Disaster and triumph at Maple Hill

 July 12, 2021

I find myself in a familiar situation

I often find myself standing on a small wood and brick platform at the end of a narrow wood road. I am trying to decide which of a dozen or so flying discs to throw toward the target, a metal basket a few hundred feet away. I make my decision, take a few steps forward and fling the disc. In my mind’s eye, it soars smoothly down the path, curving around several trees before landing gently 20 feet from the basket. Instead, it hits a tree 20 feet away from the tee pad and drops to the ground.

This is often the reality of disc golf, an activity that is exploding in popularity during the pandemic. Disc golf combines the joy of hiking, the complex physics of spinning frisbees, and the frustration of golf into one addictive sport.

A sudden disaster on hole 6 derails my dreams of success

Here’s a case study from my most recent round during a flex tournament at the Maple Hill Disc Golf Course in Leicester, Massachusetts.

I started off well with two pars on holes 1 and 2. I followed this up with two double bogies on 3 and 4, then a single bogey on 5. So, +5 after 5, which is firmly in Bogeyland. Hole 6 is a fearsome par 3 that most people are happy to par (including the pros).

I threw a straight shot off the tee. Straight into a tree, landing barely over the out-of-bounds wall. From there, shooting 3 including a penalty shot, I aimed to get back to the fairway but faded heavily at the end and ended up in the OB pond on the left side. Shooting 5, I released early, hit another tree and bounced back into the pond. Shooting 7, I managed to lay up in the middle of the fairway. My first in-bounds shot on this hole -- Yay! After a decent upshot, I put it in the basket after 9 strokes, scoring +6 on Hole 6. This is the highest score I’ve ever had on a hole (though I probably took more strokes in some of my early outings). The following picture illustrates my travails on this hole:

My path to Hole 6 at Maple Hill. Original drawing credit: DGPT 2020 Maple Hill Caddie Book.

Ben exemplifies a better strategy (that actually works)

There’s a different way to play this hole. Here’s my son Ben after acing Hole 6 in January 2021. You can see the OB stone wall to the right and the basket way off in the distance (to the left of center with a flag). The pond lurks behind the pine trees to the left:

Hole 6 Blue at Maple Hill, Leicester, Massachusetts

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Ben threw that yellow Star Wraith dead straight with a right-hand forehand. It flew right down the middle of the lane. His friend Jack and I marveled: it looked like a great shot, sailing smooth and level, missing all the trees. About 25 feet before the basket, it hit the ground then skipped up and hit the chains. Ace!

Ben’s path to the basket is much simpler than mine:

Ben’s path to the basket on Hole 6 at Maple Hill.

No aces for me yet, and I certainly don’t expect to get my first on this hole!

How about you -- any aces yet?