P.J. Harmer

Discraft’s Ace Race delivers with a lot of fun

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By P.J. Harmer — Rattling Chains staff

With Discraft’s Ace Race in the books, let’s take a quick peek at this year’s tournaments.

I don’t know how many of you participated in one of these events this year. For me, it was the second straight year I played in the tournament and it was equally as fun.

This year’s Ace Race ran from August to October and had 347 events held throughout the world. A few weeks ago, Rattling Chains writer Steve Hill wrote about the event on a more broad level.

The Ace Race disc. (photo by P.J. Harmer)

For those who didn’t read that and don’t know about the Ace Race, it’s a small and fun tournament where players have more chances at aces. For your entry fee ($25), you get two discs and some other swag.The player pack this year was well worth the money as each person got the two discs, a mini, a pair of 80s-style sunglasses and a stainless steel water bottle.

The discs are the only ones you can use during the tournament.Each player throws them at each hole, counting nothing but aces and metals, which is how many times you hit metal somewhere on the basket, but without slamming an ace.

In the end, the person with the most aces wins an excellent prize package of Discraft discs.

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Product Review: NutSac disc golf bag

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By P.J. Harmer — Rattling Chains staff

I love my disc golf bag.

I have a Revolution bag. It’s loaded for so many things and I even have it personalized with a few patches. There are two plus-sized water bottle holders and room for many, many discs.

The reason I accepted the bag when it was given to me by a friend was because it could hold so much — my camera included. But here’s what I quickly found out — when I was playing, most of the time I didn’t carry my camera.

The craftsmanship of the NutSac is quite impressive. (photo by P.J. Harmer)

Instead, I had a lot of dead air in my bag — where the 8-10 discs I carried rattled around.

Comfort wasn’t an issue. Quality wasn’t an issue. Practicality was.

Several months ago, I was at a sporting goods store in New York’s Capital Region. This store accepts trade-ins and such. Hanging on the rack was a NutSac, priced at about 20 bucks. I had a gift card and I thought about it. In fact, the person with me pointed out that I should grab it because I had been thinking about it.

I looked at it. I stared. I thought about the NutSac.

After debating, I realized if I was going to get a NutSac, I didn’t want one that has been used. I don’t know what they did with that NutSac, did I? Exactly. I likened it to buying a new baseball glove and having the chance to break it in and make it your own.

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Company Closeup: inbounds Disc Golf

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By P.J. Harmer — Rattling Chains staff

A search for finding discs that fit his style led Brian Rogers to a much bigger commitment in the sport of disc golf.

And like that inbounds Disc Golf was born.

Rogers, the owner of the company and the author of its newest publication — the inFlight guide, has been playing disc golf for three years.

Rogers said he got hooked on the sport within the first two or three holes and, from there, the obsession grew. As it is with many people, real life makes playing time limited, but he said he’s constantly thinking about disc golf.

“Whether it’s following disc golf forums, reading disc golf blogs or brushing up on the current disc golf news and players standings, I’m surrounded by a disc golf cloud,” he said.

Rogers is a data guy.

His education is in computers/business and IT, so data is obviously a massive part of his life. From that, he said he tried to get the data to tell him something, no matter how he’s working with it.

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Duo goes underground to celebrate a grand milestone

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Matt Sime and Dan Kilgore at Crystal City Underground. (contributed photo)

By P.J. Harmer — Rattling Chains staff

In the big scheme of life, three years can be a long time.

Over the course of three years, people can accomplish many things. You can get a college degree in three years, if you work hard enough. Three years is the difference between those graduating high school at age 18 and being able to legally drink.

Three years is 1,095 days — or 1,096 if there’s a leap year in that stretch.

For Matt Sime, three years means so much more.

Sime, who claims Alden, Minn., — or his van — as his home, has been playing disc golf for three years. In that three years, he’s really explored disc golf courses around the country. Exploring courses is something most disc golfers can probably claim to have done during their first three years in the game.

But can they claim 1,000 courses played?

Yes, you read that number correctly. On Sept. 31, Sime played his 1,000th course in his third year of playing disc golf — an amazing number to be sure.

He wasn’t the only one celebrating that milestone though — Dan Kilgore teamed up and played his 1,000th course at the same time, albeit taking a bit longer to reach the milestone.

To be fair, Sime got his first glimpse of the sport in 2004 at Vermilion Community College (Ely, Minn.) in 2004. But he said he only played the course once and there was no follow up. Then in 2009, sometime about Easter, he was on a rock-climbing trip at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch (Arkansas). He said he caught a glimpse of how great the game could be. With rental discs and course fees included, he said he played at least three rounds that weekend.

Again, a break followed, but much shorter this time. It was Thanksgiving 2009 when he got his first taste of hitting a bunch of courses. He was on another rock-climbing trip with the same group of friends and they decided to buy a disc and check out the local courses near Las Vegas, Nevada.

“From there, one disc led to five, led to 100,” Sime said. “Five courses led to 100, led to, well you know the rest of the story.”

He played 998 of the courses in fewer than three years. The other two were the original ones.

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October Madness arrives as the Players Cup begins

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Dave Feldberg is the overall top seed for the Players Cup, which is running this weekend in Texas.

By P.J. Harmer — Rattling Chains staff

As disc golf continues to grow and evolve, different formats of tournaments, leagues and other aspects of the game will likely be tried to see what works.

Traditionally, tournaments are usually played in a normal setting — stroke play and in divisions. Occasionally, you’ll get a doubles tournament or some sort of non-traditional format, such as best-throw or alternate shot.

On a higher level, though, it pretty much remains the same across the board — stroke play over a certain number of rounds.

Insert the Players Cup, a three-day match-play format tournament featuring 64 of the top disc golfers in the world.

Vibram is the top sponsor of the Players Cup, which is scheduled to run Friday through Sunday at Twin Parks Country Club in Dripping Springs, Texas, which is about 10 minutes outside of Austin.

“I have always wanted to create a true disc golf spectacle,” said Steve Dodge, Vibram Disc Golf’s product manager. “Something that is compelling to watch and will get the average disc golfer excited to be a part of. A bracketed match-play tournament, like the NCAA March Madness, was exactly what I was looking for.”

Enter October Madness.

Originally founded in 2005 by Mike Barnett of Sun King Discs, the Players Cup served as an end-of-season celebration with players who had won events during the year. When the event took a hiatus in 2008, Dodge took that opportunity to discuss with Barnett the idea of making it into a match-play championship.

This tournament marks the third year of the setup.

“In the first two years, we have created an online bracket that people fill out and win prizes,” Dodge said. “The goal of the Players Cup is to celebrate the growth of our sport, create a spectacle and generate interest in watching the best disc golfers in the world.”

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Disc golf slowly growing in the fantasy sports market

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By P.J. Harmer — Rattling Chains staff

It’s safe to say that fantasy sports is a multimillion-dollar industry.

The amount of people who participate in fantasy sports leagues every year continues to grow. The amount of people who play these games in the United States is staggering. It’s not just football, either. It cover sports such as baseball, basketball, soccer and hockey among others.

How big are fantasy sports?

According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association‘s 2012 Media Guide, 34 million adults in America play fantasy sports — up from an estimated 9 million in 2005.

That’s expansion.

The big sports are football (72 percent), baseball (37 percent) and racing (24 percent). But different sports are out there for people to play. If you have an interest, the odds are there’s some sort of fantasy sport for you.

Disc golf is no different.

In its second year, PlayFantasyDiscGolf.com has a pretty steady following of players on the site. Co-creator Aaron Brooker estimated there’s been about 1,700 people signing up each year and, depending on the time of year, there are about 350-600 active users.

Brooker said the idea came up for the site based on seeing fantasy disc golf done in other places, but it seemed to be done via well-coordinated Excel files. He let the idea stew while he recovered from a surgery and wasn’t able to be out playing.

After having his wife created some mock-ups, he teamed up with co-creator Rob Hruska, another golfer who enjoys fantasy sports. Brooker had worked with Hruska on a different project involving tournaments and leagues before.

“Our goal is to highlight the athletes,” Brooker said. “We feel touring pros deserve recognition and we hope to be known for promoting our best athletes and bringing more attention to the sport of disc golf.”

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Company Closeup: NutSac

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By P.J. Harmer — Rattling Chains staff

It seems like a marketing ploy.

Get a bunch of guys playing a round of disc golf and walking along and one guy has a small satchel-style bag and says “It’s much more fun playing with your NutSac.”

Say what?

Sure, the name NutSac may get some giggles and laughs. But in the end, name withstanding, it’s a quality bag made for the everyday player who isn’t always concerned about carrying dozens of discs.

Founded in 2008, NutSac LLC is a one-man company (besides sewing contrators) who handles the aspects of the business, from marketing to shipping to everything in between.

The business was originally founded by two friends, but when it became evident that business was not going to be able to support two people for at least two years, Greg Kise took control of the business as the second partner (who still has a minor stake in the business) wanted to move on to other projects.

Kise said he had plenty of experience “bootstrapping small businesses,” so he was able to build.

And just like that NutSac, based in Corvallis, Oregon, started its journey.

One needs to back up a little before getting a grip on NutSac.

Why bags?

“Start with what you know,” said Kise, who also serves as a stay-at-home Dad. “I was playing a lot of disc golf and thought the trend toward larger and larger bags was kind of silly. Especially since most of the guys I played with used about three discs.”

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Six months with Rattling Chains — what’s next?

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By P.J. Harmer — Rattling Chains staff

So the answer has to be given … did we rattle the chains?

As readers will remember, we came out of the gate quickly when we started six months ago. We were super pumped and the possibilities were endless. The ideas that were being thrown around were plenty.

When we initially started this blog, we said we’d revisit it in six months. At that point, we’d decide if we wanted to continue or shut it down. As someone who has been a writer for most of my professional life, I didn’t want to let the blog go to hell. If we weren’t doing well, we’d shut up shop and move along.

But it wouldn’t come without a fight, that’s for sure.

Over the course of the first half year, we’ve had some ups and downs. We started quick, we slowed up, things looked bleak and we’ve kind of bounced back.

We also got lucky to get some quality contributors right off the bat in Jack Trageser and Steve Hill. Since then, we’ve added Andre Fredrick and Jenny Cook. We also have a few people who have submitted things to us here and there, giving us some great things.

What I’ve really liked about this blog is all those different voices. From men to women, we’ve tried to give what we can.

This three-day schedule on a weekly basis hasn’t been the best for visits, however. And that’s understandable. After all, if there are fewer stories, people won’t come back every day.

That meant is was decision time. We’re at that six-month point. So what to do?

Do we continue?

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Product Review: Disc Beeper

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By Jack Trageser and P.J. Harmer — Rattling Chains staff

It seems that as disc golf equipment technology evolves, much of the advances are slight, such as a disc that flies slightly faster or farther, or a basket that has chains that hang at different angles.

Even in the world of accessories, nearly all products hitting the market are manufactured versions of do-it-yourself gadgets, such as telescoping poles to retrieve discs.

The Disc Beeper is something entirely new and it solves a problem every disc golf encounters at some point — a lost disc. Despite the fact that numerous people have probably mused a concept such as this, nobody has every built it.

The Disc Beeper is a small electronic device with the diameter of about a quarter. It’s light (about six grams) and attaches to the bottom of a disc. When activated, it beeps at three-second intervals after a 45-second delay.

The current model is a permanent attachment to the disc, so it would not be allowed in PDGA-sanctioned events.

The following is a joint review by Rattling Chains writers Jack Trageser and P.J. Harmer.

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The Vibram Open should be packed full of excitement

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Nate Doss takes a plunge into the pond after winning the Vibram Open last year. Will Doss repeat or will someone else claim victory this year?

By P.J. Harmer — Rattling Chains staff

This year’s Vibram Open is shaping up to be one to remember.

And for the first time, the pros and ams are each getting in on the action.

The Vibram is the final stop on the PDGA National Tour Elite Series. This year, the event expands to four days for the pros, running from Thursday to Sunday.

On top of that, the Vibram has added an amateur tournament, which will be held at other area courses with the final being shifted to Maple Hill to play the vaunted gold tees.

Some of the other major new items for this year’s Vibram include:

  • The men’s professional open field is smaller, but has a larger payout. A cap of 144 players has been set (it used to be 160), and the cut will remain at 72. The payout has gone from $41,000 to $45,000.
  • The women’s payout this year has also gone up — from $8,300 to $10,000. The Vibram also allowed any and all women to compete with the cut line being 15.
  • The Vibram has also gone from three to four rounds.

The pro tournament will run from Thursday through Sunday at Maple Hill in Leicester, Mass.

One of the most scenic courses on the tour, the championship gold tees challenge the best in the world with tricky woods shots, long drives and creative water holes.

As the crowning — and final stop — on the PDGA Tour, more than just a victory will be on the line as the tour champion will be crowned at this event as well.

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