If you’re like me, your chillest (or most eccentric) friends have invited you to play a round of Frisbee golf on the tightly wooded 18-hole course in Golden Gate Park. But whether or not you're familiar with the game, there’s no better way to experience it than over food and beer in Marx Meadow this weekend at the 25th San Francisco Safari Disc Golf Tournament.
Frisbee golf, or more commonly “disc” golf, is flying high just as its stuffy forefather “ball golf” (as the disc golf community calls it) loses players and interest. All over the country, disc golf courses are popping up, sometimes even taking over defunct ball golf courses.
“For me, [disc golf] is the best way to play darts in the woods; you get to enjoy nature,” says tournament director Sean Jack. It’s certainly a precision game, played like regular golf but with small Frisbees designated as drivers and putters and a chain link basket instead of a hole. Disc golfers typically carry caddy bags that have plenty of room for a quiver of discs and a pack of beer.
In our city’s largest such event – one of the fastest-selling tournaments in the country according to the PDGA (which, yes, is the PGA of disc golf)– professionals will compete for a total of almost $10,000 in prize money.
The links surrounding Marx Meadow, maintained by the San Francisco Disc Golf Association for the last 7 years, were once in shambles. Now the area is one of the cleanest and loveliest in Golden Gate Park. It’s also free to play all year round.
The tournament, which goes all day from Friday through Sunday, has more than 60 sponsors, such as Haight Street Market, Anderson Valley Brewing Company (who have a disc golf course at their brewery in Boonville), and Memphis Minnie’s (whose owner is such an avid disc golfer that he’ll be cooking up free food for contestants). A crew will even be filming as the winner emerges Sunday. So join the (rogues) gallery and practice your disc golf clap, which is presumably heartier than a ball golf clap.
[Image via Flickr user Jessica Kim]
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