A Day of Disc Golf: Golden Hills, Christiansburg Virginia

A longtime hobby of mine has turned into an obsession over the last year and a half or so. I’m talking, of course, about disc golf. I went from starting out with four measly discs to now owning over 40. If you ask any of my buddies they will tell you I have a problem. And while you get caught up talking to my friends about my disc golf problem, I’m on the course playing disc golf no matter the weather. My personal woes aside, I have played disc golf A LOT in the past year and a half, mostly on the Golden Hills Disc Golf Course in Christiansburg, Virginia. If you have never played disc golf I will provide some other resources, but for now I will start with something simple: a walkthrough of my favorite local course.

When you arrive at Golden Hills and park in the small, 18 car parking lot, immediately your eyes are drawn to the large open field on the right. This retired baseball field is great for getting in warm up throws and measuring distance, and people often use the field before or after rounds to master a certain throw.

Golden Hills is actually two courses, with 36 holes in total. Each course has two sets of tees to throw from, red tees for beginners and white tees for more advanced players. The red tees are great for starting off, but they are incredibly easy so most players should quickly move on to the white tees after a few rounds. I spend the majority of my time on Black Bear, the course on the right, since Black Bear has the best up-keeping. For this purpose, Black Bear is the course I will take you through today.

Immediately, before you even start playing, you can tell that this course has a lot of trees. Trees are common obstacles in disc golf, and course designers often use trees to create specific paths towards the hole. For example, hole 1 is uphill, with one big tree in a field to go around and a few small trees behind that. Every hole on this course is a par 3, which is convenient to remember, albeit somewhat lazy on the behalf of the course designers.

The first two holes are somewhat of an exception: both of them are generally open with few trees. Most of Black Bear is not quite as spacious, this is a very hilly course that goes straight into the woods. Hole 3 is where we get our first glimpse of the thick brush that occupies the majority of Golden Hills, with the hole going down steeply and into heavy brush. Hole 3 is one of my favorites, it is a straight shot and my friends and I have all gotten very close to a hole and one here before. We often watch our throws sail right by the basket, holding out hope until the disc hits the ground and rolls away to the chorus of yells of ‘so close!’ from the hill above.

The obvious thought would be that all the trees would make this course very difficult for beginners, and while this is not wrong I actually think the many hazards hurt experienced players even more. New players have low accuracy, so they hit trees often, however they also have lower power, so when they do hit a tree the disc does not ricochet too far, minimizing the damage done. The dense trees on this course restrict experienced players and the power with which they can throw the disc, and sometimes it feels like you randomly just get unlucky when you throw, hit a tree very far away, and your disc bounces off and rolls backwards 100 feet. Messing up your throw is incredibly frustrating, however every once and awhile, as you get better, you will have a throw that misses all the trees, going straight through the intended path, zipping right through to the basket for an easy birdie. These moments make you come back to play over and over again, the successful drive that plays out just right.

That’s not to say the whole course is densely wooded, many of the holes are well designed with clear paths that work well as long as you hit the gap skillfully. Many players can birdie Hole 9, (pictured below), if they get the disc between the gap at the end of the path. When you hit that gap perfectly it is similar to how swishing a 3-pointer feels, and then you can sit back and heckle your buddies while they hit trees left and right.

Many of the holes are creatively designed as well, such as hole 10 that has a ‘mando’ on it. In disc golf a mando, short for mandatory, is displayed by a sign on a tree with an M and an arrow. You have to throw around the tree in the direction that the arrow points, or else you add a stroke to your throw. Accidentally missing mandos in disc golf is extremely costly, and most likely adds to your score big time.

Disc golf courses have many holes with a straight shot to the basket and obstacles on the left and right that you do not want to mess with. Staying on the fairway is the easiest way to succeed here, and will be important since Black Bear has many holes like the one I described, like hole 12, pictured below.

The course is fairly hilly, which is a blessing and a curse. As far as disc golf goes, I much prefer to play on flat ground because you can focus more on power. Many of the holes on Black Bear however go uphill and downhill, demanding that you be more careful with your throws. If your disc lands on a slope and has a lot of spin, it will probably roll down the hill which can be incredibly frustrating. I once had a friend throw from the tee box of hole 13, below, and have the disc roll right back to his feet, where he threw from. He then picked the disc back up and threw it again, only to have it roll right back. We still give him a hard time to this day, and it was so ridiculous that he couldn’t even be mad, we all laugh about it.

I enjoy these hills however, because they make for a really good hike. All in all this course takes around a 3–4 miles to hike, and the hills make the distance feel even longer. I will often jog through the course when I am playing quickly, and this makes disc golf a fairly strenuous workout, which for me at least is a plus because it enables me to exercise while doing something I find enjoyable. Disc golf is a fun way to keep your body healthy and in shape. I always call disc golf ‘hiking with an objective,’ and I think this course really embodies that saying.

I really do have a love/hate relationship with this course. Some of the holes seem ridiculous, with no chance of acing, (a disc golf hole-in-one), and very little chance at a birdie. There are many trees, look at hole 15 below and you can see many people have hit the big tree in front right off of their drive. Some of the holes on this course need a par 4 rather than a measly par 3. Many of the holes are incredibly fun though, and some are very unique types of holes that I have yet to see anywhere else in disc golf.

The last few holes on the course are rather difficult, with hole 16 probably being the hardest. I enjoy the hole, it is difficult because of the long distance away you start from the basket. I enjoy the progression, for the most part this course starts off easy and grows harder as you go along. This makes for fun comeback scenarios and many close rounds between my friends and I.

In the end, I would say the best way to describe this course is to say that it is unique. All disc golf courses are different, and trying out new courses is one of my favorite parts of the sport. There are not too many courses like this one, which is good and bad. It is a fun course, with many different types of holes due to the hilly, tree-infested nature of the course. The unique nature of Black Bear is also a curse however, I feel like playing this course over and over does not help me get better at disc golf on the whole as much as I get better just at playing this particular course. You can not test out the full power of your throws on many of the holes in Black Bear, and you basically just have to learn to play the course a particular way in order to succeed. This disc golf course is fun, and I enjoyed it for about a year while I was getting into the sport, but now that I have a bit more experience with disc golf I cannot help but want something a little bit different when I go out to play.