Greg Brooks is a Disc Golf Guru
Greg
Brooks of Big Spring says he got interested in throwing Frisbees when he was in college.
“We would just go out and try to impress the girls. They’d be out there sunbathing and we’d thrown the discs pretty close to where they were sunbathing.”
He says throwing a Frisbee evolved into trying to hit a tree or a telephone pole with a Frisbee. That then evolved into putting chain baskets on poles and trying to get the disc in the basket (pole hole), which brought about changes in the design of the disc. That was the beginning of disc golf. Greg is a devout participant.
“I used to be a fly fisherman but when I found disc golf I dropped fly fishing in a flash and haven’t picked it up since. Disc golf is a low impact sport and that’s one of the best things about it. You can just get out in the park all day long. It’s a great excuse to get out in a green area. Another thing I love about it is it’s a multi generational sport. I taught my kids and got them interested and now we go to tournaments in Montana, Utah, just all over. My younger son has been world champion three times. Those tournaments were in Miami, Florida, Nashville, Tennessee and London, Ontario in Canada. We’ve traveled all over just to play disc golf.”
He says a world-class disc golf course requires about thirty acres.
He designed and developed three courses in Big Spring. Two have eighteen holes, the other has nine. The holes are from two hundred feet to seven hundred feet from the t- box. Some have a par three, some par five. Scoring is the same as in ball golf.
In addition to the courses in Big Spring Greg designed courses in Fort Stockton, Lamesa and Colorado City. He has staged nearly fifty tournaments.
“It’s easier than ball golf. The learning curve is shorter and easier than in ball golf. Also it’s easier to get a disc in a basket. From thirty feet out I can get it in the basket probably fifty percent of the time. I play three or four hours every other day, weather permitting. It’s a good activity.”
Some of the eight-inch discs are for distance. Others are for mid-range or for putting. They cost between ten and twenty dollars. Disc golf players carry disc bags like ball golf players carry bags for clubs. Experi enced disc golfers usually carry ten to twenty discs on the course.
“The world record for throwing a golf disc is just under twelve hun dred feet, the length of four football fields. In a good day I can throw one three hundred feet.”
Greg says throwing a golf disc is different from throwing a Frisbee There is a professional disc golf as sociation. The Frisbee developed from people throwing pie tins back and forth. A man named Frisbie had a pie company in Connecticut where college students called the disc Fris bee, a change from the original name (Pluto Platter).