discs

Opinion: One giant step — and statement — by women disc golfers

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For something to be successful, it often takes small steps.

This past weekend, the women of disc golf didn’t appear to want to make a small statement. Instead, as a collective unit, more than 600 women made note that they were there to play the game.

Bravo.

Several months ago, when I first heard about the Women’s Global Event, the gears in my brain started to turn. How could we as a disc golf blog help to not only promote this wonderful event, but also work to help get women’s voices out there?

A women’s week came to mind.

I have to be honest, too. I never even connected it with Mother’s Day. In fact, it was Val Jenkins who noted that to me in an e-mail. Though she promised she wouldn’t tell “mom” about my gaffe of not realizing that WGE and Mother’s Day were the same weekend, I’m coming clean.

That just made this week at Rattling Chains more special.

As this idea grew, I spoke with the person who created our logo — Ben Coury — and asked him about switching some colors. He did it quickly. I looked at our blog theme and realized I could change the color to match.

Women’s Week at Rattling Chains was born.

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Suzette Simons keeps giving back to the game

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Suzette Simons at the 2011 United States Women's Disc Golf Championship in Round Rock, Texas.

Family first.

This simple edict may be a gentle reminder about one’s priorities in life, but when reflecting on bringing more women to disc golf, Suzette Simons said she thinks it might be a means to continuing the sport’s growth.

Simons is a key member of the Southern California disc golf family. Through her work as the Membership Director of the Southern California Disc Golf Association (SCDGA), as well as her employment as Customer Service and Promotions Specialist for Innova Champion Discs, she said she understands what brings all players – women included – to the course.

“It seems most women come into the sport, just like most men, through friends and family,” Simons said. “Family play brings not only more women to the sport, but junior players as well. As more families play, more women will play.”

Since first trying disc golf in 1996, Simons has dedicated herself to her local scene, be it in Iowa where she first played, or in Minnesota, where she served for two years as president of the Minnesota Frisbee Association. At each depot in her disc golf life, she has always made time to give back to the community.

“I was hooked immediately, especially to the competitive side, including league and tournament play,” Simons said of her origins with the game. “I also became active right away volunteering with local clubs and running events.

Suzette Simons at the table of the 2009 United States Masters.

“It is just my nature to volunteer.”

Her work in giving back to the game has centered mostly on attracting women and children to the sport through hosting clinics, tournaments, and league events. Simons’ desire to contribute also finds her on the PDGA Competition Committee and as a major supporter of EDGE, the Educational Disc Golf Experience that helps put the game in kids’ hands.

And while Simons is a competitive player by nature, she doesn’t necessarily see competition as a need for attracting women to the game.

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The younger generation is key to growing the women’s game

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Three-time world champion Val Jenkins is the chairperson of the PDGA's Women's Committee and is working to expand the women's game.

If one took a peek at last year’s PDGA National Elite Tour women’s standings, they’d see a list of ladies who participated in the nine-event series throughout the season.

However, looking at it closer, just one player — Sarah Hokom — played in all nine events. Three others — Val Jenkins, Paige Pierce and Catrina Allen played in eight apiece.

Liz Lopez played in seven and after that, it dwindles to five points and below. Of the 57 players who competed in an NT event, 40 played in just one event.

In comparison, the men’s National Elite Tour had 200 players, with 12 players competing in seven or more events. More than a handful played in five or six events, which made the fields larger.

So what gives?

As with many sports, the purse for the winners is usually smaller when it comes to women. And though the ladies may not be the main draw, there is star power when talking about players such as three-time world champion Jenkins, 2011 world champion Pierce and Hokom, who placed second in last year’s NT standings to Jenkins.

Still, it seems whenever Open players on the women’s circuit travel, they play the same people on the top cards. In men’s action, you can find different standouts regionally who can sometimes get in with the top touring pros.

Sarah Hokom, who left her job as a teacher to tour full time, is trying to help expand the women's game.

The top female amateur divisions sometimes lack players, too. Hokom said while she was still an am, she sometimes had to play in a men’s division.

“I’ve been trying to figure this out for a while,” Hokom said. “That’s why I played Open. There were no women in the Midwest to play against as an amateur. Places I went, sometimes you played against yourself. That’s no fun.”

Hokom, a former high school biology teacher, opted to become a full-time touring pro a couple of years ago. Sponsored by Discraft, she said has to watch where she tours because she needs to make sure there’s a decent Women’s Open division. If there’s only one or two others in the tournament, it’s not financially worth traveling to the events.

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From snowmen to pro: One woman’s journey in disc golf

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Jenny Cook’s course directory and map to help her become a better golfer.

(Note: The following is a personal account by Jenny Cook on her climb in disc golf as a female player. Enjoy!)

It all started with a snowman.

Not the kind made from snow, but the kind that can creep up on a scorecard as an 8.

Hole No. 2 punished me with a 7.

Hole No. 3 — another snowman.

From hole No. 4 on, I probably didn’t see a score on a hole better than a 6. It was frustrating how every shot I threw only went 150 feet and raced straight to the ground. Hard.

After that hot summer day of playing disc golf in Rockford, Illinois, I only played a handful of other times, most often in the streets of my college town for a round of object golf. Other than that, I wasn’t sold.

Jenny has used dedication to improve over the years.

One year passed.

The summer of 2005 brought many changes to my life including a new commute to and from my new job. Along that route I discovered a much less intimidating disc golf course — a little “9 hole-r.” I stopped to admire the oak trees with metal baskets peppered throughout the property. It was beautiful, convenient, and reminded me of why people called me the outdoorsy type.

“I should be out there,” I thought. “No, I belong out there.”

Soon after my mini revelation, I decided to buy a few discs from the local mart, swallow my pride, and hit the course.

Even if it was going to hurt, I was going to give this disc golf thing another try.

I picked it up again on that same 9-hole course. Hole No. 1, started with a 4. Not bad, I thought. But as I looked around at all of the other people playing, I concluded that my 4 was a disgrace on this 235-foot hole.

I’m not going to lie, I was intimidated at first. Not just because I was terrible, but because I didn’t see another female disc golfer. I weighed my options — miss out on something that could change my life, or sit in the corner worrying about what all these guys thought of the “only girl out there playing.”

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11-year-old Illinois twin sisters hooked on disc golf

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Angelie (left) and Giavana Hill pose next to the Non-Stop Disc Golf truck. (Photo: Ray Hill)

There have been many famous twins throughout history.

These twins have been involved in all facets of entertainment, from sports to world history and mythology.

In recent memory, twins such as Tiki and Ronde Barber (football), Jenna and Barbara Bush (daughters of former President George W. Bush), and Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen (acting) have made their marks among famous twins.

Could Giavana and Angelie Hill be next?

Let’s not rush these two. After all, at 11 years old, the Joliet, Illinois residents are still dealing with fifth grade, let alone worrying about becoming famous.

Though if they have their way, they might be some of the next generation of top women’s disc golfers. The two — who recently became members of the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) and received back-to-back numbers — will play in their first tournament Saturday as part of the Women’s Global Event.

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Women to be featured this week on Rattling Chains

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Don’t be alarmed by the different look of the website. It’s for good reason, I assure you.

This week is a special week — and one that we as disc golfers need to embrace and help push.

Why?

There aren’t enough females playing disc golf.

And that’s a shame.

This sport is extremely fun and it works so well that people of any age, gender, race or anything else can play it. And with the proper work, anyone can become quite good.

Some of the finest disc golfers I’ve ever seen are female.

At the Vibram Open last year, I had the chance to watch some of the very best professional women — Val Jenkins, Sarah Hokom, Paige Pierce, Catrina Allen and Sarah Stanhope. The list can go on and on.

A few years ago — based on my stellar scores during the first round of a tournament — I was paired up with four women in the second round.

To say they thoroughly whipped me would be an understatement.

But what a difference. They were competitive, yet kept things loose, offered some advice and were extremely nice to be paired with, despite me not being so good.

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Weekly disc golf wrap: News and notes

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Another weekend of good weather, at least in these parts!

So I hope you got the chance to get out and play and take advantage of it!

I was quite amazed with the response on our 9-hole course story this past week, so keep the comments coming on that one! We appreciate it.

Speaking of 9-holers, I had the chance to play one Friday. It was pretty wide open and I’m sure it’s the type of course that 9-hole detractors point to when talking about how they aren’t great. Still, at least it was throwing and there were baskets!

Anyway, there’s been some good stuff in the mainstream media this week, so check out this week’s golf wrap.

May 6

  • Frisbee golf coming to Beverly Park (Beverly Hills, Mich.)

May 5

  • Trumbull MetroParks Celebrates New Pavilion, Disc Course (Trumbull County, Ohio)

May 4

  • Disc golf provides cheap, exciting thrills (Auburn, Calif.)
  • Want to play? Just pick up a disc (Sioux Falls, South Dakota)
  • Discover it: They’re in it to spin it, and members of Muscatine Disc Golf Club hope they can get more people to do the same (Muscatine, Iowa)
  • AHS teams dominate state disc golf meet (Austin, Minn.)
  • Moore Report: Frolfers these days (Anchorage, Alaska)

May 3

  • Westchester Lagoon Disc Golf Hearing Looks for Solutions (Anchorage, Alaska)
  • Give it a whirl: Disc course in McDonald expands facilities of Johnston Woods (McDonald, Tenn.)
  • Westchester disc golf course out of bounds (Anchorage, Alaska)

May 2

  • Disc golf event set for May 12 (Bowling Green, Kent.)
  • June 14 public hearing set for disc golf plan at Whipple Beach (Baxter, Minn.)
  • Disc golf course closure is topic of public meeting Wednesday (Anchorage, Alaska)
  • Disc golfers would clean up trails (Barrie, Ontario, Canada)
  • The Attempt to Save Westchester Disc Golf (Anchorage, Alaska)
  • An olive branch from Anchorage to its disc-golfers? (Anchorage, Alaska)
  • Canyon County looking to open 9-hole disc golf course near Lake Lowell (Lake Lowell, Idaho)

May 1

  • Annual disc golf tournament held in Edmond (Edmond, Okla.)
  • Disc golf product Bushwhack Apps wins top prize at Startup Weekend (Madison, Wisc.)
  • Cleanup revives free course’s original vision (Trinidad, Colo.)

April 30

  • Disc golf tournament pits pros, amateurs in growing sport that doesn’t cost fortune to play (Memphis, Tenn.)
  • McDade Park boasts 18-hole Disc Golf course and more (Houston, Texas)
  • Locals start young professionals club (disc golf course creation mentioned; Kenai, Alaska)

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!

May 5: What’s in your bag?

/ P.J. / 6 Comments

Kelly's bag carries a lot of things!

This week’s “What’s in your bag?” feature comes from Kelly Littlefield, who calls three courses in Colorado “home field.”

But it’s not the courses that Kelly calls home that makes the bag unique. Nope. It’s that Kelly names every disc. Not only are the discs named, they are after race horses! In fact, it’s a superstition.

The drivers

It can be funny, however. Kelly says someone may call after finding a lost disc and might say “Is Van Gogh there?”

Kelly calls Optimist Park (Fort Morgan, Colo.); YMCA of the Rockies (Estes Park, Colo.) and Badlands (Federal Heights, Colo.) as home courses.

Good stuff, Kelly. And thanks for sharing what’s in your Fade Fly or Die bag!

Discs:

  • Innova Pro Valkyrie 174g – Chocolate Candy II (Me like some Valkyrie!)

  • Midranges

  • Innova Pro Valkyrie 168g – Chocolate Candy III
  • Innova Pro Valkyrie 150g – Ghostzapper
  • Innova Champion Valkyrie 171g – Dust Commander
  • Innova R-Pro Wahoo 169g – Bumble bee (Best swimmer in my bag!)
  • Innova Pro Beast 167g – Bee Bee Bee
  • Innova Pro Vulcan 167g – Van Gogh )My newest addition and instant favorite!)
  • Innova Pro Destroyer 172g – Dobber
  • Innova Star Spider 175g – Real Quiet
  • Innova Star Skeeter 175g – Winning Colors
  • MVP Proton Ion 175g – Dotted Battle Cow
  • Vibram Soft Summit 174g – Blue Man
  • The rest of the stable for another day!

What else?

  • Two aluminum Tampa Buccaneers water bottles
  • My cell phone with Avery Jenkins wallpaper
  • One pack of Eclipse spearmint gum
  • One large Shamwow towel and one small Shamwow towel
  • One 18 Rabbit Nibblin Apricot granola bar (It’s a wifey thing, don’t ask!)
  • Four Trails Best Beef and Cheese sticks (Reason for the flossers)
  • Bag of Bigs Zesty Ranch Sunflower Seeds (The best seeds, period!)
  • Golden retriever, sharpie and pencil
  • Kleenex, sun screen, ibuprofen, Napoleon Dynamite vanilla lip balm and Hot Spot hand warmers
  • Usually three pounds of change (I scrounged up enough change to buy a disc once!
  • Official Rules of Disc Golf & Competition Manual

Want to submit your bag and contents? Here’s what we need: A couple of photos of your bag and discs. Put together a list of everything you carry in the bag — from food to discs to anything else. Then maybe give a paragraph or two about your bag and if there’s anything you do between casual and tournament rounds etc. Finally, don’t forget your name, location and home course! Cell phone photos are fine, but please try and make it as high quality as possible. Grainy shots might not be able to be used. E-mail all of these things to pj [at] rattlingchains.com with the subject “What’s in my bag.”

Poll 9: The National Tour

/ P.J. / Leave a comment

Before we get to this week’s poll, let me say this — some of you golfers play a lot in the span of the week!

And, well, I’m a bit jealous.

See, the nearest “true” course to me is about a 1:20 drive away. And though it’s not too bad if you play a couple of rounds, the economy will tell you that it’s not something that’s feasible to do every day!

So, I go when I can. There are talks, hopes and plans of a course or two in our area, though, so I can hope one day I’ll be playing as much as some of you!

Anyway, let’s check out the results of last week’s poll

We had 126 voters and the winning choice was 3-4 rounds per week, which received 32 percent of the vote with 40 people making that their choice. Next was 1-2 rounds with 33 votes (26 percent) and then 5-6 rounds per week with 26 votes (21 percent). The next was 7-9 rounds (12 percent/15 votes) and 10 or more (9 percent/12 votes).

Brian Buller notes:

It usually varies week to week for me, but on average I would say about 5-6 per week. If I could, I would have a minimum of 3 rounds per day but it’s hard getting out there very often without a car.

Three rounds per day? That would be a lot of disc throwing if you could pull that off!

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Weekly disc golf wrap: News and notes

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The weather has been wacky in my part of the Northeast recently. So much so that we actually had some snow recently.

Snow!

Alas, the weather turned this weekend and a couple of us from the RattlingChains.com family got to get out and play a round Sunday. It felt good to flip some discs in a good weather. We got the chance to test out a new disc, take some video and photos and enjoy.

And, as has been the trend lately, there’s been some good coverage of the sport in the media. So let’s take a peek at what was out there this past week.

April 29

  • Edora Park disc golf course sticking with 18 holes (Fort Collins, Colo.)
  • Amphitheater, disc golf on park commission’s plate Monday (Chico, Calif.)
  • Weather does not deter disc golfers from competing (Frankfort, Indiana)
  • Enjoying another flight path (West Palm Beach, Fla.)
  • Disc golf clinic set for Tuesdays in May (Hannibal, Mo.)
  • Disc golfers let ’em fly at 18th annual Vintage Cup

April 27

  • Disc golfers raise $1,200 indoors (Helena, Montana)
  • Local Resident Vying to Make Disc Golf Course a Reality in Lacey (Lacey, NJ)
  • Bud Hadfield Park boasts 18-hole disc golf course boasts 18-hole disc golf course (Houston, Texas)
  • Westchester Lagoon Disc Golf Summer Closing Sparks Online Petition (Anchorage, Alaska)
  • Should town amend recycling center code? (disc golf talked about midway through story — Ravena, NY)

April 26

  • Anchorage’s Westchester disc golf course closure was inevitable (Anchorage, Alaska)
  • Extracurricular course (River Valley and Ozark Area, Arkansas)

April 25

April 24

April 23

  • Disc Golf is an Electrical Impulse, a Word, OK. (Sean Blog)

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!