Arvada – The communal howl was the first sign that this was no ordinary round of golf.
The bellowing duffers, several dozen spread among 18 holes, were paying their respects to Johnny Roberts, the 12-years-gone Arvada West High School teacher who first forged their particular brand of play more than 30 years ago. A generous hugger known as the “Squeezer Geezer,” Roberts used to howl before every round of the links.
“For a long while, people used to watch us and they didn’t really understand what we were doing,” said Arvada’s John Bird, speaking of his chosen game, not the pre-round wail. “But now, everyone’s coming around. Our sport is growing by leaps and bounds.”
If attendance and passion for play at last weekend’s Johnny Roberts Memorial Disc Golf Event are indicators, disc golf is soaring. More than 130 players from across the country gathered to fling plastic through both of Arvada’s 18-hole courses, aiming for chain-linked baskets, international ranking, cash purses and serious bragging rights.
They played with the intensity and focus of any PGA round. There were the requisite unprintable mutterings when shots wavered off course, nervous tee-box pulls on cigarettes, slow-motion practice flings and reserved fist pumps, a la Tiger, following the joyful ring of a sunk putt.
“I have little doubt I will live longer because I have disc golf in my life,” said Peter Shive, a seven-time disc golf world champion and retired geophysics professor from the University of Wyoming. “My skills have continued to improve through my 60s, and frankly I’m astonished by that. I’m 65 and I’m living the dream I had in my 20s.”
Shive is a professional disc golfer. He makes money – not enough to call it a “living,” but enough, he said, to “indulge my passion.” He travels the country winning contests and promoting his disc-making sponsor, Innova. At the memorial contest last weekend – a Professional Disc Golf Association sanctioned event – Shive was joined by more than 30 other pros and 100 amateurs. Every hole mattered. Each toss contributed to a world ranking and a player rating that weighs as much as a credit score for the most serious disc duffers. Scores dipped as low as 12-under par on the Johnny Roberts Memorial Course at Arvada’s Memorial Park.
“It’s an addicting game,” said Kristi Hamilton, who with her husband, Tom, organized this year’s event, in its 12th year.
In the late 1970s, a band of pals started meeting in Arvada’s Memorial Park to throw the Frisbee. They got bored with catch. Competitiveness grew. They pointed to trees and challenged each other to precise, 18-tree contests. They started to paint red lines on the trees, marking exact spots where a disc had to hit to finish the hole.
“I still see those marks and chuckle,” said Bird, the president of the 225-member Mile High Disc Golf Club who has played an instrumental role in swaying Arvada to open two of its parks to disc golf development, a project that ranks Arvada as the unofficial disc capital of Colorado.
There are 19 official disc golf courses in Colorado. Each hole has a par. Today’s more serious disc golfers carry duffel bags of discs for every type of situation, not unlike their ball-bashing brethren. Putters, bevel-edged drivers that slice through the air, long putters, midrange drivers. Different weights, sizes, designs. Each with a specific purpose.
“A lot of recreational departments are looking at alternative play. Skateboard parks started it and it’s growing from there,” said Bird, who worked closely with Arvada’s park planners to design the city’s tournament-ready courses. “It’s getting really big. The courses we have now are full, and new courses are underway. We tend to get a lot of ball golfers who come out and play a round, and they love it.”
Kathy Hardyman of Colorado Springs first spotted disc-hurling golfers almost a decade ago at a park she and her husband regularly visited near their home. In 2003 she won the amateur worlds, and last year the 49-year-old with a rifle-like arm won the professional world championship. Her disc-diva.com website chides the fellows with its slogan: “You wish you threw like a girl,” while luring more women into a male-dominated sport.
“It’s easy exercise,” she said, deflecting praise for her disc skills. “Go for a walk and throw a piece of plastic while you stroll.”
Learn more — Get info about disc golf in Colorado at www.milehighdiscgolf.org and www.disczilla.com.
Staff writer Jason Blevins can be reached at 303-954-1374 or jblevins@denverpost.com.
