Jason sizes up his distance from the second hole. He takes his putter out of his bag and lines up his shot. He stares at his target from fifteen feet away, disregarding me and everything else around him. Gusts of wind beat through the course, blowing leaves and debris all over the green as he prepares to take his shot. He waits for the current to die down a bit. If he sinks this one, his game will be two strokes under par. The gusts become a breeze. He pulls the putter back to his left shoulder and whips the disc toward the hole. KA-CHING! The disc falls into the metal basket.
This is Disc Golf – an international sport about 30 years old in which both national and international competitions are held every year. Scoring a game of Disc Golf is the same as scoring regular golf. The fewer the strokes, or in this case throws, the better. Each hole has a par, or average number of strokes, assigned to it depending on its difficulty or distance from the tee. Disc Golf courses can be found throughout the world. Some countries to embrace the game include Japan, Australia, Canada and Sweden. Some courses contain nine holes while others have eighteen. The holes are not actually holes, but metal poles a little over five feet in height with a circular metal basket about five inches deep wrapping around the pole, a few inches below the middle. At the top of the pole is a metal ring where chains are attached. The chains hang down toward the center of the basket and attach to another metal ring around the pole inside the basket. The chains are used to catch the disc so that it can drop into the basket. In other words, a player needs only to aim for the chains when making a shot.
A California man named Ed Headrick is credited for having invented the game in the mid-seventies as another use for the modern Frisbee discs he invented. Disc Golf discs are similar to regular discs only they are built to withstand aggressive throws into trees. There are three basic types of discs: drivers, mid-range, and putters. Each type of disc is specially designed for its intended purpose. The drivers tend to weigh less and have a sharper edge so that they may cut through the air with ease. The edges of mid-range discs are slightly more rounded and are often a few grams heavier than drivers. The putter discs have a rounded edge and weigh the most so that they are sure to “drop” into the basket. The discs are used as both the “clubs” and “balls.”
Disc Golfers need something to haul their discs across the eighteen poles. Players prefer to use a single padded strapped bag with multiple compartments for scorecards and an assortment of discs. The average bag can hold 12-15 discs.
Earlier this afternoon, I grabbed my bag and traveled to Oakland for a game with my friends. Now I’m running late. It’s ten minutes after two, and chances are Jason is waiting for me on the ground floor of the student union so that we can walk to Schenley Park’s Disc Golf course. I sprint down the stairwell, push open the door and find him sitting across from the lockers reading the Pitt News. He has a pair of sunglasses resting in his high hair, which runs down the sides of his face until meeting the ends of his mouth. He is wearing a long-sleeved black, white and red flannel shirt that, by the look of it, I’m sure he’s had since high school. He’s wearing khaki carpenter pants that contrasts with his black Vans sneakers.
“Why are you wearing those heavy jeans?” he asks. “You’re gonna get hot.”
“It’s cold out,” I assure him.
Jason and I have played Disc Golf in the past, but have been recently playing every Friday afternoon at Schenley’s 18-hole course.
“Is Bob coming?” he asks while folding his paper and rising from his seat.
“I’m not sure. Let’s wait about ten minutes and see if he comes.”
Bob, Jason, and I have one man to thank for introducing us to this alternative sport we so love: J. Gary Dropcho. A member of the Professional Disc Golf Association, Mr. Dropcho is an important figure to the Pittsburgh Disc Golf community.
He has been involved in the installation of all of the courses in the Pittsburgh area. He has also played courses all over the globe and participated in dozens of tournaments.
Dropcho started playing Disc Golf with his brothers at the age of fourteen. They would make spontaneous courses using trees and other objects as “holes” while using classic large Frisbees.
At Indiana University of Pennsylvania, he joined the Ultimate Frisbee Team – a game that combines elements of football, basketball and, of course, Frisbee tossing. It was the first time he had joined an organized Frisbee sport. In the late seventies, he played in a few Ultimate tournaments competing with teams from West Virginia, Pitt, and Penn State.
It wasn’t until 1978 when Dropcho played “real” disc golf in Jim Palmeri’s American Flying Disc Open in Rochester, New York. He recalled the targets being a mixture of different catching devices. Some were ground baskets made of chicken wire,
others were called Saucer holes (which he described as “a pole hole with an inverted plastic cone on top to deflect shots into a basket below”), and some were poles with single chains and a basket, as like the one described earlier.
Jason and I have a good twenty-minute walk from the Union before we see the first basket. We cross the Panther Hollow Bridge, stop at the Schenley Park Visitor Center for a drink of water, pass Phipps Conservatory, make a mad dash across Boulevard of the Allies and walk halfway across a runners track until we finally reach the concrete tee of the first hole. I set my bag down on the concrete bench next to the tee and take out my four favorite discs – one of which is an orange putter with a jack-o-lantern design. As I stretch and prepare for my first throw of the game, something to the left catches my attention. I look to my left to see a solitary golfer walking toward us from the fairway of the second hole.
“Is that Bob?” Jason asks while organizing his discs. It was. Bob, dressed in a blue hooded sweatshirt, was half prepared for the crisp winds that were blowing across the course. He wears a blue and gold Panther cap and his glasses. It’s obvious Bob took the long way over but still got here five minutes before we did. It doesn’t matter though. We are all here and ready to play.
Although Dropcho did not come near winning a top place in the tournament at Rochester, he did make a long shot – 50 feet he recalls. He remembers “feeling that rush of exhilaration that made [him] want to play again.” It was that first tournament and the International Friendship Tour the following year – where he played courses in the UK, Netherlands, Belgium and France with nine other players from all over the country. It was playing in these tournaments that “really juiced [him] to play and organize flying disc events.” And so Disc Golf courses in Pittsburgh were soon to come.
In 1988, Dropcho helped get city approval for the first course in Pittsburgh, the 18-hole course in Schenley Park designed by Steve Kohman and John David. He also assisted in the construction of the course by helping to install the baskets and tee signs. Ten years later, Dropcho wrote a $5,500 grant to the Hunt Foundation which funded the installation of two sets of concrete tee pads (a recreational pad for beginners and a pro pad for avid players).
In 1994, Dropcho again helped win approval for a course at Knob Hill Park in Warrendale. He coordinated the funding campaign to purchase the materials for the course, which totaled $8,000. In 1999, he provided technical assistance for the installation of concrete tee pads, which makes the ground level for high performance drives.
In 1996, Dropcho helped Carrick High School students get approval for a nine-hole course at Philips Park, across from the school. He wrote a grant for initial funding, coached students in the design of the course and supervised the installation of the baskets. Dropcho again provided technical assistance to Bob’s brother Jim during his Eagle Scout project in 2001 where concrete tee pads and signs were installed.
Dropcho, in 1998, assisted in the design and installation of a 9-hole course in Monroeville and two years later, jointly designed another 9-hole course with his brother Michael in Getty Heights Park in Indiana, PA. More recently, in 2001, he won approval for an 18-hole course of “championship caliber” that will feature two sets of tees and two sets of basket positions.
I have only been to two courses: Philips and Schenley. Schenley’s course has a great view of the Pittsburgh skyline – especially from the tee of the second hole. According to the sign on the left, it is the longest hole on the course at 540 feet. It appears so much longer today.
We all plan to use our long distance drivers for this hole. Jason and I move away from the tee so that Bob can get a running start. Bob starts from the back of the tee, and dashes sideways to the front while bringing the disc across his chest, parallel to the ground and using his arm like a whip, snaps the disc, sending it hurtling to the wide open fairway. It stays stable for a while and then curves slightly to the left. It’s not a bad drive for someone who hasn’t played in six months.
Jason is up. He takes the same running start as Bob did, but releases the disc with a grunt. It soars too high, cuts sharp to the left, and accelerates into the fairway. Yes, into the fairway. His disc is stuck in the ground. Will he ever learn to turn over the disc?
Jason and I joined the Disc Golf club during our sophomore year at Carrick High School about five years ago. One day after school, we walked over to Phillips Park where a fairly new Disc Golf course was located. We met a group of about 10 to 15 other students huddled near Hole 9, the last hole of the course. They were all taking practice shots from various distances around the hole while we waited for the coach: Mr. Dropcho.
Dropcho pulled into the nearby parking lot with an old, gray Volkswagen hatchback decorated with Disc Golf bumper stickers and window decals.
As he stepped out of his car, he seemed pleased to see all the new faces crowding around the last hole. He unlocked the trunk of his car prompting everyone to gather in front. The trunk was packed with new discs and a variety of disc golf accessories including bags, towels, T-shirts, hats and even a instructional video on Disc Golf.
While we approach the next hole, I ask Jason if he remembers this day. “I remember sucking real bad,” he recalls. The group he played with helped him navigate the course and taught him the basic rules of the game. Although his game was well over par that day, Jason walked away from the course with a respect for the game. He loved the fact that it was a lifelong sport that anyone could play – the young and the old, the strong and the weak. He liked to get outdoors and have fun with his friends.
On our way to Hole 6, Jason repeats our scores from the last hole. “Six, five, five,” he read the scorecard. “It sounds like an area code… for disaster!” Bob laughs aloud and I chuckle. Jason’s known for his corny jokes on the course.
Jason likes to play because it’s something to do for free. Bob plays for the thrill of playing a nontraditional sport, and I like it because it’s something fun to do outdoors with good friends.
Bob O’ Mara was introduced to disc golf while in the sixth grade by his oldest brother, Tom. Tom was introduced to the game in the same place as Jason and I – only a few years earlier. Tom immediately fell in love with the game and began taking his father and two younger brothers out to Phillips Park to play.
Bob was not the best novice disc golfer (so he claims). When he played with his family, he was always last to throw and would jump up and down in near tears screaming because the disc would never go where he wanted it to – always curving to the left. It took many games until he figured out how to turn over the disc – throwing it at an angle slightly to the right in an attempt to level it out.
During high school, Bob played in four tournaments on four different courses. The tournaments were restricted to high school students around the Pittsburgh area. There was usually a $10 entry fee which gave contestants a new disc of their choice and a chance for a “trophy disc,” as Bob refers to them, which was given to the top three players. First, second, and third place players received a thin, golden metal disc (like a CD) about three inches in diameter. The front of the disc read “Pittsburgh High School Championships” and the order of place.
Bob is proud to have three of these trophy discs – scoring either first or second in the four tournaments in which he participated. Bob plays disc golf because it’s an unfamiliar game, and he likes unique and different things. He also likes to play because it is a relaxing game for him where there isn’t too much action - unlike the street hockey he is accustomed to playing.
Towards the end of the game, I end up making a come back and beating Bob, who held the advantage by one stroke during most of the game. Jason ends up playing his worst game ever with a score well over par. Bob is in awe that I caught up to his score during the last four holes, so I suggest a rematch right then and there. Jason agrees and after some convincing, Bob agrees too.
“I don’t think it’s gonna stay light out like this for the whole game,” Bob says. Jason and I think he’s right, but we are going to play as much as we can until it’s too dark.
Bob has played the Schenley, Phillips, Monroeville, and Knob Hill courses while Jason and I have only played at Schenley and Phillips. Neither of us, however, has come close to the number of courses Dropcho has played…yet. Dropcho has played courses in 20 different states throughout the United States and several more in Canada, England, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Why does he play so much? He says he loves the feeling of seeing the disc fly exactly where he had imagined it going. A hole in one, or another great shot such as a long distance putt makes him want to keep playing. It’s the challenge, as in any other sport, to do better than your last game. Self-improvement is the key to success.
Yet it’s the camaraderie of the other players that makes him want to practice and improve. There are still new shots and techniques to be learned, he says, and although he’s getting older, he believes he will be playing the sport he’s so greatly devoted himself to for a long time.
During our second round, I have trouble finding my yellow and red disc that has yellow with red lettering on the ground, which is covered by yellow and orange leaves on hole 10. It’s getting too dark. All three of us were scanning the ground for about five minutes until Jason finds it in a ditch about a few feet from the basket.
I grab the disc and take aim. My putt sails past the basket and rolls down the hill behind it. Jason and Bob laugh as I follow it with my eyes, making sure not to lose it again.
As we prepare to walk back to Oakland, I wonder if I’ll ever tour the world as a disc golf tourist like J. Gary Dropcho – one of the forefathers of Pittsburgh Disc Golf.
We pack our drivers and putters into our bags. We plan on playing next week, regular tee time.
