poll

Poll 20: How strong is your arm?

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I know, I know… drive for show, putt for dough.

Here’s my issue — I can’t drive and my putting is a love/hate relationship with the chains. What’s a rec player to do?

So, this week, we’re talking arm strength. But we’ll get to that in a moment. First, let’s revisit last week’s poll when we asked how close you all lived to a course.

Turns out a lot of you are way luckier than me.

As noted last week, it takes a while for me to get to a semi-decent course. More than 70 miles one way.

Of the 123 people who voted in this poll, 93 of you (76 percent) live within 0-10 miles of a course!

Talk about lucky! Sheesh!

The next one was 11-20 miles, which received 14 votes (11 percent). That means, 87 percent of the voters live within 20 miles of a course. I am so jealous!

From there, 21-40 miles took third (7 votes.6 percent), followed by 41-75 miles (6 votes/5 percent); 101 or more miles (2 votes/2 percent) and 76-100 miles (0 percent/1 vote).

For the record, I was the one vote for 76-100 miles.

Hopefully, I’ll eventually get to join the legions who are so close to a course. That would be a nice thing.

Let’s see what some of you had to say from last week, too.

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Poll 17: Calling people out in a tournament

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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).

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Poll 14: How many people have you introduced to disc golf?

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Before we hit up this week’s poll, we need to look back at last week’s edition.

This one as quite interesting, to say the least.

We wanted to know what you would find worthy of paying $5 or $10 per round. Now, we knew that there would be some who would be fully against paying to play.

That, to me, is interesting. Mainly because it does cost something, at times, to keep things right at a nice park. Even if it’s just the mowing or making sure things are cleaned up/cleared out. Someone has to foot some sort of bill.

The numbers were interesting. Please remember that we allowed each voter to pick upwards of two choices. We had 175 voters.

The top choice received 111 votes — pristine maintained course. That was 63 percent of the vote! It was closely followed by on-site facilities (93 votes/53 percent). In third was disc-golf only course (39 votes/22 percent) and, in fourth, was those who will only play free courses (17 votes/10 percent). Tee times took fifth with 12 votes (7 percent).

So for those who would pay to play, we wanted to know what you would expect to see…

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Poll 13: What would be worth paying for?

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How was the weather near all of you this weekend? The Northeast wasn’t too bad as we dodged and ducked thunderstorms and rain, but there were periods of sun. That allowed many to get out and chuck some discs!

The new poll is below and we’ll get to that in a moment. First, let’s look back to last week’s poll and some answers. We asked our readers what it was going to take to push disc golf into the mainstream. We had 82 voters in this poll.

The majority of readers said a major sponsorship would be key. That garnered 24 percent of the choices (20 votes). Following in second with 20 percent (16 votes), was the choice that they don’t think disc golf will become a disc golf sport.

Rounding out the top five were recreational participation reaches critical mass (18 percent/15 votes); popularity among children and teens (17 percent/14 votes); and the popularity of the professional tour (9 percent/7 votes).

There were also some comments to think about.

Ryan Rintala says:

Imagine if a major sponsor like Nike or Adidas got involved? I mean if they came out with a disc golf shoe… and it was placed in a mainstream store like Footlocker, or Champ sports. Just the fact of a shoe being created would make the youth and people in general curious enough to look it up Google. And that is all you need, just a little curiosity created from a mainstream sponsor.

This is a great point because Keen already has a men’s and women’s shoe made for disc golf. But, Keen isn’t Nike or Adidas. And being I’ve heard other people talk about Nike and Adidas in the past in hopes for a disc golf shoe, I wonder how many people know Keen even has this shoe. Companies like Nike and Adidas getting involved with disc golf could be a game changer, for sure.

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Poll 12: What will send the sport to the mainstream?

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Before we get to this week’s poll, allow me to apologize for the tardy post. With the long weekend here in the States, it’s been one of those things. Lots to do and not enough time, right?

I hope all of you who had the long weekend had the chance to get out and enjoy the weather (maybe?), flip some discs or do whatever else.

Anyway, with that out of the way, allow me to try and get things back on track. The poll is a day late this week, so let’s make up some time.

Before we get to this week’s poll, let’s go back to last week’s poll as we have some things to give away.

The idea of last week’s poll was to have some fun and be humorous. A lot of people posted their “reaction” in a serious tone, which is fine. But a few things about the said situation I made up —

  • I’m quite sure no pro would ever act that way (I hope).
  • If all of you could react calmly given the situation, you are better than I would be.

A total of 48 people votes on this one and the big winner was “Humorously,” which garnered 21 votes (44 percent). Calmly (12 votes/25 percent) finished second, followed by angry (7 votes/15 percent) and other (7 votes/15 percent). Crazy only got one vote (one percent).

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Poll 9: The National Tour

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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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Poll 4: What kind of disc golf bag do you use?

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Turns out many disc golfers are active in more ways than on the course.

At least according to the poll conducted on Rattling Chains last week. Each votes was able to choose up to three other sports they participated in besides disc golf.

For me, it’s only a couple of things. I like to ride my bike when I get the chance (albeit probably not as much as I should!) and I play softball as much as I can during the spring and summer months.

Outside of that, it’s the occasional hike and disc golf for this guy. And that works well for me. I could probably use a trip to the gym sometimes, but who couldn’t, right?

We didn’t get every sport listed, which kind of stinks with “other” receiving the most votes for the week.

Ninety-two voters took part in this past week’s poll, giving us a total of 178 votes.

Other earned the most with 27 votes for 29 percent of the vote. It was followed by cycling (23 votes, 25 percent). Baseball/softball, ball golf and just disc golf followed with 20 votes each (22 percent).

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Poll 1: Disc count

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It’s poll time!

The plan is to do a weekly poll and we encourage you to vote. Even more, drop a comment below and maybe win something.

If you comment and elaborate on your vote, you’ll be entered to randomly win some sort of swag.

We have all sorts of things to give away, though you probably won’t be getting a basket or something like that! We have some smaller things we can stuff into envelopes and send out and if you’re selected from this, we’ll contact you and send you a piece of swag!

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