The rules!
The rules of disc golf are quite simple: Get the disc into the basket in as few throws as possible. (Sometimes easier said than done.)
Count every shot. Lowest score wins.
The hole begins at the tee box. Ours are crushed red rock with a hole # sign surrounded on the back 3 sides with larger rocks. You can start as far back as you would like, but you must release the disc before you get to the end of the tee box. Where your disc comes to rest is your next throwing position. You mark your spot by placing another disc or a mini-disc marker on the ground in formal play. In informal play, just know where your spot is. Disc golf is all about giving people the benefit of the doubt, but don't cheat! it's totally against the spirit of the game.
OK, but what happens if: You end up in a tree? In the water? Over someone's fence? Deep in the middle of some thick, thorny spot? Strict tournament rules are different for each situation.
If you're in a tree, get that disc down somehow, and place it directly under where it was and shoot from there, no penalty. No breaking tree branches! We let you hold them temporarily out of the way and throw with your other hand which isn't strictly correct, but leave the trimmers at home.
If you are in the water, remove it 3 feet from the edge of the hazard, perpendicular to the boundary of the hazard even if that moves it closer to the basket. That movement out cost you one stroke. If the disc is half in/half out of the water? No problems. If any part of the disk is on land, it's officially NOT in the hazard. Aren't these rules nice?
Over the fence? Some of the neighbors are really friendly, others have disc eating dogs and masters with matching personalties. You can try to get it later by asking at the front of the house - don't leap over their fence and grab it. That gives us players a bad name, and you might get bit or shot at. Anyway, this is called being out of bounds, and it's a meaner rule than being in a hazard. When you go out of bounds, you have to count the bad throw, add a penalty shot and then you have three options: 1. re-throw from where you last threw, 2. throw from within 3 ft of where you entered the out-of bounds, or 3. play from a designated drop zone. (specific tournaments can throw out one or more of the options) You want to avoid that!
If you are stuck somewhere impassible because your shot strayed into the thick stuff, get that disc out and make a mental line between where the disc was and the basket. Go back just behind that thick clump, keeping a straight line to the basket and let her rip. Now when you are in the thorns, the rule is you have to keep one foot where the disc came to rest, but the OTHER foot you can put anywhere you want, just no closer to the basket. Sometimes I am practically lying down stretching to get a clean shot out of trouble. You get good at creatively throwing it somewhat forward in these situations. If your situation is hopeless, you can declare an unplayable lie. The first throw still counts, and there is a penalty stroke added, but you can either 1) rethrow from your last lie, or 2) move back in a straight line between you and the basket up to 5 meters until you get to a good spot.
Now if you're a total beginner, we just let you bring your disc back to the open and let it go, but after you've been out a few times, man up and play by the rules or you'll never get any better.
OK, so now it's time to take that next shot. Your marker disc is on the ground, you can run up behind it again, but just like on the tee box, you have to release before you get to your marker. You can step past AFTER releasing, but no creeping forward. By now hopefully, you're pretty close to that basket and want to drop that disc in. PUTTING is considered any shot inside of 30 feet and the rules change a bit in "the circle." You still mark your spot, but you cannot pass that marker even after you release the disc. New people always want to step way forward on release, but this will cost you a stroke, even if you lose your balance and step forward. Inside of 30 feet, toss it in or towards the basket, but you must demonstrate balance before going in to retrieve your disc (hopefully!) or reshooting from where you landed.
The hole is finished when the disc comes to rest either inside the basket or at rest in the chains. On top of the goal is NOT finished. You get to walk over and place it in. The chains are what you want to aim at. I aim at the pole itself nestled in the chains, and aim about halfway up the chains. If you hit in there, it almost always drops in for you, but at times the chains are mean to you. Dem's the berries. Hitting that little yellow strip on top make a "dink" sound you will learn to hate. I apparently love hitting the top edge of the basket. You will quickly get used to dropping in 15 footers like nothing, but the longer putts are something. My longest shot that came to rest in the basket was about 150'! That was pretty cool.
Order of play: If you got the best score on the last hole, you "own the box" and get to tee off first. Once everyone has thrown, whomever is away (farthest back) throws first, for obvious safety reasons. Don't walk in front of them until they throw. If it is more convenient for a person farther forward to throw, they can do so with the permission of whomever is up next. Once it's your turn, you have 30 seconds from when you get to your disc to fling it.
Courtesy rules: Disc golf is all about playing nicely. Whoever played best in the last hole goes first on the next tee. If someone tosses a disc into the brush EVERYONE in the group tries to find it. After 3 minutes it is officially a lost disc, even if you later find it, and you play it like an out of bounds shot, although our group treats lost discs like POWS - we leave no disc behind if at all possible. Whomever is farthest from the hole throws next - don't walk in front of them! or you'll catch a disc in the back. When putting, you typically get in the basket, then jog up and retrieve your disc to let the next person putt, but our group usually just tosses them all in and then fetches them after. Don't take three shots because you were disgusted with your first shot unless you are playing alone. That's called practice! but when you're in a group and it's happening on every hole, your playing partners are getting pretty annoyed with you. Don't litter. Don't talk, yell or otherwise distract someone who it throwing. Always watch each person throw, so that if they throw badly, there are more eyes seeing where it landed. The most important courtesy rule? When you find my disc, text me! My number is on the bottom. You keep my disc, you probably can't throw it well and it will just get lost soon. Text me and three things happen. I just found a new friend and playing partner. I'll take you for a round and show you how to throw, and I let you try out several types of discs until you find one that works well for you and let you understand the nature of the game. That's a totally better deal, and it's better for your soul to be honorable. If someone breaks a courtesy rule, call them on it! Penalty strokes are added for each additional violation during a round.
You'll have to be careful on certain holes that have a lot of pedestrian traffic, and every photographer in town thinks the baskets are for holding wardrobe changes. They also think that you should wait "just 15 minutes until we finish" as they sit right in the middle of YOUR fairway that you will only use for like 45 seconds. Hopefully they will learn to let us play through quickly. Try to ask them nicely first, just don't heave a disc at their head and scream "Fore!"
Knowing these rules will get you through 90% of the fun! Now you just need to learn to throw that disc, or buy the one you can throw just right! There are other links for those chores. Have fun and keep playing!
If you want the official legal sounding rules, you can click here. Look for the RULES heading to click on!
-Steve
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