It's not (just) about the disc

The secret of disc golf

How much is that disc in the window?

Much as I enjoy buying shiny new discs, they never make me into a shiny new disc golfer. Sure, there are some discs that seem magical, but it’s a very personal thing. For me, the Toro and the Mindbender are magical. The Buzz and the Hex are not (at least not yet) — though I know they are magical for others.

Just throw it

Unfortunately, in disc golf, as in many other things, you have to spend time getting familiar with your tools and how to use them. There are many variables in disc golf, but there is one constant:

Comic by Sarah Andersen of Sarah’s Scribbles.

The bogey and the bell curve

Because disc golf is a game of statistics, I can find evidence of the value of practice that ignores all the variables of disc selection, release angle, form, arm speed, spin rate, etc. Here are graphs of my score distribution from my first two years of disc golf:

2021:

2022:

In both years, the distribution makes a bell curve, with relatively few birdies, and double- or triple-bogeys. The bulk of my scores fall into the par and bogey range. But notice that the peak of the bell curve shifts to the left (toward a lower score per hole) in 2022. There are relatively more birdies and pars compared to bogeys and double-bogeys. And even the number of pars compared to bogeys is better.

Practice works.

And sometimes it is about the disc.