January 27

One of my favorite pastimes while in college was that of a little game that we called Frisbee Golf. What is Frisbee Golf, you ask? Well, there are two different versions of the game. Many cities across the country have designated parks with trails that weave in and out of trees and out into clearings. Scattered throughout these public parks are the holes or targets. These targets are basically five-foot metal poles with circular rings with a diameter of two feet at the top. From the outside of the rings, metal chains drape down to the pole where they are connected just above metal baskets to hold the caught disc. The idea is to throw your disc from the "tee" and get it to land in these baskets in the fewest possible strokes as possible. Basically, it's just like regular golf. Just like any other sport, there are shops that specialize in all of your disc golfing needs. Drivers, putters, and mid-range discs are sold for the most experienced and serious player of the game.

The other version of Frisbee Golf is much less complicated. A bunch of goofy college buddies get together at around eleven or twelve o'clock at night and they play with any kind of frisbee. They could use official Ultimate Frisbee discs or they could use frisbees that he or she received at student orientation. Once the group meets up, there isn't any specific course that needs to be followed. You just go with the flow. You decide as a group what the first target is going to be and you start recording how many throws or "strokes" it takes each person to get to the designated goal. When everyone is ready to call it a night (usually at around 1:30 a.m.) then whoever has the fewest throws throughout the game is the winner.

Now, if a metal basket in the middle of the woods is an official goal in Disc Golf, what is classified as a target in Frisbee Golf? Anything. That's what makes it so much fun. Some of the targets we used when I was playing in college were fire hydrants, parking spots on designated floors of parking structures, specific doors in school halls, certain doors in residence halls, and even gates that kept cafeterias closed and safe after hours. This last one was the most fun. We would start on one end of the campus and agree that the cage that locks the cafeteria up would be the goal. It would usually take us a good fifteen throws to get there, but once inside the dining room, we would be throwing frisbees past Hispanic janitors and maintenance crews. The looks on their faces were priceless as we came in and tossed frisbees around their clean, shiny floors.

Another great target usually ended the game for anyone playing. There was a single road that led into the residence halls that we would follow on our way back from the cafeteria. On the right-hand side of the road, there was the six story parking structure and on the left-hand side there was a two-story residence hall that wrapped itself around a basketball court. The goal was always to get the frisbee through one of the hoops as if it were a ball. The thrower could either choose the safer route by going through the entrance or he could take a risk and possibly shave off a few throws by going up and over the roof. This was extremely crucial if the game was separated by just a few strokes. What was fun about this last target was that everyone pretty much knew that the frisbee was going to land on the roof, but if the game was close enough, it was worth the risk.

Today I played a great game of Disc Golf on an actual course. Being out there in the fresh air was fun, but it reminded me how much fun I had in the wee hours of the night at good ol' Chapman U. I just wish we had made one of the targets a woman with a mop.