CCFFR provides that venue for discussion between academics, government scientists, consultants, and students. As a result, CCFFR will continue to be an important venue for the advancement of science for Canadian aquatic ecosystems into the future and I highly recommend those interested in the field to attend next year in Halifax, Nova Scotia!