Welcome | What's Disc Golf? | Wednesday Doubles |
Fall Classic | Work Days | Etiquette |
Beginner Discs | Join Us
HOLE-BY-HOLE COURSE GUIDE | DOUBLES RESULTS & ACE POT
Welcome to the Flying Chains!
Hey everybody! This is the home page of the Flying Chains Disc Golf Club of Des Moines! We're
about 60 players who love throwing plastic at metal, and in 1998 we did something we're pretty
proud of: we put an 18-hole disc golf course in Cottonwood Bend Park on the north side of
town, with real chain baskets, tee signs, and (as of this spring) concrete tee pads on twelve
holes!
It took us three years. Back in 1995 a few of us were playing "object golf" in the park, aiming
at trees and light poles and arguing about whether you had to hit the pole or just the base. We
wanted a real course. The city said yes, if we paid for it. A chain basket costs about
$350, so we went looking for hole sponsors, local businesses and families who would buy a
basket and get their name on the tee sign. We held a raffle every summer, sold T-shirts, and
passed the hat at every round. Our designer, Ron Westlake, walked the park about a hundred times
with a measuring wheel and a notebook. In April 1998 we put the eighteenth basket in the ground,
and since then the course has been busy every single nice day. Seriously, go out there on a
Saturday!
I'm Kyle Doyle, the club treasurer and webmaster. I'm 24, I deliver pizzas, and I'm finishing
my associate degree at the community college part-time, so most of my free time goes to disc
golf and the rest goes to homework (sort of). I started playing in 1996 with a disc I found in
the lost and found at work, and I've been hooked since. My best round on our course is a 53.
Ron's course record is 49. Someday!
So What's Disc Golf?
It's golf, but with flying discs instead of balls and clubs! Each hole starts at a tee and ends at
a basket: a metal basket on a pole, with chains hanging down above it. When you throw your
disc into the chains, they stop it and it drops into the basket. You count every throw, just like
in golf, and lowest score wins. Most holes are par 3.
The game as we know it, and the chain basket, came out of California in the 1970s, and now there
are courses all over the country. It's free to play on public courses like ours, you can
learn it in about five minutes, and you only need one disc to start (though nobody stops at one).
Kids can play it, grandparents can play it, and it's a great walk in the park, literally.
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Check out our hole-by-hole course guide before you play. It
will tell you where the creek is. You will still go in the creek.
Wednesday Night Random Doubles!
Every Wednesday night from April through October! This is the heart of the club. Everybody's
welcome, from first-timers to the guys who throw 400 feet!
| When | Sign up at 5:00, tee off at 5:30 (it was 6:00 all summer, but it's getting dark earlier!). Meet at the shelter house by hole 1. |
| How | Random draw: we pull names out of a hat to make the teams, so a beginner might get paired with our best player. Both partners throw, you pick the best throw, and both throw again from there. Everybody starts at once on different holes. |
| Cost | $5 to play. $4 goes to the payout for the top teams, and $1 goes into the ace pot. |
| Ace Pot | Throw a hole-in-one ("an ace") during doubles and you win the whole pot! Jeanne Milne aced hole 3 on June 16 and won $253! The pot started over at zero and it's back up to $318 as of September 22. Somebody's gonna get rich. Well, $318 rich. |
Weekly results and the ace pot's growth since April are on the doubles
page.
2nd Annual Flying Chains Fall Classic!!
Saturday, October 23
Cottonwood Bend Park · two rounds of 18
| Open | $30, cash payout |
| Advanced | $25, prizes |
| Amateur | $20, prizes |
| Women | $20, prizes |
| Juniors (15 and under) | $10, prizes |
Schedule: Check-in 8:00, players' meeting 8:45, first round at 9:00. Lunch at the shelter
house (hot dogs and chili, included!). Second round at 1:30, awards around 5:00.
Every player gets a player's pack with a tournament disc hot-stamped with the Flying Chains
logo, plus closest-to-the-pin contests on holes 3 and 14, a long drive contest on 9, and an
optional $2 ace pool. Register with me by e-mail by Saturday, October 16 to guarantee
your disc. Day-of registration if there's room!
Last year we had 54 players from all over Iowa and a few from Nebraska and Missouri. Let's get
70 this year!!
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Work Days
The course is ours to take care of! Bring work gloves, a shovel or rake if you have one, and
some energy. The club buys lunch.
- Saturday, October 2, 9:00 a.m.: Pouring concrete tee pads on holes 13 through 18.
We frame them Friday night and the concrete truck comes at 9:30 sharp. We need at least twelve
people with strong backs!
- Saturday, November 6, 10:00 a.m.: Leaf cleanup and fresh mulch around the baskets and
tees before winter. Easier work. More donuts.
Etiquette (Please Read!)
| 1 | Never throw toward people. Ever. A golf disc is hard plastic moving fast and it can really hurt somebody. Wait until the fairway and the area around the basket are clear, including people in the park who aren't playing. |
| 2 | Wait for the group ahead to finish the hole and move on before you tee off. |
| 3 | Farthest from the basket throws first. On the tee, the lowest score on the last hole goes first. |
| 4 | Stand behind the thrower and stay quiet while they throw. |
| 5 | Let faster groups play through. If you're looking for a lost disc, wave the next group up. |
| 6 | Yell "FORE!" if your disc is heading toward anybody. |
| 7 | Leave the park better than you found it. Pack out your trash, don't break branches, and don't climb the trees to get your disc (the city will take our baskets away, and you'll fall). |
| 8 | Write your name and phone number on your discs. Most players will call you if they find one. We have a lost-and-found box at the shelter house, too. |
Which Discs Should a Beginner Buy?
Golf discs are smaller, heavier and sharper-edged than the Frisbee in your garage, so they fly
farther and straighter and cut through the wind. There are three main kinds, like golf clubs:
| Disc | What it's for |
| Putter | Short throws and putting into the basket. Thick, blunt rim, slow and straight. If you buy only one disc, buy a putter! You can play a whole round with it while you learn. The Innova Aviar is the classic. |
| Mid-range | Approach shots and shorter drives. Straight and easy to control. The Innova Roc is the one half our club carries. |
| Driver | Long throws off the tee. Sharp rim, built for speed. Here's the thing nobody tells you: the fastest, longest drivers are actually harder for beginners, because they need a lot of arm speed to fly right. Start with a slower, easier driver. Ask at the store, or ask any of us on a Wednesday. We'll let you try ours. |
Discs run about $8 to $12 each, and you can buy them at the sporting goods stores in town and at
every one of our tournaments. Get a lighter disc to start, too. Your arm will thank you.
Join the Flying Chains!
Membership is $15 a year and gets you a club membership card, our newsletter, $5 off at
the Fall Classic, and the right to vote on where the next basket goes when we expand to a second
nine (someday!). Every dollar of dues goes into the course: tee pads, signs, and replacement chains
for the baskets that get hit a thousand times a week. Sign up any Wednesday night, or e-mail me.
| Club Officers, 1999 |
| President | Brian Cross |
| Course Designer & Grounds | Ron Westlake |
| Wednesday Doubles Director | Lamont Blackshear |
| Treasurer & Webmaster | Kyle Doyle (that's me!) |
See you on the course!!!
    
throws in the chains since May 1998
E-mail: [email protected]
Last updated September 23, 1999
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