Tag: Fast-growing sport

Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Walk in the Woods in Finland

by Parked, posted in Finland

Finland goes bonkers for disc golf

By Kari Toivonen ~

One of the 16 courses in the Åland Islands, an autonomous, demilitarized region of Finland. The simultaneous construction of 16 courses made this the most ambitious disc golf project in history. Photo Kari Toivonen.

I feel like the boy in the fable who cried wolf so many times that when the wolf actually came, no one listened to him. There have been so many articles about the disc golf boom in Finland, a small country with a mere 5.5 million inhabitants, that you Americans are probably thinking, enough already!

Well, all those previous stories were true, but had we known what was coming, we probably would have gone easier with the drum beating. I mean, now things are really crazy.

Continue reading “Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Walk in the Woods in Finland” →

What We Know and Don’t Know about Disc Golf

by Parked, posted in Grow the Sport

A new method for studying the sport

By Josh Woods ~

Cover art

I’m not a fan of phrases like “close, but no cigar” and “close only counts in horseshoes.”

They make it sound like close is a bad thing. As if anything short of first place, anything other than perfection, anything besides certainty is a grave defeat.

Even Reese Bobby’s celebrated absurdity – “If you ain’t first, you’re last” – was debunked by Reese himself at the end of Talladega Nights.

Black-and-white thinking doesn’t work well as a sports mentality, and it’s even worse for science. Scientific research never leads us out of the grey, not entirely. At best, we merely increase our confidence in fundamentally questionable propositions. Continue reading “What We Know and Don’t Know about Disc Golf” →

The astonishing rise of Devan Owens, and the “secret sauce” of Tulsa disc golf

by Parked, posted in Disc Golf Clubs, Grow the Sport

Devan Owens Putt by Frisbeenet
Photo: Frisbee.net

In August 2005, a young Devan Owens embarks on an unlikely journey. He leaves his home near Tulsa, Oklahoma and travels nearly a thousand miles to Flagstaff, Arizona for the PDGA Amateur Disc Golf World Championships. Owens is sixteen years old, a precocious lefty with a sidearm and a dream. Continue reading “The astonishing rise of Devan Owens, and the “secret sauce” of Tulsa disc golf” →

Disc golf is trending in U.S. newspapers: Supporting evidence for disc golf’s “fast-growing sport” claim

by Parked, posted in Grow the Sport, Media

Newspaper Logos
Disc golf is the fourth-fastest growing sport in newspaper coverage

As a kid, I loved NFL football. The walls of my childhood room were plastered with Sports Illustrated photos of New York Giants. Before falling asleep each night, I gazed at the shadowy outlines of Phil Simms, Joe Morris and Lawrence Taylor. On Sundays, I attached myself to the TV set, full of awe and expectation, waiting for the next touchdown or sack.

Yet, sadly, I never actually saw the Giants play. Continue reading “Disc golf is trending in U.S. newspapers: Supporting evidence for disc golf’s “fast-growing sport” claim” →