Around here, schools are gearing up to start back again next week.  (As opposed to homeschooling, where often school never really stops, just the degree of school lessens at certain points …)  But if you are one of those families facing a “1st day” next week or if you are simply looking for a way to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather,  a little round disc might be your answer.  Forty-four possibilities of “official disc golf courses” await you across the state of Nebraska.

Disc Golf Locations in Nebraska

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The course that we chose yesterday!

Maybe going to the park at noon for a picnic followed by Frisbee golf was not a great idea for a hot Nebraska August afternoon.  Since our intention was just to try out the “sport” and not finish either the 9 or 18 hole disc course, our time was enjoyable.  Mostly.  And thankfully there was an abundance of shade.

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The list of rules were posted near the beginning of the course.  I think my oldest is the only one who would have handled being this competitive.  You could also print out a list of Disc Golf Rules for Recreational Play.

What made our time less than ideal?  Really bad Frisbees.  The older boys picked the discs that would actually travel some distance.  All mine would do was go about five feet, then roll.  This was rather annoying, so I stopped throwing.  Instead I followed the kids around and watched them have the fun.  The older ones did have plastic discs, but they were more substantial than the ones that my youngest two and I tried to throw. My 8 year old’s opinion is that if we would have had rubber discs, they would have worked even better – slicing through the air more.  The kids had a blast.  I enjoyed walking around – I just didn’t like the throwing part.

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We traveled all over the park – fun to have an excuse to do that.  Their course was huge!

I do want to play Frisbee golf soon again as a family.  But we will follow a few important guidelines before playing again.

1) Find other discs.  Ones that will fly.  The helpful guys who were playing after us said that theirs were from Scheels, a local sporting goods store.  We watched their discs sail all the way across almost landing perfectly in the disc basket.  But that might just be skill – maybe we need to also search for a new technique?

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Loved the sound of the Frisbees hitting the chains.  CLINK!  So cool!

2) Wear tennis shoes.  My youngest one was not appreciating his crocs and the fact that all sorts of dirt was finding its way inside his shoes.  I would imagine most courses have tree and high grass sections.  Dress accordingly.  And bug spray may not be a bad idea either.

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You can even vary the difficulty of your course.  That is, if you are adept at reading disc golf course maps.  Or you can just throw as hard as you can toward the basket from wherever you are at.  That is what we did, and it worked just fine.

3) Bring 2 discs in case you lose one (or at the course we were on, in case the Frisbee flies into the creek).  Because the four year old’s did.  Almost.  This did not make him happy, nor the 8 year old whose Frisbee the 4 year old was using.  Thankfully the 10 year old was up for descending the steep slope and rescuing the disc, much to everyone’s relief!

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Flowing water at the bottom of a steep slope!

Maybe you will discover that disc golf is your thing.  In no time at all, endorsement deals will be coming your way.  Okay – maybe not so much, but I did discover that there is an official Disc Golf Association complete with instructional videos and everything.   You can even set up a course in your backyard – each basket runs around $400, but course pricing is available.  We’ll probably stick with just going to the public park courses. 🙂

 

 

Author: neodyssey