Disc golf: A nod to trees everywhere

Pulled straight from a poem by Nate Sexton:

“You open your mouth and utter these words: ‘Why are trees?’ In an instant, I’m changed – at a loss and befuddled. The picture I’d painted so clearly is muddled. Why is anything here? Why is anything not? How can I answer without weeks of thought? I must tell you I don’t know, as I fall to my knees. I’m haunted. I’m sleepless. I’m adrift on the seas. Reality floats off – and up, out and back. All logic is gone, and each night I’m attacked. I’m shaking and shivering and starting to freeze. The only thing left now is to scream: ‘Why are trees?!’”

* Note: To read the entirety of Sexton’s work, click here.

Words only a disc golfer could pen …

Nice work, Nathan.

In disc golf, trees are revered for their natural beauty – it’s the hippie vibe. More often than not, though, they serve as a starting point for mid-round pouting and temper tantrums. Dents to new DX discs, shattered CE plastic, first-available embarrassment and that impassable obstacle the course designer clearly forgot to remove decades back – trees are to blame for all of it.

But let’s not forget the good of trees, as well …

Not every “treedirection” is a bad thing.

In and of itself, that’s something largely unique to disc golf. In ball golf, for example, nine times out of 10, if a drive or approach nails a tree, congrats – you’re royally screwed. In disc golf, though, even after your frisbee attempts to section a shrub, a smidgen of hope remains …

“That could work.”

I know this to be true …

Arboreal blessings ABOUND in my disc golf career …

Play long enough, and you’ll see ‘em, too:

• Trees correct wobbly, wayward frisbee flights.
• Trees nudge discs back out onto tight-tunnel fairways.
• Trees act as basket backstops when speed control is lacking.
• Trees save innocent park-goers’ skulls from instant fracturing.

And let’s not forget THIS kind of black magic, either …

So, the next time you feel like going all “Leatherface” on an ill-placed sapling, remember the God-given purpose they serve: Unexpectedly bailing out your atrocious disc golf game …

Also, oxygen.

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