In Defense of Frisbee Golf

Since there's been a lot of grumbling and hand-wringing over what's to be done with frisbee golf, i will offer up a defense. Feel free to respond if you feel any of the points I make are pretty much bullshit.



1) Time-effectiveness

Frisbee golf takes about a minute to set up, and the event moves pretty quickly since every team competes at once. I think we plowed through it in like half an hour last year, which means more time for drinking and wassailing later in the night.

2) Competitiveness

Frisbee golf has been pretty awesome in that the scores are close and many games come down to the final hole. Also tie-breakers are real nail-biters, as a single throw of the frisbee can cause a two point swing, crucial in these Kirby Puckett Games. Also, as I mentioned in tenet one, having all four teams compete at once in an event is always desired more than having to rotate two teams in at a time like in bocce, shoes, 'minton, etc.

3) Parity/Randomness

While someone like Ner may have a Matrix-like ability to manipulate a frisbee's flight path, most of us are fairly even when it comes to huckin' the disc. The true test is how one responds to stimuli like trees, wind, the tree house, and Chiyo's bizarre garden decorations. This differs from events like Badminton that are determined more by acquired skill than instinct or inherent ability, as some of us have practiced the event so much in the last seven years that the court looks like a tundra. I know some people may really dislike randomness in the games, but I don't see frisbee golf as much more random than bocce or croquet. There's an undeniable strategy to the event. Plus, randomness isn't always a terrible thing. My big beef with tug of war (an event I support being in the games, mind you) is that you can probably predict with pretty high accuracy (at least compared to other events) who's going to win the event before it starts based on the size and strength of each team. I don't think that's a huge problem, but I think it's always nice to balance more deterministic games like ToW with games utilizing skills most of us don't use all the time.

That's basically my argument. I also would posit this: Why not include it in the games? I have not heard a good reason other than basically "it's gay" and "it's boring" and "it's the same game as bocce," which you could say about most of these events. IT'S A LAWN GAME TOURNAMENT, not the X-Games, these games are supposed to be gay and boring and involve throwing/hitting some object close to another one.

And a question: Is "Beissel" Brent Beissel or Chris?