Disc Golf in Prague

[May 13]

My experience with disc golf is pretty limited. In my college days, I played the course invented by ultimate players at the University of Washington. This late-night challenge involves a frisbee in one hand and a beer in the other. Basically, you get a certain number of attempts to throw the disc to an object, such as a tree, side of a building, or certain sign. It was good fun on campus and the chances of losing a disc in the dark bushes was high.



But Katie suggested that we try the "real" thing in daylight at a mini-tournament in Prague. This means that we use an actual golf disc, which is much smaller and harder than the 175 gram disc that most ultimate players use. I could tell by my first few practice throws that it was going to be a long tournament for me.

About 12 people were out there, with Katie and I as the only girls. Luckily, it was doubles format for the evening, which meant that the best throw of your team would count.

Everyone seemed pretty professional. They had little disc golf bags with a dozen golf discs, like a putter for short distance throws, and more rigid discs for long distance throws. No kidding! It was quite an impressive selection.

The target was a tent shaped basket with chains connecting the bottom and top halves. If aimed correctly, the disc would hit the chains and fall into the basket. One of the guys would carry it from place to place as we worked our way through a nice park. Even though this was a course that they have done before, there were still some errant throws into the street, thick brush, and into the trees (okay, that was mine.) Many park-goers stopped in curiousity to watch our group work towards the funny basket.



I finally got a pointer to change my grip and improved my throw by the end of the evening. It must have paid off, because Katie and I won the women's division! And if there were any other women there, we would have beat them too. We ended the evening when it finally was too dark to see and headed to a local brewery. Dean and I won the food category for eating the most food. We ordered 4 meals between us. Oinkers!

The tournament continued for the rest of the weekend, but we had plans to head south to Cesky Krumlov and my shoulder muscles were feeling it.

To learn more about disc golf in the Czech republic:
Discgolf.cz
Tournament results, with results for Marita and Dean
Tournament results, with a course map