Disc golf is a game where you find your rhythm and maintain it over 9-to-18 holes, or suffer the consequences. Of course, rhythm is a mental construct, but one that plays out physically. So, if anything disrupts your mental outlook on the course, it’s a potential rhythm buster.
Let’s look at some of the things that commonly disrupt one’s game:
1) Pedestrians
2) Searching for a lost disc, a.k.a. fishing for plastic
3) Losing a disc
4) Three or four putting
5) Slow play ahead
6) Wind gusts
7) Rain delay/Lightning
8) Keeping your dog on a leash throughout
9) A poor throw
10) A series of poor throws
Con Cen Tray Shun, baby. All golfers need it just to survive out there.
I don’t know about you, but my game suffers when I spend 10, 15 or 20 minutes looking for a disc in the rough. I’m always relieved to find the disc (if I find it); regardless, the effort it takes to beat through thickets, searching up and down and all around completely throws me off my game.
Just this morning on the Greenway Disc Golf Course in Beaverton, I scored a birdie 2 on Hole #4, but threw into the woods off the 5th tee, and by the time I finally found my trusty Shark, I was sweaty and mentally fatigued from talking to myself, and convincing myself to not give up on the hunt. Needless to say, I ended up four-putting for a 7. Then I double-boogied the next hole.
Disc golf is a tough sport for tough players.