This is one of those questions I’ve wanted to see answered for a long time.
I’ve heard some incredible stories about these things, too. Tournaments can be pretty intense, especially when players are quoting rule books.
We’ll get to that in a moment, though.
First, let’s take a peek back at last week’s poll results and comments.
We wanted to know if you were a fair-weather golfer or if you played in pretty much any sort of weather that Mother Nature threw at you.
The results didn’t fully shock me, considering it seems to match up with many disc golfers I know.
I might only like certain weather situations, but many others seem to see it differently!
A total of 72 players voted in this week’s poll and of that group, 50 percent (36 votes) chose that they play in any weather.
That was followed by “A drizzle is fine, but not a rainstorm,” which drew 25 percent (18 votes) and was followed by “That’s what they make umbrellas and rain gear for!” (10 percent/7 votes).
“Sunshine only for me” was fourth with four votes (6 percent) and “Cold or heat is fine, but nothing else” rounded out the top-5 with three votes (4 percent).
Lee Fouste seems to have a perfect world:
Winter golf is great here in Oregon…it usually doesn’t snow and the courses are free of crowds!
We had a mile winter in New York as well and I had the chance to play some cold-weather disc golf without the crowds or snow and it was, indeed, excellent!
Heymo says:
Sometimes you drive to a tournament and it ends up beeing rained out – what do you do then, just don’t play??? And how would you train for a rained out tournament if not in the rain?
All competitiveness aside, playing in the rain is fun!
If I go to a tournament and it’s raining, such is life. You have to play or lose your entry fee. But if I have my druthers and it’s a casual round, I’m not going to play in most bad weather. It doesn’t hold the fun factor for me and if I’m not having fun, it’s not worth doing.
Kevin King notes:
Being a Canadian disc golfer, you just learn how to play in the cold/snow. Where I live in particular, the rain and snow aren’t the biggest problems – its the crazy wind. Playing in 50 km/h winds (30 mph) is routine. I’ll take the rain and snow before the insane wind any day.
I’ve never played in super-crazy winds, but I’ve seen videos. I can imagine it’s tough to deal with!
Laph02 says:
I live in Fla. for a reason. (Certainly not the politics!) Fair weather all the way. I work on getting a grip on life in general, why worry about getting a grip on plastic. Bring on the sun, heat and humidity!
Sounds reasonable, but if there’s humidity, I like to sit somewhere with AC blasting!
SteveHH makes a good point:
I’ll play in any weather but prefer dry. heavy winds are the worst for me. But getting to play as often as possible is what it’s all about!
Agreed that playing as often is possible is a good thing!
GR Mendoza said:
Played in some rain, heat, cold and crazy wind. Had fun in all of it!
Would be cool to play in snow…
Cool as in cold? Yes. Cool as in fun… all depends, in my mind. I’ve played in light snow and it is pretty interesting. But having to trudge through deeper snow? No thanks!
Thanks to everyone who commented this week! It was fun to read what people thought about weather!
Before we get to this week’s poll, we like to give something random away to those who comment on the weekly poll. This week’s Randomizer selection is Kevin King. Send me an address as well so I can get something from the prize box out to you!
Now for this week’s poll.
The answer is yes or no, but I hope you’ll expand in the comments section. After all, you could win a prize!
We want to know — have you ever called someone out during a tournament for a rules or courtesy violation? The poll says yes or no.
The comment section… well, that’s totally different. Share the story. What was the situation? How did others react?
So give a vote and a comment.
[poll id=”21″]
Vote away and make sure to comment as we’ll, as always, give something away to a random commenter. You can’t win if you don’t comment here. (In other words, comments on Facebook or other places where this poll might be linked won’t count… it has to be here).
If you have any comments, questions, thoughts, ideas or anything else, feel free to e-mail me and the crew at: pj [at] rattlingchains.com. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook!
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I think the area I play in, is the only little piece of the world where the rules to disc golf are not enforced or even recognized. Our weekly tournaments are a big jumble of ppl just randomly throwing plastic at chains regardless of who is furthest out, ppl throwing from adjusted lies, or just not paying attention to other players. I find it very annoying and try to keep whoever is in my group in line. This has earned me the title of disc golf hall monitor among my peers. I am awaiting my striped referee jersey and whistle.
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Ive only ever played in friendly tournaments – nothing PDGA sanctioned since I have religious commitments every Sunday. In the last tourney I was in, the TD let everyone know at the outset that we weren’t going to call guys for having their toe on their mini or stepping past the tee pad, etc. We’re all friends and we know not to take things too seriously, while still maintaining a sense of competition. I’d say that we’ve found a good mix of casual competitiveness.
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Absolutely, people playing in a tourney are there to compete, and should then know or be there to learn how to play at a competative level. Disc golf is all about sportsmanship and courtesy, so when “calling out” someone, it must be done in the spirit of teaching, assuming that the violator simply did not know the rule.
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always start with a warning to try to keep it friendly, but if the problem persists then you got to call them .This unfortunatley ( for me at least) makes things uncomfortable in the group and things can be tense enough in tournament play to begin with.
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Although I agree that the rules are important I’m not playing in tournaments at the level that it will matter. I will follow the rules in an effort to better my game tournament play or casual. As far as courtesy goes I have no reason to play with jerks and have learned to avoid them. I know a local player that will “slow” his card down to effect a player doing well or to slow a card behind him down. He likes to cut off “out” players preparing their putt and tap his putt. Needless to say he isn’t kept in the loop for much local action. So, you might not get called out on rule violations, but it will still hurt you in the local DG community if you’re a jerk or like to try and shave strokes . . . aheeeemmmm. You know who you are.
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I play ma2 in tourneys. While most of us follow rules some occasional slip ups happen. I had to call a foot fault at a tourney just yesterday. A new player just started playing tournaments had foot faulted quite bad off a tee not on purpose but just for not knowing. It was a platform tee and the tee line was about 1/3 of the way back. There was a fly pad with a white line in front of it and then an area also part of the platform in front of the white line for follow though. A new player came up and stood and delivered from the front edge. We tried to stop him but hey let go before we could. A foot fault was called he was fine with it as the 1st it’s just a warning and a rethow. I felt a little bad as his 1st shot was about 50 ft from the basket and possible for a lucky birdie and the 2nd shot hit early wood and was off the fairway a bit.
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I’m one of those guys that don’t like confrontation so I have not called anyone out yet. I’ve only played in 3 tournaments and I dont have the most experience with the rule book so I dont have much confidence in making a call. I sure that will change as I move up from the REC division where more serious players play. I have to throw this in the ring for debate: I hate it when I smell weed, ganja, maryjane, 412 or what have you, out on the course, much less in a tournament. I’m all for peoples right to freedom BUT I hate the stain it leaves on this growing sport. I know families taking a walk or playing in a family outing can smell it too. I took my 11 yr old son and one of his friends to play, just to walk up to a wooded tee pad that had a picnic table full of 412 smokers. I dont want my son’s impressionable mind attaching Disc Golf to pot. We had a little talk afterward but still the image is still in his mind.
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We played in a tourney and had to call someone out for losing count on their score. Its hard enough to keep track of your own score hole to hole, especially on longer courses, but this newbie kept taking shot after shot and was coming up with 3’s and 4’s at the end. There was no way and something finally had to be said. We weren’t assessing penalty strokes we just wanted this person to be aware of their errant shots in between that they seemed to be forgetting. I would have hated for it to be the difference between 2nd and 3rd place for someone.
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Called a guy for 30 second violation and for not marking a put. Felt kinda bad because the guy was already really rattled. Oh well, rules are rules.
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I got called for a foot fault in the Gran Canyon tournament in Fl in the early 2000’s. First time ever. The ironic thing was the drive went about 20 ft before it hit a tree and crashed and burned. My rethrow was twice as good. Made it about 40 feet. I was playiong pro then, and now I’m playing am. Haven’t been called for anything yet, but we do discuss “situations” that come up. Life’s too short.
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I have, I feel like a rules nazi when i do but it means we all play on a level playing field. I play on the British tour and there seem to be a number of different “interpretations” shall we say of the rules, I have had to point people towards the rule book in the past…
Normally if I notice a new tournament player doing the same thing on more than one occasion(foot faults, falling putts within the 10 etc) I would nmention it to them after the shot and then call it if it happened again, however if it is someone who should know better I have called them first fault in a tournament round.
in the last tournie round i played in a friend called a new player for his foot placement when he was at the top of s steep bank full of stinging nettles (if you haven’t been to the UK you don’t know the pain of these things!) The guy was wearing shorts and tshirt, when he went to move his foot back he slipped and slid face first all the way down the bank through the stinging nettles – it must have been agony – but god it was hard not to laugh!
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If its a casual tourney then just point it out and carry on. If it’s a sanctioned tourney rules should be enforced.
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I’ve called people out a few times, mostly on general etiquette stuff. One of my biggest pet peeves is people talking when someone is on the tee getting ready to drive or about to putt. I’m all about having a good time while on the course but when i’m on the tee i want to be concentrating on my shot not listening to someone gabbing in the background.
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Just played my first tournament last weekend.
It was pretty laid back (and small, only 15 players) and didn’t hear of anyone calling someone out.
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I would love to call out people for drinking their beers and bringing their dogs, but I don’t want to be “that guy”.
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I don’t mind calling a rules violation, and don’t mind being called, if I transgressed. I’ve been playing PDGA for over 35 years, and I’ve learned to make a call, then get over it. I know the players who will place a foot to their advantage, and I will ride them like a rented mule if they seek to do so in a round; it’s up to them to get over it, in that case. The rules state that we should police ourselves, whether we want to or not. Following the rules should not distract one from your round, it should be incorporated into professional play.
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