to demonstrate the safety of the disc for them. And I made a short 60-second educational video for the general public that was a great tool. I cannot stress enough the importance of the community notification and education piece. That can be make or break. If you have the community’s support, you’re golden. The second time was a breeze because the first one went so well.” When you’re setting up a temporary course, you have to get up early. (This I know from personal expe- rience.) Andrea, Steve, and Sam and some 30 volun- teers from the active Grand Rapids disc community set up the temp course early in the morning by dropping off baskets and marking tees. They had everything set up by 8 a.m. so early birds could practice putting and register. Everybody who played got a sweet player pack, including a prototype rubber Discraft Magnet. The first flight went off at 9 a.m., followed by flights at 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. Besides the unusu- al urban venue, another difference about this new format is that instead of fo- cusing entirely on the com- petition, disc downtowners have another goal—intro- ducing our favorite game to new people and then afterwards encouraging them to stay and patronize local businesses such as coffee shops, restaurants, and bars. That’s a win-win for players and businesses. Play- er packs were stuffed with coupons from area businesses. A couple of restaurants offered Urban Disco specials and let players use bathrooms. Andrea and friends attracted 120 players for the inau- gural Urban Disco but that was just part of it. “We conser- vatively estimate 1,000 people saw us playing,” said Steve Hedstom. “People driving by or walking by and even some homeless people in a park saw us playing so it had a broad impact. We gave out discs to a lot of people. Many had never heard of disc golf before.” The format: Instead of throwing conventional golf discs, everyone threw a rubbery Magnet by Discraft. It’s a new compound Steve calls “softer than soft.” Players had the option of putting with their own putter but most people putt- ed with the Magnet. The new rubbery discs prevent injuries and broken windows, plus it’s fun when everyone is throwing the same disc. Because this was the first time anything like this had been attempted, no one was sure what to expect. Would there be complaints from some streets being closed off? Would people even show up to play? Would windows get broken? Andrea and Steve found out soon after the event when Evette Pittman from the City of Grand Rapids Special Events called. Andrea: “Evette said a bunch of people had called. At first I thought, oh-oh, this can’t be good. Then she said they all were call- ing her to tell her what a great time they had.” I decided to check with Ms. Pittman to get the city’s official evaluation of the event. “We went into it with what I’d call nervous optimism,” said Pittman. “But after meet- ing with their team, they were able to answer our concerns about potential problems. They showed us the rubbery discs and how safe they were. We liked the idea they would have a ‘caddy’ walking with ev- ery group to explain what disc golf is all about and how the event worked. Our post-event evaluation was that it was a great suc- cess. There were no prob- lems at all, and people living in the area and vis- iting really enjoyed watch- ing it and many played the course, some even twice. We would definitely do it again.” The winning team in the first Urban Disco won $1,000 as they carded birdies on every hole. Like other new-generation events, the compe- tition is intense, but it’s only one component of the overall experience. Andrea and Steve said if you were to divvy up a Disc Downtown event, it would be “50 percent fun, 40 per- cent introducing new players, and 10 percent competition.” Andrea and Steve intend to organize more events in more downtowns under the Disc Downtown banner. Event number two recently took place in November in in downtown Grand Rapids near the campus where Andrea earned her marketing degrees at Grand Valley State University’s Pew Campus then through the streets of GR’s booming west side. All proceeds from the event went to Friends of Grand Rapids Parks, spe- cifically for disc golf installations in urban parks. How about a DG event in your downtown? Andrea and Steve are willing to travel to facilitate your event. Visit discdowntown,com or on Facebook or email Andrea at: [email protected] Most of our courses are located in sub- urbia or even farther out into the sticks, right? Set the GPS, make sure you have enough gas in the tank, and head out of town. Disc Down- town has taken that old concept and flipped it over like a 139-gram Mamba into a stiff headwind. Instead of driving miles into the boondocks, you walk or hop on a bus or ride a bike to play a course in the heart of down- town. When it’s done, you stick around with your friends to grab a bite and a beverage at one of the many nearby restaurants or coffee shops as you recount the ups and downs of your rounds. The first event, called Urban Disco, teed off September 9 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was the brainchild of Andrea Lange, a mar- keting maven and a whirling vortex of energy, creativity, and good vibes. “Disc Downtown creates a unique opportunity to bring people together in the city,” says An- drea. “It offers an inviting, spirited at- mosphere for businesses and individuals alike to network, play, and raise money for charitable causes.” Andrea and her partner Steve Hed- strom and friend Sam Smigiel are co-founders of Disc Downtown. The first item on their agenda was getting per- mission to play disc golf in downtown Grand Rapids. The plan was for the event to take place in the Heartside and Arena neighborhoods. Andrea: “First we reached out to the mayor and got her stamp of approval. Then, it took some serious convincing, mainly because it had never been done before. Nor did I have a sample of the disc available at that point. But what really helped was I made it a priority to address any and all potential problems. So when we sat down with the city people for the final review, I had an answer and plan for all of their what-ifs. I had to use my Ford Disc Downtown & GoPro Mountain Games By Joe Feidt Trending across our disc golf universe are a new breed of events that surpass mere tournaments. These gatherings go beyond competi- tion to offer an off-beat, fun, festival vibe. Weirdly fun tournaments go back many years: More than 35 years ago in Minnesota, we flew far off the fairway in search of creative, competitive flying-disc fun and found it at Moir Mystery Madness (brainchild of Lightnin’ Lyle Jensen) where everyone throws the same mystery disc with unusual throwing man- dates added over the years. This summer I started hearing about some newer events that reminded me of MMM so I decided to investigate. Like lemmings mindlessly walking over the cliff, we disc golfers have a yearning to find out where we stand with other competitors. We pay our entry fees and we compete. Competition is great, we need it, but we’re learning it’s not everything. For me—and a lot of other people it seems—competition alone is not enough. More and more we want the fun factor when we play a tournament. These new outside-the-tee-box events offer the competition component, plus, like MMM, they have that wild and crazy flip side, too. The following are a couple of examples of these new tournament/ festival hybrids that are challenging the way we look at the old tourna- ment trope. Are they the wave of the future? I sure hope so. We’ll start in Michigan, where I recently learned you can play disc golf downtown. Disc Downtown Michigan –DISC GOLF REIMAGINED– Disc Downtowners Steve Hedstrom, Andrea Lange and Sam Smigiel at Van Andel Arena MATT PROVOT
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to demonstrate the safety of the disc for them. And I made a short 60-second educational video for the general public that was a great tool. I cannot stress enough the importance of the community notification and education piece. That can be make or break. If you have the community’s support, you’re golden. The second time was a breeze because the first one went so well.” When you’re setting up a temporary course, you have to get up early. (This I know from personal expe-rience.) Andrea, Steve, and Sam and some 30 volun-teers from the active Grand Rapids disc community set up the temp course early in the morning by dropping off baskets and marking tees. They had everything set up by 8 a.m. so early birds could practice putting and register. Everybody who played got a sweet player pack, including a prototype rubber Discraft Magnet. The first flight went off at 9 a.m., followed by flights at 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. Besides the unusu-al urban venue, another difference about this new format is that instead of fo-cusing entirely on the com-petition, disc downtowners have another goal—intro-ducing our favorite game to new people and then afterwards encouraging them to stay and patronize local businesses such as coffee shops, restaurants, and bars. That’s a win-win for players and businesses. Play-er packs were stuffed with coupons from area businesses. A couple of restaurants offered Urban Disco specials and let players use bathrooms. Andrea and friends attracted 120 players for the inau-gural Urban Disco but that was just part of it. “We conser-vatively estimate 1,000 people saw us playing,” said Steve Hedstom. “People driving by or walking by and even some homeless people in a park saw us playing so it had a broad impact. We gave out discs to a lot of people. Many had never heard of disc golf before.” The format: Instead of throwing conventional golf discs, everyone threw a rubbery Magnet by Discraft. It’s a new compound Steve calls “softer than soft.” Players had the option of putting with their own putter but most people putt-ed with the Magnet. The new rubbery discs prevent injuries and broken windows, plus it’s fun when everyone is throwing the same disc. Because this was the first time anything like
this had been attempted, no one was sure what to expect. Would there be complaints from some streets being closed off? Would people even show up to play? Would windows get broken? Andrea and Steve found out soon after the event when Evette Pittman from the City of Grand Rapids Special Events called. Andrea: “Evette said a bunch of people had called.
At first I thought, oh-oh, this can’t be good. Then she said they all were call-ing her to tell her what a great time they had.” I decided to check with Ms. Pittman to get the city’s official evaluation of the event. “We went into it with what I’d call nervous optimism,” said Pittman. “But after meet-ing with their team, they were able to answer our concerns about potential problems. They showed us the rubbery discs and how safe they were. We liked the idea they would have a ‘caddy’ walking with ev-ery group to explain what disc golf is all about and how the event worked. Our post-event evaluation was that it was a great suc-cess. There were no prob-lems at all, and people living in the area and vis-iting really enjoyed watch-ing it and many played the course, some even twice. We would definitely do it again.” The winning team
in the first Urban Disco won $1,000 as they carded birdies on every hole. Like other new-generation events, the compe-tition is intense, but it’s only one component of the overall experience. Andrea and Steve said if you were to divvy up a Disc Downtown event, it would be “50 percent fun, 40 per-cent introducing new players, and 10 percent competition.” Andrea and Steve intend to organize more events in more downtowns under the Disc Downtown banner. Event number two recently took place in November in in downtown Grand Rapids near the campus where Andrea earned her marketing degrees at Grand Valley State University’s Pew Campus then through the streets of GR’s booming west side. All proceeds from the event went to Friends of Grand Rapids Parks, spe-cifically for disc golf installations in urban parks. How about a DG event in your downtown? Andrea and Steve are willing to travel to facilitate your event. Visit discdowntown,com or on Facebook or email Andrea at: [email protected]
Most of our courses are located in sub-urbia or even farther out into the sticks, right? Set the GPS, make sure you have enough gas in the tank, and head out of town. Disc Down-town has taken that old concept and flipped it over like a 139-gram Mamba into a stiff headwind. Instead of driving miles into the boondocks, you walk or hop on a bus or ride a bike to play a course in the heart of down-town. When it’s done, you stick around with your friends to grab a bite and a beverage at one of the many nearby restaurants or coffee shops as you recount the ups and downs of your rounds. The first event, called Urban Disco, teed off September 9 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was the brainchild of Andrea Lange, a mar-keting maven and a whirling vortex of energy, creativity, and good vibes. “Disc Downtown
creates a unique opportunity to bring people together in the city,” says An-drea. “It offers an inviting, spirited at-mosphere for businesses and individuals alike to network, play, and raise money for charitable causes.” Andrea and her partner Steve Hed-strom and friend Sam Smigiel are co-founders of Disc Downtown. The first item on their agenda was getting per-mission to play disc golf in downtown Grand Rapids. The plan was for the event to take place in the Heartside and Arena neighborhoods. Andrea: “First we reached out to the mayor and got her stamp of approval. Then, it took some serious convincing, mainly because it had never been done before. Nor did I have a sample of the disc available at that point. But what really helped was I made it a priority to address any and all potential problems. So when we sat down with the city people for the final review, I had an answer and plan for all of their what-ifs. I had to use my Ford
Disc Downtown & GoPro Mountain Games
By Joe Feidt
Trending across our disc golf universe are a new breed of events that surpass mere tournaments. These gatherings go beyond competi-tion to offer an off-beat, fun, festival vibe. Weirdly fun tournaments go back many years: More than 35 years ago in Minnesota, we flew far off the fairway in search of creative, competitive flying-disc fun and found it at Moir Mystery Madness (brainchild of Lightnin’ Lyle Jensen) where everyone throws the same mystery disc with unusual throwing man-dates added over the years. This summer I started hearing about some newer events that reminded me of MMM so I decided to investigate. Like lemmings mindlessly walking over the cliff, we disc golfers have a yearning to find out where we stand with other competitors. We pay our entry fees and we compete. Competition is great, we need it, but we’re learning it’s not everything. For me—and a lot of other people it seems—competition alone is not enough. More and more we want the fun factor when we play a tournament. These new outside-the-tee-box events offer the competition component, plus, like MMM, they have that wild and crazy flip side, too. The following are a couple of examples of these new tournament/festival hybrids that are challenging the way we look at the old tourna-ment trope. Are they the wave of the future? I sure hope so. We’ll start in Michigan, where I recently learned you can play disc golf downtown.
Disc DowntownMichigan
– D I S C G O L F R E I M A G I N E D –
Disc Downtowners Steve Hedstrom, Andrea Lange and Sam Smigiel at Van Andel Arena
MATT PROVOT
This one is definitely in the running for 2017‘s Most Fun DG Event. Imagine plenty of mountain DG with three skill challenges thrown in to amp the fun factor, add some big-name concerts every night, offer free food and drink for athletes, provide leisurely afternoons to check out the other non-disc events, rent some luxury vacation homes for your friends, and do it all in scenic, sunny Vail, Colorado, in early June. Sound interesting? It started four years ago as a demonstration sport for the GoPro Mountain Games. Disc Golf Pro Tour honcho Steven Dodge was working for Vibram then. He teamed up with Steve “Klay” Klehfoth and members of the Flying Eagle Disc Soci-ety (FEDS) to set up a six-hole demo course. “Vibram had a
relationship with one of the Vail resorts and asked if we’d like to demo disc golf,” re-calls Steven Dodge. He jumped at the opportunity. The Vail Valley Foundation was so impressed with the demo they asked them to take part the next year as one of the partici-pating sports along with run-ning, kayaking, dogs, and so on. What’s cool about the GoPro Mountain Games is that it’s more about fun than competition. Steve Klehfoth ex-plains: “Each year it’s grown, morphed, and changed. It’s a giant event under the umbrella of another giant event [GoPro Mountain Games]. It’s got a vacation feel. Everywhere you go you’re surrounded by the Rocky Mountains and thousands of spectators and athletes. The competition is great too, but it’s just one part of the whole package.” Other events at the Games are: biking, running, dogs, climbing, rafting, fishing, and more. Registration for Mountain Masters disc golf opens in February and fills quickly. The entire field is divided up into four random flights. The top 25 percent of scores in the qualifying rounds earn a slot in the coveted finals. During qualifying, everybody plays the Amphitheater course, a tech-nical nine-holer not too far from downtown Vail, as well as an 18-hole round at a mountain-style temp course in Minturn. Besides that, players are assigned three skill challenges: putting, accuracy, and MPH. MPH was a new one on me. Players throw inside what looks like a batting cage. A radar gun clocks throw speeds and it has a potential multiplier; hit the “mail slot”—which looks like, well, a mail slot—and you can bump up your speed by 50 percent. Spectators get to watch and cheer for players who are doing the skill challenges. They don’t have to climb any mountains to see them because the skill challenges are set up right in downtown Vail. It’s a convenient way to bring DG to the spectators instead of having them have to walk up and down the mountains to get an introduction to our favorite game. How you score on the skills and how you golf add up to your overall score. Everyone is trying to make the finals at Maloit Park, the 18-hole temp course at Vail Ski & Snowboard Academy, located just outside of town. Disc golf has become one of the more popular spectator and participation sports at the GoPro Mountain Games. “At the Vail Valley Foundation, we really make a point of allowing our sports to grow from the grassroots up-ward,” said Tom Boyd, director of PR and communica-tions. “All of our staff are mountain people, we are based in the mountains here in Vail, and we all are active in mountain culture and sports. A few years ago we had our ear to the rail looking for a new event, and we had overwhelming response that disc golf would be a great addition to the GoPro Mountain Games. We opened reg-
istration, created a big prize purse, and were bombarded by hundreds of registrations. It was fantastic. There was absolutely rocking enthu-siasm for the idea—people loved it. Disc golf plays a big part in mountain living and they’re a big part of what we do at the GoPro Mountain Games. They bring a really fantastic, out-going, energetic group of people into our event each year and I can’t say enough about how well the sport is doing at our event and be-yond. We love those guys and gals.” This unique event
could not happen without the FEDS volunteers. “FEDS is now in its sixth year serving the disc golf players of Eagle Coun-ty and beyond,” says Klehfoth. “Our small but passionate mountain community sees membership numbers of around 150 on an annual basis. We host leagues twice a week during the summer season at Hole in the Sky disc golf course. We also run a highly successful Ice Bowl that’s been a top-20 fund-raiser the past two years.” Every year Colorado clubs contribute substantially to the Ice Bowl, a collection of disc
golf events that are held each year in January and February with an overall mission of raising funds to fight hunger. Re-lated goals include having fun and connecting the disc golf community in a positive way to the community at large. FFI: http://icebowlhq.com FEDS is in the midst of building Eagle County’s first private disc golf course at Cross Creek Ranch. That course made its debut at the third annual Flying Eagle Open, their annual flagship event. This year they hosted 216 golfers on three cours-es, selling out in less than 20 hours. Klehfoth: “Our intention is to continue to host top quality events, grow the sport of disc golf locally through community outreach, and increase our infrastructure of courses.”
We intend to run a sequel next issue. If you know of an outside-the-tee-box event, let us know. Contact Joe on Facebook or email: [email protected].
Kevin Cardner
Paul Stumpf
LOGAN ROBERTSON
Ty Richards at Maloit Park at Vail Ski & Snowboard
Academy
Steve Klehfoth at Maloit Park at Vail Ski & Snowboard Academy
KIENAN HILMER
KIENAN HILMER
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