I find more discs than I lose.
And by a sizable margin.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is that I’ve recently noticed a trend for returning lost discs I simply can’t get behind. I say “trend,” but it could very well be that I’ve only recently noticed it. On more than one occasion, I’ve played with guys who’ve used it to make an “effort” to return someone’s missing flier. It’s only been used on me once, though. Still, once was enough …
I’m not a fan.
Here’s how it goes down …
Let’s say you’ve misplaced a frisbee. Naturally, you’re butt-hurt about the whole thing. You looked for a solid half-hour. But with no luck, you had to head for home without it.
Once back at the house, as fate would have it, you get a call from an unknown number – and it’s past the hour of robocalls, too. Considering the circumstances, this is a good sign. Almost as if God himself were on the other line, you’ve been informed your disc has been discovered.
Unicorns. Lollipops. Rainbows.
All is right in the world.
Then, you hear the following:
“Yeah, I left it on top of the basket on hole six – she’ll be waiting for you.”
Despair.
Have you had this happen to you before?
Or worse, have YOU been guilty of doing this to someone?
Listen, if ever there was a person heck-bent on putting forth as little effort as possible to return a lost disc, it’s me. Taylor wrote about it once – it’s not my job to babysit somebody’s bad throw.
You lost it. You get it back.
That’s not on me.
But this is a next-level, bad-karma move.
So much so, I think it’d be better to be left in the dark about the whole thing. When I got this call, I was lucky. I was only a few holes ahead on the course. I jogged back and grabbed it.
But imagine being at home or at work or stuck in traffic and knowing that, though your disc has technically been recovered, some sticky-fingered idiot with a few missing teeth is going to claim it as his own within the next 15 minutes. Even worse, he won’t have to look for it – it’s sitting there on a silver platter of sorts. There might as well be a small sign next to it that reads:
“Take me, please. Nobody will know.”
Again, I totally get not wanting to talk with strangers, meet up with randos at gas stations or give a potential ax murderer your home address for when they’re “in your area.” Instead, do the same thing, but as opposed to leaving it atop a basket for anybody to take with them …
Hide it.
Trees work well for this. Bushes do, too. I’ve even heard of discs being placed under trash cans and construction cones – get creative. Then, when you text the rightful owner, in addition to a brief description of the disc’s new location, you can also shoot ‘em a picture of where it is.
No long, drawn-out conversations. No making plans for an awkward meetup. And no guilt for being a blatant jerk, either. If the owner wants it, go get it – it’s not “lost” anymore. And if not, it’ll likely be a good while before somebody stumbles across it and tosses it in their bag.
See the difference?
Now BE the difference.
I’ve said my piece.
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We have a designated trash can at our course that the parks crew knows we hide discs under and they leave them alone. Works most of the time.
Alternate option is to take the disc to our local Play It Again where they’ll give you $2 for turning it in and they’ll do the leg work from there. If they come in to get their disc, they charge the person the same $2 they paid you to get their disc back, otherwise it eventually gets resold.
There’s a “Lost Disc” lock box at another local course. Discs there get sent to the community rec center and they’ll call you and charge nothing to get it back. Any not picked up go into the free-to-use bin for the local schools.
Hot dang, Erik …
You guys have this down to a science.
Whereabouts are you stationed?
LA Area.
Best story about losing a disc and getting it back happened to me in a mountain course in SE New Mexico. Lost my trusty midrange, left it after looking for 20 mins by myself on an empty course.
Course designer called me 2 days later, told me he found it but didn’t ship discs because it was too expensive for him. Told him Id PayPal him, but he didn’t have it or even a smartphone. Guy was a total off-the-grid mountain man. We chatted for like 10 mins about how great the course was, what I was doing in the area, etc.
As he hung up, he said, “Ya know….whats your address? I’ll ship it to you” and even included an old school mini.
I’ve found being kind, polite and just being a generally good human will lend the best results. Even if I didn’t get the disc back, just talking to that guy was well worth it.
Haha – that’s awesome!
Which begs the question …
What the heck were you doing in SE New Mexico?
I’ve been there – there’s not much. Haha.
High quality insect collecting in SE NM, buuuuut I’m not sure what else lol. But I digress, of course 🙂
You could’ve given me 1,000 reasons a person travels to southeast New Mexico, and this would’ve been the LAST one I would’ve chosen …
Epically awesome.
Insect-collecting.
Disc golf attracts all kinds, does it not?
Was it a successful hunt, at least?
Right on, man!
It was a good hunt! New Mexico in general is drastically undercollected (folks either stop in Ft. Davis-ish, Texas, or keep going west to hit the major hotspots in Arizona), so it’s usually skipped. The group I was with on the more recent trip picked up several new state records, new range extensions for a couple species, and plenty of things we’d never collected before.
The more recent trip was much better for me since I got to spend more time knocking around (along with an obligatory collected insect in Roswell since we were driving through). The first trip was basically just an overnight before I had to part ways with the others, who went further west and really got the good insects.
Now I need to make another trip out that way! With a couple discs in the bag of course. Heck, on my last trip to Texas in 2022, it turned out one of the places we stayed for a night (Terlingua Ranch) had a 9 hole course. That was before I’d started playing though. I snagged a couple rare grasshoppers there though, so I was a happy camper!
Awesome, Tyler!
Admittedly, this was something I didn’t even know was a thing …
Insect-collecting, I mean.
You learn something new every day, right?
Thanks for sharing, brotha!
Oh i had this happen to me recently. And not only was the disc placed on top of a basket, but it was basket 12. The absolute furthest basket from the parking lot. I had about a mile walk of shame.
It gets worse, i pass a group on 17 and someone yells “you going to get the Jay??”
“Yup”
“Cool, it’s on the 12 basket”
I just nodded and kept walking. Is it possible to feel both gratitude and anger at the same time?
Haha.
More gratitude in this instance than anger, probably.
And that was nice of the group to have left it for you – there’s that, at least.
There are plenty of good eggs out there still 🙂
Most of our local courses in Atlanta have drop boxes. Typically I take a picture of me dropping the disc in the box and send it to the number on the disc. However sometimes I will ask do you want me to hide it or do you want me to keep it and meet you out here on another day. I play a lot so I don’t mind holding on to it and meeting somebody to give it back directly. Although I don’t know why I try because nobody returns my discs. Probably because I don’t want the bad karma for not trying. On the plus side I probably find 30 or 40 discs a year. On the downside I probably lose six or eight a year. The ones that I find that people don’t come and get is always discs that I don’t like to throw. I have started writing cash reward if found on the bottom of my important ones.
I’ve literally never seen a “drop box” on a disc golf course in Utah Valley …
I need to speak the higher-ups about this, because it’s a good (and easy-to-implement) idea.
Most but not all of the courses here have them. Even the older courses are now adding them. Typically they’re picked up by one of the local disc golf shops and then they call you to come pick it up. Of course I always feel obligated to buy one while I’m there LOL. I can always add another putter to the putter pile and support a local shop at the same time. Off topic my brothers and I travel every year to a disc golf destination. This year we did the new world complex in florida. Next year we’re coming to your neck of the woods in Ogden to play the fort. Looks like good stuff. Want to do base camp adventures but I don’t know if we’re going to get that far. If you have a suggestion for another local course we usually play two or three on our destination trips
The Fort is immaculate.
Solitude is great, too.
You’re literally playing on the side of a mountain.
Grandpa’s Pond in Hurricane, Utah is worth your time, as well.
Also, I’d give Jolley’s Ranch a toss, too.
You’ll need to do some driving, but ALL are great courses.
Welcome to Utah!
(when you get here, I mean)
Wow all three look great. Love the rubber tee pads on solitude. Jolly ranch may win the prize though that pipe hole looks pretty freaking awesome. Beautiful scenery all the way around. Thanks again for the recommendations
Jolley’s Ranch is the one closest to me.
If you want to get a GOOD look at it, Foundation Disc Golf did a “Bogey Bros Battle” there once.
Check that out, and you’ll get a good look at the course.
My personal favorite – happy hucking!
In the Portland OR area we have a disc golf shop called Disc Golf Depot where most serious disc golfers go and less serious disc golfers would benefit from going. They will take in the disc if you’ve tried to contact the person, they will often even give them a call themselves if the disc lingers in their box for a while. After a certain period… not sure I think it’s a month or two, they wipe it and sell it. But the nice part is they don’t hand out $$ for returned/resold discs (just store credit if they are sure you tried to contact the owner) and there is no charge for coming in and picking up a returned disc.
It’s a great service for new & returning customers. Dropping off a disc is always a great excuse to do a little shopping of my own. 🙂 win-win
Hey, that’s awesome!
Sounds like you guys have a pretty strong D.G. community in the Portland area …
Keep disc golf weird. Haha.