i cant believe what happened today!

     so i was playing my local course today and got to hole 7. hole seven has a walking path about 30 feet to the right of the tee that goes along the whole side of the hole and is considered o.b. the walking path is pretty popular with other non-discing park goers. so today off the tee i threw about 200 feet down the fairway and it curved right at the end (bad throw for this hole) and skipped o.b. when it skipped across the sidewalk it skipped about 15 feet from this old lady walking along the path. it wasn't intentional (obviously) and i shouted heads up as it turned her way and apologized after i seen it skip past her. i have seen this happen many times before, by either me or friends i am playing with, and on many different holes and courses throughout the country and every person has been more then cool about it. not this lady. she preceded to pick up my disc and start walking away with it. i see this(still on the tee-box 200 feet away)and start jogging towards her. when i got closer to her i started asking her (calm and nice still, probably because it was a little old lady)what shes doing with my disc and explaining to her that this is a disc golf course and we were playing a game and i didn't mean to throw it at her. she ignores me and just keeps walking. i am starting to get mad and yell at her that she cant just take my disc. when i get about 20 feet from her she stops and throws the disc down the cliff that is next to the walking path and into the river(coincidentally, it was my river she picked up). i snapped out when she did that. i started screaming at her at the top of my lungs. such  things as what the f*** is wrong with you?!?!?, why would you f***ing do that?!?!? your f***ing crazy etc. and she just keeps walking away and the only thing she says is "you put my life in jeopardy!!" i then preceded to tell her that if she thinks her life is in jeopardy because of a disc flying by her fifteen feet away then don't walk around a f***ing disc golf course!!! she kept walking, and i stopped following her and went to fetch my disc and finish out the round fuming the whole time.

     i am sitting at home and this is still bothering me. i cant believe this lady had the audacity to do that! i could understand if the disc hit her and she got mad( because it happened to me before) but i cant even justify it because it really didn't even come that close to her. is she really that miserable that she's gotta try to ruin the good time i am having? like, if you were walking around in the park and some kids were having a catch with a football and the one kid overthrows it to the other and it lands near you are you going to pick up that ball and take it??? no normal person would do that. i really hate people sometimes. anybody ever have something like this happen to them ever while they were playing?

 

[Disc Player Sports]

You gentlemen need to ask 'disc-o-golf' what happens when a disc hits your face.

He was in the crowd at worlds in 2001. And during the finals was hit in the face, i believe in the forehead.

Cut him severely.

Next time you tee off, be concerned about others.

Anything can happen, a disc can hit a tree and hit a kid, ........

Too bad, sit and wait.

We wait on one hole #17 all the time @ Reed Canal. It's worth the wait.

I'd rather wait, to play a decent hole; than lose the course all together.

Disc golfers, it is not all about us.

[Steve West]

"I am sitting at home and this is still bothering me."

 

And it will continue to bother you until you admit to yourself that you should never have thrown that disc, and stop trying to push the blame onto the lady, or the shot, or ....

 

"if my drive didn't just completely shank right it would never have come into play."

 

These are the exactly kind of throws that need to be considered when designing a safe course.

 

"There is also a big difference between throwing when you see someone directly on your line and accidentally shanking one towards someone."

 

Not to person who gets hit, or even startled.

 

"there are some courses(north watertower in Sarasota comes to mind) that have walking paths weaving in and out of the whole course and you can look all you want and see no one and then when your releasing  somebody will turn a corner and come into view and its too late"

 

Then don't play those courses.  And, get in touch with the park authorities and explain the situation, and get the course or walking paths changed.

[Disc Player Sports]

After this,

and having designed a course.

Most of the issues are about risk management.

I am always thinking about errant throws and how dangerous they can be.

You have to layout a course for projected 'bad' throws.

There is no perfect, each course evolves over time if the people in charge are willing to admit change is necessary.

I like to believe that most will not 'throw' when people are nearby, but in too many cases disc golfers believe that they are right and everyone else is wrong. This is of course the wrong attitude.

There were many 'looks' I would have liked to have seen, but did not create as a hole. A well seasoned intelligent golfer will not only try to make the correct judgement call, but you can not design a public course for the well seasoned disc golfer.

Always have to take in consideration 'errant' throws.

I am appalled at the attitude of I the disc golfer am not wrong, it's the patron that is wrong.

[ROBEY the one.]

how is he less of a patron?

 

[Jim Coonradt]

I just don't agree that "you should never have thrown that disc". Sometimes a disc just completely gets away from you and comes too close to a pedestrian. And when we don't have "dedicated" courses where there are no pedestrians around this is always a danger. The City is partly to blame if they design a walking path right next to a disc golf course.

The lady in question did nothing to improve relations between pedestrians and disc golfers. In fact she did the opposite and created a problem that wasn't there. I don't believe that you should immediately get down on a disc golfer for throwing an errant shot unless you have never thrown one in your life. Yes you should be as careful as possible and avoid throwing at pedestrians. But this is more of a case of how others treat us as a group. There are those who just don't like disc golf and would rather we were not there to mess up their walking routine. This is totally a two way street type of situation and should be seen as that. We had a guy walk towards us on the path today and then turn around and start walking the other way. We threw (carefully) because if we had waited it could have been another ten minutes till he was clear again. Not ideal but what are you going to do? And as experienced disc golfers none of us came near him with our throws.

Situations like this are created when a city believes that pedestrians can coexist with disc golfers. It isn't the best planning IMHO.

[eegor]

You shouldn't have thrown the the disc.  You should've left all communication with her as an apology.  Even as you went for your disc, you should've told her you were sorry it came so close. Any left over guilt would then have been on her.  You could've mentioned to her that she wasn't that great at accepting apologies...

 

The flying disc is your responsibility, her life and livelihood is hers.  She was taking care of herself as best she knows how.  Let it roll.

[Corndawg13]

Weird, I over threw my teebird on a 340 foot hole and hit a jogger in the ankle pretty hard knocking him over. So I jog over there and apologize and check to see if he is okay and all. He gets up and says "holy shit how far did you just throw this thing!?" So I told him about 375 feet and he is impressed, asks about the sport, and then I saw him playing a week later.

[Jim Coonradt]

I agree that you shouldn't have gone off of the lady with profanity. But I don't agree that you shouldn't have thrown that disc. The fact is that you didn't actually hit that lady. Did you come too close for either your or her comfort? Of course. But I realize that is not what you intended. For those of you who say that you should have never thrown that disc I would say that you should come play our course and then see if you have the same opinion. You most likely wouldn't get past hole number 4. And as far as contacting the City and getting them to change things, that would most likely just result in the course getting changed for the worse or even pulled out. We aren't a high priority in the world of Parks and Recreation. I think that in a lot of places we are merely tolerated.

 

Pedestrians who walk next to a disc gold course need to pay attention. I think that it is a bad idea to even have a walking path next to a disc golf course but in many places they are there. Why aren't there a bunch of walking paths next to ball golf courses? Because it would be a bad idea. I am not sure if the walking path was there before our course went in but it has always been there. You shouldn't come down on a disc golfer who made an errant shot unless you are in such an environment and know what it is like to deal with such situations. Always saying that the disc golfer was at fault is just too simplistic a view. Look at the whole situation. Disc golfers and pedestrians can coexist but it isn't always easy to do so. It takes education on both sides, not just one.

[david swamp thing black]

Ive hit old guys with canes, little girls and boys, dogs, squirrels, windows, fancy cars, and various other innocent things.  If there is any chance of wacking someone don't throw because your minds eye will lock in and kill targets such as pigeons and what not.

[Jim Coonradt]

I don't like to throw when there are people in view because I swear it just makes me focus on them and my disc wants to hone in on them.

 

On a side note my friend said that a lady told him that we should close the course down for a few days so that she and her daughter could walk through the course and take pictures of trees. I guess that we just don't matter that much.

[david swamp thing black]

same here

[mr ed]

..then on the other hand,how many discs might have previously come her way or the possible hit."I'm sick of this and not going to take it any more"syndrome and that was what broke the camels back.In Florida there is the "senior age law" that if you somehow "hit" a person of certain senior age they can/will press charges against you,you are then arrested."One must put themselves into another person's shoes so to speak.We certainly have enough problems dealing with disc golfers of our age{s} bracket and lose it among ourselves.Homes that surround parks have some great disc collections in there backyards/trash/collection box to be returned.Sh.. happens ;>}