The Discraft Zone OS needs a new name

I’m not a Zone guy.

I prefer the Croc or Gator.

One of my best buddies is, though. Last week, I watched him smash his second-ever ace with a Z-Glo Zone. It was a 200-foot, baby-flex sidearm that he knew was in halfway home …

Prophecy fulfilled.

It was beautiful.

Anyway, it’s this same guy with whom I shared the bulk of my Zone OS rounds. This was back in April of last year. I bagged the Zone OS for a couple of weeks to write an educated review of the approach putter people couldn’t wait to try. If you’re interested in my findings, click here.

Naturally, with my friend a big-time disciple of the Zone, I let him toss it on a few holes. He’s no writer or wordsmith, but this was his one-sentence, off-the-cuff analysis of Discraft’s then-latest:

“It doesn’t even feel like a Zone.”

Which brings me to the point of today’s piece …

The Zone OS needs a new name.

I love it when disc manufacturers keep their classic molds relatively the same, but make micro-tweaks to the branding to give disc golfers an idea of what to expect when an update is introduced. As you know, to some degree, most of the major, household companies do this.

For example, with Innova, you have the Roc, Roc3 and RocX3. Yes, there are other Roc options within the greater Roc family, but the point is clear: As the mold’s name lengthens, glide decreases, while overstability intensifies. Discraft is king of this kind of mold-mutation:

• The SS version of popular molds produces a Super-Straight flight.
• The OS version of popular molds produces a more OverStable flight.
• And randomly, GT molds (hooray) are given the Groove-Top treatment.

My beef (pun) with the Zone OS is that it feels nothing like an actual Zone. If you’ve thrown an Avenger, the Avenger SS feels fairly familiar. On the flip side of the stability spectrum, there’s certainly a difference in the hand, but the Buzzz and Buzzz OS at least feel like they belong together, too. However, perform this same in-hand exercise with the Zone and Zone OS …

And the latter might as well be a cinder-block.

This is largely due to rim depth.

The Zone is a low-profile putter-midrange hybrid – this is one of its main selling points. The Zone OS is a deep-dish utility disc. For the flick specialists who are most likely to nab a Zone OS, this difference in depth is problematic – and likely to result in buyer’s remorse, as well.

Listen, if I’m an executive at Discraft, I get the move: It’d be hard – near impossible, even – to resist the temptation to piggyback the almighty reputation of disc golf’s most beloved approach putter. The letters Z-O-N-E have a way of opening disc golfers’ wallets unlike anything else.

Two words:

Dollar. Signs.

But the Zone OS is NOT a tweaked Zone …

It’s a different mold.

Give it a new name. Give it an identity of its own.

Here are some options: 

• The Chunk – It’s a brick-ish name that pays homage to “The Goonies.”
• The Nightmare – This is right up Brian Allen’s alley, if you know his art.
• The Home-Wrecker – I have no earthly idea why, but this works – it just does.

The Zone OS is such a radically unique-feeling frisbee that giving it the “Zone” name feels disingenuous. While I can totally see the value of what the Zone OS does in the air, I can’t support the insane, pre-release hype that was generated through Discraft’s false-branding.

I can’t stress this enough:

It’s not a Zone.

Do you feel somewhat similar?

Do as I did after reviewing the disc …

Buy a Whippet.

Problem solved.

Have anything to add? Take to X to let us know – we’ll actually (for real) get back to you.

Editor’s Suggestions:

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• This is the smartest way to run long putts in doubles disc golf

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