One of the group reckoned they might be frisbee goals. I sort of believed him because he said it so convincingly, but when he laughed, I wondered if he was tricking us.
Well, who should come walking past, but two frisbee throwers. One of them gave us a demonstration of the sport.
Penny went to have a closer look at the goal.
That shot missed by a whisker, so the thrower gave us a closer demo of how the goal works. The frisbee hits the loose chains and falls into the basket.
I''d never heard of the sport - discgolf - before, but it sound like a terrific addition to the range of sports available in Melbourne.
I had a look at the Melbourne Discgolf site, and see there's to be an official opening of the Ruffey Lake course on Sunday 18th November 2012 at 10 am near Church Road.
Here's a bit from their site:Disc Golf is one of the fastest growing sports in the world, originating in the US in the 70's and having been played in Australia since the early 80's. Disc golf, best described as Frisbee golf, is a fun, inexpensive, healthy and environmentally friendly game that can be enjoyed by people of all ages and abilities, male and female, regardless of economic status.
It is played much like traditional golf; only instead of hitting a ball into a hole you throw a Frisbee into an elevated metal basket. As players progress from the “tee” to the “target,” the trees, shrubs and terrain changes provide challenging obstacles. Ultimately, the “putt” is tossed into the basket and the hole is completed. The goal of disc golf is the same as traditional golf: to complete the course in the fewest number of shots. Disc golf shares the same joys and frustrations of traditional golf, whether it's nailing a long putt, sinking an "ace" (hole in one) or hitting a tree halfway down the fairway.
As in “ball golf,” a typical course will have 9 or 18 holes, but each hole only averages between 50 and 150 metres. The target in disc golf is a metal basket that is mounted vertically about a metre off the ground, attached to a pole that is around 1.6m tall. To better allow discs to come to rest in this basket, chains are suspended from another circular section near the top of the pole and allowed to hang to a point where they are connected to the pole in or near the receiving basket.
There are some photos on this page showing discgolf at Ruffey Lake Park.
6 comments:
I had never heard of this sport either but did hear a couple of weeks ago, on the radio, that some park in Glen Eira (or somewhere in that part of the world - I think) has banned frisbee throwing. There was quite a bit of talkback about it but I didn't hear the upshot of it all.
I wonder why they would ban frisbee throwing? I guess people must have been inconsiderate in some way?
We would have never guessed what that contraption was and we've never heard of this sport before! You really do learn something new every day!
Love ya lots,
Mitch and Molly
Mitch and Molly, you might notice some of these contraptions when you go walking, now that you're aware of the sport. After all, your country invented the game, lol.
Very interesting!!! Mommy would have never thought that was a Frisbee goal post. We thought it was an outdoor chandelier decoration or something like that. It would make a great decoration in the yard. Looks like a great sport. Thanks for sharing!
Lassie and Benjie, maybe your mum could set one up in your yard and practise her throwing, so she can throw frisbees right to you when you're out in the park.
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