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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Bringing the family on board makes disc golf even better

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By Steve Hill — Rattling Chains staff

Bless my wonderful wife.

First, it was football. She would hear me talk nonstop about all the NFL action she could handle, until it all sank in and she acquired this insane level of knowledge that she can unleash to impress our fantasy football league (of which, yes, she is the only female participant).

Now, it is disc golf.

Steve Hill’s wife Kelly has started to take up disc golf, so maybe knowingly looking for houses closer to courses wasn’t a one-way deal?

Being that I am a disc golf player, writer (allegedly), and all-around obsessive, she is always having to listen to (or tune out – really, I don’t know) my various adventures. Ranging from “I was this close to an ace today!” to “I think I want x disc in y plastic, but I am not sure because I like the grip of z plastic better,” she certainly gets her fill, yet never complains.

Recently, though, I thought I had pushed her to her breaking point.

You see, my wife was recently offered a new job, which found us relocating to North San Diego County, California. For those who are unfamiliar with the area, it is close to the beach, has boatloads of craft breweries and, most importantly, a nice selection of disc golf courses.

In short, we relocated to my personal mecca.

There was only one minor drawback, though — house hunting. Goodness, house hunting is the worst, and nowhere near as glamorous as those shows on HGTV (which I totally don’t watch, and only know about because my wife watches them and I hear them in the background). We were on a crunch for time, and we needed to find a place that would be near enough to her work and not require a ton of time in traffic.

Now remember: Close to the beach, beer, and golf courses. Should have been enough for me, right?

Wrong.

Every time we looked up a new place to rent, I would look at three things — the price, if it allowed pets, and how close it was to the nearest disc golf course. Often times, we were looking at a 25-minute drive, which for many readers (and Rattling Chains head honcho P.J.) is probably close enough.

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Book Excerpt 3: The time factor in ball golf vs. disc golf

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By Jack Trageser — Rattling Chains staff

So far the snippets I’ve posted from my upcoming book have been from the first chapter, which first describes the reason golf is a singularly great game. It then contrasts ball golf with disc golf in light of the many limitations of the former and the lack of those limitations with the latter.

This post continues that dissertation with an examination of time factor, as in, how long each takes to play, and exactly why that matters when it comes to accessibility.

Keep in mind this book is aimed primarily at the non-disc golfing public, designed to properly educate them about the nuances and beneficial aspects of our sport. As a way of explaining the intention of certain passages to you, the disc golf-enthusiast reader, I’ve added some further comments to the text. Those are the sentences in italics.

The Time Factor in Golf

According to GolfLink, a portal website that bills itself as “the most complete online golf resource available on the web,” an average foursome playing 18 holes on an average course at average speed “should expect the round to take near the maximum of 4-5 hours. They estimate that for groups using motorized golf carts the duration might be as low as 3.5 to 4 hours, but that, of course, adds to the list of expenses and reduces the amount of beneficial exercise. GolfLink is a for-profit commerce site dependent on the popularity of the game with no reason to exaggerate this estimate. Quite the opposite, actually.

For an increasing number of people, that’s just too big a chunk of time to carve out of their busy schedules already filled with work and family commitments. In a report in the New York Times in 2009 titled ‘More Americans Are Giving Up Golf‘, Paul Vitello points out that “The total number of people who play has declined or remained flat each year since 2000, dropping to about 26 million from 30 million, according to the National Golf Foundation and the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association.”

A check of more recent statistics on the National Golf Foundation website confirms that the downward trend continues and even steepens into 2012.

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Photo focus: Oct. 9

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(Photo focus will run every two weeks or so on Rattling Chains. The idea is to focus on disc golf photographs submitted by staff members and readers. To see the guidelines for submitting a photograph for this feature, click here.)

The silhouette of a disc golf basket at sunset (photo by P.J. Harmer).

Taken in a field in Meredith, New York.

Story: I have often seen some incredible photographs taken with disc golf basket silhouettes. I’ve also seen silhouettes of people or discs and everything else in regard to the sport.

I’ve just never had the chance to get anything cool.

Living in an area with mountains and valleys, it’s often tough to capture a good sunset. You have to be on a peak of a hill at the right time and sometimes it’s tough to find that one spot. Two of us — myself and Rattling Chains staff member Darren Dolezel — were heading back to town after a day of shooting some urban golf. Knowing the sunset was going to be good and knowing we had a portable basket with us, we went to a spot we thought would work.

The sunset was awesome. I just had to rush to set things up. With no real level ground, you get the tilted basket, which I’ve grown to really like about this shot. I took as many as I could — both with my tripod and without — in hopes of getting one. This was the best one and it’s an image that I truly love.

I will look to get more images at sunset involving disc golf. But this was a good way to start and figure some things out. I have ideas. Now I need to find a course within driving distance where I can accomplish said photos!

Techie info:

  • Camera: Canon 7D
  • Exposure: 1/400
  • Aperture: F/10
  • Focal length: 40mm
  • ISO: 800

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!

Poll 29: Out watching events

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Several of us often talk about bigger events — you know, the ones you might not be willing or can’t play in? Ones like A-Tier or National Tour events.

As normal the conversation will shift to whether or not people have been to one, how entertaining it is etc.

So, of course, I needed to figure out a poll about it. But we’ll get to that in a bit. First, let’s take a peek back at last week’s poll. We were curious where you all got your plastic (or rubber, if you’re a Vibram thrower).

Only 18 of you voted in this one, but the results were quite overwhelmingly online. That choice garnered 56 percent of the vote — 48 votes! Following that was other (14 votes/16 percent), Mom-and-pop sporting good stores (12 votes/14 percent), big-box stores (5 votes/6 percent), clubs (3 votes/4 percent) and tournaments/leagues (3 votes/4 percent).

I think the one that shocks me the most is the tournaments/leagues one. I guess, because it was listed as where you buy most of your discs, maybe not. But I played in an Ace Race on Sunday and the line of people sifting through the local club’s discs at the tournament was quite large. It seemed like quite a few bought, too. But looking at it, I imagine not many people run out and purchase a dozen discs at a tournament.

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Discraft’s Ace Race continues to evolve in its 10th year

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By Steve Hill — Rattling Chains staff

No matter how old you are, or how long you have been playing, everyone who partakes in disc golf wants to achieve that ultimate goal — release the disc, watch its gorgeous path through the air, and SPLASH! Ace!

Even if you are a golfer who has a list of aces as long as Santa Claus’ naughty and nice scroll, it’s always fun to take a run at the chains, and Discraft offers that each fall with their annual Ace Race.

Now in its 10th year, the Discraft Ace Race is comprised of more than 300 individual events held over nearly three months that bring golfers — both veterans and those who have never touched a disc outside of their DVD players — together for the sole purpose of trying to hit as many aces as possible in one day. With this year’s event boasting more than 16,000 participants from 12 countries on three continents, it is the largest single disc golf event in the world, according to Discraft marketing director Brian Sullivan.

Coming from humble beginnings in Michigan and rapidly ascending to more than 50 events in three years, Sullivan said the goal of the Ace Race originally was to serve as the middleman between new players and their more established brethren.

The 2012 Ace Race disc.

“Our research has shown that the average new disc golfer takes three years to make the transition from a one-disc-wonder who plays a few times per year to joining a league and contributing to the local club’s growth,” Sullivan said. “Ace Race was conceived from the beginning to be a vehicle that would help to bridge the gap between casual players and organized clubs, serving as an introductory activity.”

The concept, for those unfamiliar, is pretty simple — Discraft designs a prototype disc each year that is released to the public specifically for the Ace Race. Participants pay $25 to enter the event, receiving two discs (as well as other goodies) that they use to simply tee off and try for an ace on each hole. No birdies, no pars. Just pure, unadulterated ace racing.

Sullivan admits, however, that Discraft did not devise the Ace Race concept all on their own. They just put their own spin on it.

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Using dyes to make your discs personal

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By Kevin Morrow — For Rattling Chains

I like personalizing my stuff, making it unique to my personality and sense — or lack thereof — of style.

When I bought my Harley Davidson, the first thing I did was take the tins off and do a custom paint design, which is still unique to anything I’ve yet to see. When I got back into disc golf, I jazzed up the old camera bag I used. I took some patches I had been given, sewer them on and even spray painted some graphics on the bag. My new backpack is heavily decorated with patches, tags and other things.

This design took about 24 to cut over the course of three days. It’s my all-time favorite because it’s my most detailed dye and it was a perfect dye — clean detail cuts and no bleeds.

I like to believe it’s a way to tell my story.

I’ve always wanted to do custom art on my discs. But the only way I knew to do it was drawing art with a Sharpie.

Then I found out you could dye custom graphics on Champion and Star plastics. I’d still like to find the first person to discover this process. I can imagine a disc golfer in a dark and damp basement and he accidentally spills some Rit dye on his favorite disc, making a cool pattern. Just like that, custom dyes are invented.

It boggles my mind to think someone actually may have had the thought of “I wonder if I apply cloth dye to a disc, will it work?”

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Words with Wysocki: Cliff jumping and playing strong in Ithaca

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Sorry to start writing in the middle of the season, but I’m just glad to be part of the RattlingChains.com blog and website.

The first tournament I want to write about is the DiscIthaca Open in central New York. I came to Ithaca after playing in a tournament in Manchester, Connecticut. I drove to Ithaca and had the chance to stay with my buddy, Pat Govang, which was very cool.

For people who don’t know Pat, he’s the one who created the National Tour series. I really appreciate him and his work, since I’m always playing National Tour events and making my living playing tournaments he created.

Anyway, back to tournament preparation.

I usually always take Monday off and try and do something fun – Monday Fun Day. So, I didn’t practice Monday.

On Tuesday, I went to a set of waterfalls in Ithaca and went cliff jumping. We were lucky enough to meet up with locals and find the spots to jump from. We jumped off a 50-foot cliff into the water. We also had the chance to check out the 215-foot-tall Taughannock Falls in nearby Trumansburg. The Taughannock Falls are one of the largest set of falls east of the Rocky Mountain.

Cliff jumping was very exciting and thrilling. The hardest part about it was the first jump and just getting yourself to do it, and trying to avoid thinking about it too much. It’s one of those things where if you figure if you do it once, you won’t be so nervous to do it again. But it’s just as nerve-racking jumping the fifth time as it is the first time!

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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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Poll 28: Buying discs

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We’re going to discuss buying discs for this week’s poll.

But, as per normal, we’ll get to that later on.

After all, we have some interesting things to discuss in regard to last week’s poll. Courses played … how many have you all done?

I had built myself up on this one to be shocked with the answers, but in the end it appears it was quite tame.

We had 113 people tally a vote in this poll. The top spot, which garnered 37 votes (33 percent) was the 10-24 range. That was followed by 1-9 (20 votes/18 percent) and a tie between 25-49 and 100-249, which each drew 17 votes (15 percent). Taking fifth was 50-99 (15 votes/13 percent), followed by 500 or more (four votes/four percent) and 250-499 (three votes/two percent).

I actually expected more votes toward the bigger amounts, but it doesn’t surprise me that reaching the big numbers — 250 or more — only accounted for seven votes.

That’s a lot of disc golf courses, after all.

Let’s see what some of the readers had to say.

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