Recently I've seen my local courses adopting Foot Golf, Fling Golf, and Disc Golf and it has caused some negative experiences on the course. For those that haven't seen these yet, here's a brief explanation of each:
Foot golf- played with a soccer ball and you keep kicking it until you get it into a roughly 18" diameter hole in the ground. Each kick counts as a 'stroke'.
Fling Golf- this involves a custom stick that resembles a small lacrosse stick but the head is completely out of plastic. Each time you throw it is a 'stroke' and once you are on the green you putt with the stick.
Disc golf- you use custom frisbees (discs) and instead of aiming for a hole in the ground you are trying to get it in a chain basket. Each throw is a stroke and there are tons of discs designed to fly differently and usually you carry a bag full.
The problem I'm seeing is that golf courses are starting to adopt some or all of these and overlaying them on the course. I'm not saying any of these are not fun to play (I grew up playing disc golf and still do), but when you overlay them on a golf course it creates problems. Whereas you have to have a tee time to play golf, they just send these groups out and work them in. A lot of them don't understand golf course etiquette. One course installed all 3. I asked the owner about it and they were sold on the idea that you can get more customers using the same land by adding easier to play games. The tee boxes have taken damage from both the foot golfers and fling golfers who wear cleats. We've had some less than fun incidents with youth who ignore anyone else on a hole and just decide to keep playing even if you are on the fairway. Recently we ran into some disc golfers who were driving up to groups while they were teeing off and talking loudly while smoking pot. When we asked them politely to quiet down while we were teeing off they laughed and told us we were being too serious. I understand wanting to make more profit but this is turning me off of the courses adopting these games. Has anyone else experienced this or am I becoming the old man yelling 'get off my lawn'?
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Foot golf- played with a soccer ball and you keep kicking it until you get it into a roughly 18" diameter hole in the ground. Each kick counts as a 'stroke'.
Fling Golf- this involves a custom stick that resembles a small lacrosse stick but the head is completely out of plastic. Each time you throw it is a 'stroke' and once you are on the green you putt with the stick.
Disc golf- you use custom frisbees (discs) and instead of aiming for a hole in the ground you are trying to get it in a chain basket. Each throw is a stroke and there are tons of discs designed to fly differently and usually you carry a bag full.
The problem I'm seeing is that golf courses are starting to adopt some or all of these and overlaying them on the course. I'm not saying any of these are not fun to play (I grew up playing disc golf and still do), but when you overlay them on a golf course it creates problems. Whereas you have to have a tee time to play golf, they just send these groups out and work them in. A lot of them don't understand golf course etiquette. One course installed all 3. I asked the owner about it and they were sold on the idea that you can get more customers using the same land by adding easier to play games. The tee boxes have taken damage from both the foot golfers and fling golfers who wear cleats. We've had some less than fun incidents with youth who ignore anyone else on a hole and just decide to keep playing even if you are on the fairway. Recently we ran into some disc golfers who were driving up to groups while they were teeing off and talking loudly while smoking pot. When we asked them politely to quiet down while we were teeing off they laughed and told us we were being too serious. I understand wanting to make more profit but this is turning me off of the courses adopting these games. Has anyone else experienced this or am I becoming the old man yelling 'get off my lawn'?
Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
