Kristy King inks her connection to disc golf’s past

May 15, 2013 / P.J. / Leave a comment

By P.J. Harmer — Rattling Chains staff

Disc golf is largely an individual sport.

Though there are sometimes events with a team aspect — such as the Collegiate Championships or a doubles tournament — the sport is highly individual.

Kristy King shows off her “Steady” Ed Headrick tattoo. (photo courtesy of Kristy King)

Whether one competes against a course, another player, the field of a tournament or against themselves, there’s not a lot of room to blame others for things that happen during a round.

It also leaves the opening for people to show off their personality. That type of expression can come in many forms, whether it be clothing, bags, disc designs, the way they act on the course, or, even, tattoos.

In the professional ranks, individual expression is there, but it’s often tame. Some top-level players may have a tattoo or two, or wear a certain type of clothing. Others may be known for outspoken comments or actions on the course.

It all depends on the player.

For Californian Kristy King, her expression is on her right forearm.

That’s where, adorned for all to see, is a tattoo of the signature of “Steady” Ed Headrick, the father of disc golf. As a DGA-sponsored player, the tattoo makes sense.

What makes a disc golfer go that far? Being connected to the game and to the sport.

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Women’s disc golf clinics attract wide range of participants, create young fans

May 14, 2013 / P.J. / 2 Comments

Wearing a journalist hat makes one think differently when at an event. But at a recent disc golf clinic, I was just really excited that my wife and daughters had not only agreed to attend, but were even looking forward to it. Being in dad mode, I at least snapped a lot of photos.

The event, a women’s disc golf clinic led by Prodigy Disc team members Sarah Hokom and Paige Pierce, was held in in Santa Cruz, Calif., three days before the Masters Cup National Tour event.

My excitement came because I had waited a long time for my wife and daugters to show interest in my favorite sport (or activity, hobby or obsession). My wife used to play many years ago, before the kids came along, but it was always more about wanting to share something I loved. The kids have played a few times, but hadn’t gotten hooked yet.

Scheduled for 5 p.m., the clinic was held on a particularly windy (and cold, for Santa Cruz) day in April. As a disc golf instructor, I assure you that these are not ideal conditions for teaching or learning the basics of flying disc sports.

We arrived a little before 5 and, aside from one lady, were the first on the scene. Slipping into journalist mode, I asked her what brought her there. She told me she was from San Francisco (a 1- or 2-hour drive, depending on traffic), and had played a week earlier in the amateur Masters Cup event. The clinic was promoted during that week and during the Daisy Chains women’s tourney, held in Santa Cruz County the week between the amateur and professional Masters Cup weekends.

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Ragna Bygde looking beyond Sweden to make her mark on the sport

May 13, 2013 / P.J. / Leave a comment

By P.J. Harmer — Rattling Chains staff

Life as a professional disc golfer isn’t the most glamorous of career choices.

Especially for women.

The fields are smaller, which, in turn, makes the prize money smaller than in men’s tournaments. And that’s just in the United States. Add in being a professional women’s player in Europe and it’s even harder.

Ragna Bygde is one of the newest members of Prodigy Disc. (photo courtesy Ragna Bygde)

Such is the life of Ragna Bygde, one of the newest members of Prodigy Disc. A resident of Stockholm, Sweden, the 23-year-old Bygde has been playing on and off for eight years and comes from a family of disc golfers. Her father, Peter Bygde, is also a professional.

Being a professional wasn’t much of a choice for Bygde, though, as she made that move when she played in her first tournament.

“In Europe, there’s only pro for women,” she said. “So as soon as you get into the game, you are a pro.”

Though she had a father who played disc golf often, it wasn’t her first love. She did spend a lot of time with her father at Järva Discgolf Park, but it was just to hang out with her father.

“I never joined him though,” she said. “I was to busy working on my career in show jumping and synchronized swimming as most young girls did at that point.”

Something changed, however. During her teenage years, she started throwing plastic. Bygde said she saw another teen playing and wanted to give it a chance. The love of the sport didn’t take long to set in and she soon left the pool and horses behind.

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Women to take over Rattling Chains from May 12-18

May 12, 2013 / P.J. / Leave a comment

Women’s Week has returned to Rattling Chains.

Before I continue, allow me to wish a happy Mother’s Day to all you discin’ mothers and any others who happen to come across the blog.

If you have been a follower of us since the early days of our blog, you’ll remember us declaring one full week last year as Women’s Week. Our plan was simple — to dedicate a full week to write about or have stories written by women.

We did it in conjunction with the PDGA’s Women’s Global Event. For the week, we changed the look of our blog and ran stories that seemed to be a hit among disc golf fans.

Still, we did it in our early days. We had only been going at it for about two months and didn’t have the connections or contacts we do now. We had some pretty solid stories, but there were some about the Women’s Global Event and things like that.

The PDGA decided it wasn’t going to hold the WGE this year. It’s not a permanent thing, though. After all, the WGE drew more than 600 women worldwide playing in these events and it is a smart and strategic move for the PDGA to be involved in the advancement of women’s disc golf.

Despite that, we made a conscious decision last year to make this a permanent part of our site. As long as Rattling Chains is an active blog, there will be Women’s Week each May.

This year, we’ve started the week on Mother’s Day, which seems like the most fitting time to start our week to honor the women in this game. We’ll, once again, be changing the look and colors on our site and our stories this week are about or written by women.

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Out of Production, but still producing: disc value is in the eye of the holder

April 3, 2013 / P.J. / Leave a comment

If you frequent online enclaves such as the the Disc Golf Collector Exchange group on Facebook, or the similar forum pages on Disc Golf Course Review, the acronym O-O-P may be well known to you.

It stands for out-of-production, which refers to discs no longer being produced by their manufacturer.

This, of course, is significant to collectors because it means a disc is in limited supply and, therefore, of potentially higher value.

It means something to me, too, but for a different reason. While collectors get excited about O-O- P, I get nervous.

Having played disc golf for more than 20 years, I own close to 100 discs, not including the stock I have on hand for use in my School of Disc Golf. But I would not consider myself a collector. Possibly a bit of a historian, and, more than anything else, an accumulator. But as collectors are thought of as those who like to build a collection either as a hobby or for profit, I can safely say that isn’t me.

The author collects only discs with personal significance. Among this group are his first ace, most memorable ace, a disc to commemorate the opening of the first course in S.F., a NorCal 'Hotshot' disc awarded for the low round in a tour event, and a prototype DGA Blowfly signed and given to him by Steady Ed Headrick. Blurry photo by Jack Trageser

Only discs with personal significance are in Jack Trageser’s collection. Among this group are his first ace, most memorable ace, a disc to commemorate the opening of the first course in San Francisco, a NorCal ‘Hotshot’ disc awarded for the low round in a tour event, and a prototype DGA Blowfly, signed and given to him by Steady Ed Headrick. (photo by Jack Trageser)

I have some discs that would go for much more than their original sales price if I ever decided to sell them, but all the discs in my possession that I value the most are dear to me for one of two reasons — either I have a sentimental attachment to them – like my first ace disc or a prototype signed and given to me by Steady Ed Headrick; or they are out of production and I still use them to play.

It’s the second reason that is the main subject of today’s post. Irreplaceable actually retains its literal definition when the object that is difficult or impossible to replace is actually serving a function rather than just gathering dust (in it’s dust cover, of course). The mere thought of losing a key disc in your bag and not being able to replace it can cause little beads of sweat to form on one’s forehead — am I right?

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Rattling Chains enters disc manufacturing market, sponsors first pro

April 1, 2013 / P.J. / Leave a comment

By Steve Hill — Rattling Chains staff

Much like Irish rock band The Cranberries asked with its 1993 debut album, “Everybody else is doing it, so why can’t we?”

Rattling Chains is proud to announce that it is jumping into the disc manufacturing market, with a line of six discs to be released this Friday, April 5.

Making its own line of discs has been a goal of Rattling Chains since day one, according to founder P.J. Harmer, but it took a bit longer than expected.

Big Kev, a lumberjack from Upstate New York, is set to be the first pro for Rattling Chains.

“This is the culmination of a long and arduous process, but we are thrilled with the results,” Harmer said. “We are confident that our readers, and disc golfers the world over, will feel the same.”

Harmer initially began developing the discs with founding partner Darren Dolezel before the Rattling Chains blog began, he said. But with the market already being flooded with manufacturers, Harmer decided to build the brand name before investing in the plastic.

“As soon as I first picked up a disc, I knew I wanted to improve on the concept,” Harmer said. “Ease of use, grip, accuracy, consistency – all of these qualities are covered with the Rattling Chains line.”

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Poll 50: Booze during tournaments

March 18, 2013 / P.J. / Leave a comment

To continue our series of polls of items on the course and about the rules, we’re going to touch on a pretty interesting one here.

Booze.

It seems like this discussion has likely come up many times before. And in the end, the result is often the same — no alcohol during tournament play.

Let’s clarify this, though.

These questions are more about PDGA-sanctioned tournaments. After all, it’s tough to police the non-sanctioned tournaments, especially if it’s an extremely lax setup.

So having your cordials during an event is illegal by PDGA standards. Never mind that many courses are in public parks and might have already made it illegal for you to have alcohol on park premises.

But for here, we’ll stick with tournaments. In the player Code of Conduct, a part of the PDGA rulebook, Section 3.3.10 says:

“Possession of alcohol from the start of play until the player’s scorecard is submitted is not allowed. Such possession shall result in immediate disqualification at PDGA events sanctioned at B-Tier or higher. The Tournament Director may, at his sole discretion, elect to issue a warning to the offending player in lieu of disqualification solely at PDGA events sanctioned at C-tier and below. If a player has been previously issued a warning for alcohol possession at the same event, all subsequent violations shall result in immediate disqualification.”

That’s pretty implicit, no?

So let that stew for a bit. Before we get to the question and its merits, let’s go back and check last week’s question, which asked: Should people be allowed to smoke while playing in leagues and tournaments?

It was a lot closer than expected, that’s for sure.

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Poll 49: Smoking on the course

March 11, 2013 / P.J. / Leave a comment

With such a good discussion with our last poll, it seemed like a good time to tackle this subject.

And it is quite a hot topic.

Now, at some point down the line, we’ll cover the wacky tabacky. For this poll, we’re sticking with the legal stuff, such as cigarettes, pipes and cigars.

This is quite the topic in many places and it can get emotional. So it’s understandable that there could be different sides and thoughts to this poll question.

But, we’ll hit that up in a moment. First, let’s revisit our last poll, when we asked you about bringing dogs on the course.

Though we didn’t get as many voters as we hoped, this really had a great discussion. So, before we get to the discussion, let’s see the poll results.

We asked if people should bring their dogs with them when playing a round of disc golf. This was extremely close with 76 voters (52 percent) saying yes and 69 (48 percent) saying no.

So it seems like people are slightly in favor of it.

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March O’ St. Pat’s Madness tourney combines solid organization, old-school feel

March 7, 2013 / P.J. / Leave a comment

By P.J. Harmer — Rattling Chains Staff

For those of you who live in the New York/New Jersey/Pennsylvania area, chances might be good you’ve dealt with Bob Graham or Mike Solt.

Graham is a PDGA professional and a member of Team Vibram. He’s run top-notch events for years and they are often among some of the most fun a player will have. Graham works hard to make his events extremely enjoyable for players of all skill levels.

Solt, otherwise known as Mr. DiscGolf, is one who promotes the sport and runs events throughout the year in the Northeast. He has a large following because he’s known to run quality and efficient events.

To say I respect these two not only in the disc golf world, but as people, would be a massive understatement.

So, if you put the two of them together at an event, it’s sure to be a solid and well-run tournament.

Graham, a member of the New Jersey Disc Devils, will again run his annual March O’ St. Pat’s Madness event, a PDGA C-tier tournament to be held March 17 at Rutgers Disc Golf Course in New Brunswick, N.J.

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Rattling Chains celebrates one year

March 5, 2013 / P.J. / Leave a comment

One year.

One year ago today, Rattling Chains launched to the disc golf world with wonderment of what we might be able to accomplish. At that time, it was all me and I had so much energy.

Oh, how a year does you in.

I honestly didn’t know if we’d make it this far. Disc golf is an interesting niche in which to blog. We try to bring a journalistic feel to many stories, but also don’t want it always to be that way. So we do first-person accounts, instructional posts, reviews, games and whatever else comes across our minds.

And it seems to work.

That being said, we’ve also not been afraid to say how we feel. Our stories aren’t always cake and candy. We’re not afraid to speak the truth. The one thing we’ve found out? We might be a little ahead of the game in being honest.

The “big wigs” in this game don’t always like things like that, as I’ve found out from e-mails and other correspondence. It doesn’t do anything to promote the game, I’ve been told. I’ve been asked why we don’t just focus on the positives and don’t worry about the negatives.

One answer – we’re not a public relations firm.

Disc golf isn’t perfect. I think we all know that. And if the game is going to continue to grow, everyone else needs to realize that, too. We learn from the negatives or low points. Well, at least we should.

Believe me, if we could just write happy-go-lucky stories, we would. But then we wouldn’t be doing what we set out to do – to give an honest look to the game we all love.

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