What’s a ‘snowman’ in disc golf?

Two weeks back, we had a decent snowstorm here in Utah Valley. My twin, two-year-old boys were pumped to get outside. The production involved with getting toddlers ready for cold, snowy weather is incredible. If you’ve got one, a warehouse and assembly line are much recommended.

They’ve read about snowmen in books, so the goal was to make one of our own. Naturally, after 15 minutes of outdoor activity, they were cold and went back inside. For those of you keeping score at home, that’s 45 minutes of prep work for me to piece together this monstrosity alone.

To make a sad story worse, due to poor construction, the thing toppled over 15 minutes after this photo was taken. Rest in peace, dear Spiderman. It was the boys’ idea to name him that …

Not mine.

Anyway, enough with the ramblings of a (sometimes) proud father …

Back to disc golf.

Did you know that “snowman” is actually a disc golf term? Not originally, of course, but it’s one the sport’s adopted from the holiday season. The word “snowman” is used when a disc golfer cards an eight on a hole. The eight looks like a snowman without a torso, hence the name.

If you’re slow, this is a bad thing.

• On a par-three, that’s five up.
• On a par-four, that’s plus four
• On a par-five, that’s three over.

This isn’t rocket science.

As far as recent, infamous snowmen are concerned, remember THIS choke job?

Hide the women and children …

Disc golf got the Jomboy treatment on this one:

One of the best disc golfers has a disastrous hole pic.twitter.com/AoilVrA5Ja

— Jomboy (@Jomboy_) August 8, 2023

It took one snowman on the 16th island at Nokia DiscGolfPark in Finland for Anthony Barela to lose five strokes to Corey Ellis, who – two holes later – would win the 2023 European Open.

During the winter season, snowmen are fine.

But on the disc golf course?

Hard pass.

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