Legal for a sanctioned tournament? Modified Target

I recently played in a tournament with a basket that was on a 6ft. pole. According to the technical standards the rim height should be 82cm +/-6cm above grade when manufactured. Is it then legal to modify it to aid in making a filler hole more difficult? I think not what are your thoughts and who from the PDGA can i speak to before the next event?

 

[Eric Day]

You make a good point, but I dont think it would be a good idea to go up to a T.D. and tell him to take out a entire whole because of a simple rule. Personaly I like an added risk once in awhile. But hay if you want to go rant to a T.D. more power to ya. Just be sure to say thank you to him for going out of his way to run the event...

Not to be rude but this is sport, and sports dont grow without change.

[mark ellis]

Elevating baskets has been done at many courses. At the USDGC (Rock Hill, South Carolina) a couple baskets are mounted on top of bases/pyramids to make putts more challenging. For the World Championships a couple years back in northern Wisconsin one basket was mounted high in a tree (maybe 7 or 8 feet off the ground). For the final 9 skins match at the Michigan State Finals in Ludington, we lodge a basket in the top of a playground slide maybe 20 feet off the ground.

The baskets, as manufactured, are legal. There is no rule I know of which limits their placement to flat ground.

Elevated baskets are not as scary as side hills or right next to OB lines or on the crest of severe hills with huge drop offs just past them. It is just a different challenge and not unfair, IMO.

[Birdie-man]

Climb the tree to retrieve a made putt, sounds fun!!! : )

[Disc Golf Live]

I think it would be sweet to have baskets manufactured to have adjustable height. (Sorry about the tangent...)

To me, such a variable would make sense and offer a way to ratchet up difficulty of a course without too much trouble.

In the tall position, a target would be like a fast putting surface, suitable for top-caliber tourney play. In the short position, things would be easier, like with slow greens. Bring on the casuals!

The ball golf/disc golf parallel breaks down around the putting green and this sort of a tweak would add interest and difficulty to disc golf putting. Many courses already offer alternate pin positions, why not adjustable baskets as well?

[Chuck Kennedy]

The spec for baskets was recently updated to specifically state that the 82cm +/- 6cm is now only "as manufactured" but not "as installed" so that people would be able to mount baskets at heights other than the manufactured spec. Although not written at this point, the idea would be not to overdo it and have maybe no more than 3 or 4 non-standard height baskets out of 18 on a course. The main thing is to make sure there's a way for players to retrieve discs from the basket, especially if they land on top of the basket.

[Ben Calhoun]

Reminds me of Fanshawe at Junior Worlds 2003. Baskets so high, half the field couldn't retrieve their discs- from the basket not from on top! It was insane.

[discgolfdady]

if the pdga had big balls they would mandate it

[Noah]

I respect the change aspect of adding these holes just don't want them getting out of hand. With a Pyramid arrangemet it adds the difficulty, with a base to retrieve discs as well as a layup area if necessary. My concern was 2 fold: 1 Is it in keeping with the rules/ tech specs, 2 Who coould I talk to from the PDGA to deal with the issue (other than a TD who obviously would not be happy with a player correcting what they thought was a good idea)

[Chuck Kennedy]

I gave you both answers.

[Tom Westphal]

The 2008 Worlds were held in Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, MI and one of the courses played, Oshtemo DGC, has two elevated baskets permanently in the course. If it weren't "legal" for the PDGA, wouldn't they have excluded Oshtemo for the World Championships?

[Noah]

Well Tom the Disc and Basket regulations were updated last year (2009) so your point is moot. But as Chuck said it covers manufacture and not installation.

[Chuck Kennedy]

Actually, elevated baskets were still legal under the old spec. As long as four measurements around and directly under the basket were within the spec, it was met. I drew these two diagrams before the spec was changed showing how very similar basket mountings could be legal or not legal. This similarity was one reason the spec was changed to allow even some of the configurations that weren't technically legal before to be legal since it was so easy to circumvent it and have an elevated basket anyway. If you looked at how the baskets were elevated at the USDGC, they were done legally before the spec was changed because Harold was familiar with how the spec was written.

http://discgolfer.ning.com/photo/basket-placements-allowed
http://discgolfer.ning.com/photo/basket-placements-not-allowed