PURIST MANIFESTO

Disc Golf used to be the opposite of golf: Show up and play as you please. No tee times. no closures for tournaments. No dress code. BYOB. It was a free-spirited pursuit for free spirited people. A true melting pot of individuals from all walks of life. Little by little things have changed. When you stop to look back, the current state of the pursuit has changed radically.

Tournaments think they own every course they can get their hands on. Scheduling a camping trip to go disc golfing this summer? Better call the parks department and check every website you can to make sure a tournament isn’t scheduled for that weekend. Even then, you’d better keep checking and hope one doesn’t pop up in the meantime. Theres nothing that can ruin a weekend more than a tournament. Have you ever been “shooshed” on a disc golf course? If your answer is yes, it’sprobably because you forced your way onto the course during a tournament. I’m sorry Skylar, but if my friends and I are messing up your putting vibe from 75 yards away, that’s on you, not on us.

Leagues might not have the bison herd-like numbers to take pace of play to a screeching halt, but most are weekly, and some courses have more than one league squatting on them every week. Forever. The problem with leagues isn’t the overbearing elitism that comes from tournaments. The problem is they have the same sense of entitlement. Being in a league does not make you better than anyone else. It just means you joined a league.

Tournaments and leagues perpetuate a fascistic obsession with rules and ridged structure. Professional Disc Golf can’t go a day without a “rules scandal” or blown call by a referee. Referee??? Get out of here with that nonsense. Someone’s toe going over the line shouldn’t be a big deal. Out of bounds shouldn’t even exist. Police your own, as a group, as you see fit.

Dress codes are for country clubs and businessmen, not for disc golfers. Showing up shirtless and shoeless at a disc golf course should make you the most modestly dressed person there, and that’s how it should be. The disc golf course should be a place to let loose, have fun, and get weird. Wig and fake mustache? Great! Halloween costume? Even better. Naked guy? Every course should have at least one.

Disc golf is a pursuit to be enjoyed by all. Attitudes of superiority and entitlement degrade the sense of community that it originally fostered. General courtesy and the acceptance of others is what separates the purist from those who wish to turn it into simply another form of golf. It is our duty to stand in opposition.