New to Disc Golf

[bmugwump]

See! I knew ERic could tell you about all that stuff!! And I'm sure he's thinking to himself "Gee, Billy should know all of this stuff since he's helping run Birdshot"...(LOL)...and he's right, I probably should. I guess I'm technically lazy...but I do love to go out & play! I do, however, need to better educate myself on rules & regulations, etc. (that would make Chuck happy too, I'm sure!)

[ERicJ]

Originally Posted by ERicJ

Technically PDGA doesn't "rank" players, it "rates" them.

Okay, let me correct and clarify.

The PDGA does rank the top world players based on ratings and finishes in major tournaments:
http://pdga.com/WorldRankings


For the rest of the members the PDGA doesn't publicly rank members. But you can find a rank number hidden in the HTML comments of a player ratings page.

E.g. go to my page: http://pdga.com/player-stats?PDGANum=34690&year=2008 and use your browser's "View Source" option. You'll see the following section which is an HTML comment (that means it doesn't show up when viewed as a normal web page in a browser):

<!--
    <tr>
        <td>Rating Ranking:</td>
        <td>12,259                                        &nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
-->

However, I can not verify the accuracy of those rankings. I looked into it a while back using the top ranked players and seem to recall concluding that it must include players with expired memberships or something because some of the ranks weren't present.

But it does show that the PDGA has or had the intent to rank players in addition to rating them at some point in time.

ERic

[ERicJ]

Originally Posted by bmugwump

See! I knew ERic could tell you about all that stuff!!

Glad to help

ERic

[ThePatrick]

You quoted yourself. Wow :rolleyes)

[frisbeeguy]

Originally Posted by Miller

I'm new to the forum (played disc golf for 2 years) as well so welcome. Most everyone here seems pretty friendly and informative. I've played River Pointe and it's nice, but I don't get down that way very often.

As for discs, how long have you been playing. There are tons of discs out there, but I think (from my own personal experience) that it's important to learn how to throw with 1 (or maybe 2) disc before you try out all sorts of others. The Birdie and Shark are both great discs. They fly really straight and will help you learn how to throw level and control your throws. Once you get the motion down though you might want to try a disc that will go a little further. Then a disc like a Star TL or a Valkyrie would be good to try.

http://www.innovadiscs.com/discs/startl.html
http://www.innovadiscs.com/discs/starvalkyrie.html

As for tournaments, there should be a list on the forum of In-Town and Out-of-Town tournaments that you can try. If you're looking for something a little more beginner (which is what I'm dong) then try a Birdshot-mini tournament. I'm hoping there not quite as involved (1 day -3hours instead of 2-day) and a good way to get my feet wet. It's Saturday so I'll let you know if I was right.

This is a good post.

Your first two discs are both great choices to learn the throwing basics and good suggestions on your first beveled edge driver.

It would be a good idea to pick up a couple more discs if for nothing else except to have a backup in case one sinks.

Welcome to the game, have fun & please help educate others on not damaging or trashing the courses.

You'll find lot's of baskets to shoot at around town & almost wherever you travel...try to play as many courses as you can.

Don't worry about skill level when playing with people you've just met on the course...yours or theirs. We all started with just a disc or two & hit just about everything except our line!

[Miller]

Thanks!

[dmac3232]

I picked up the Valkyrie on Friday and played Friday before we left and oh my gosh, what a difference. Using it alone shaved 2 strokes off. I could really tell the difference in distance. I still need to go and play River Pointe soon though. Maybe I'll play on Friday since I get off early. How did the Jester mini go?

[Miller]

It was great! Read more here:
http://www.hfds.org/vbull/showthread.php?t=182

[dmac3232]

I played River Pointe which was much nicer and more challenging than Pecan Grove but I still shot a 34 which was pretty good I thought. I would like to play with someone sometime on a Friday afternoon around 4pm if anyone is interested.