BBC Coventry & Warwickshire - A look into the world of disc golf (pubished 25/06/05)

We went to meet Derek Bennett who runs Warwickshire's only disc golf course to discover more about the course and the sport itself.

Have you ever chucked a frisbee in the park? Ever played golf? Ever done two at the same time? You can you know – and bang in the middle of Warwickshire too.

Quarry Park in Old Milverton, near Leamington, is one of just a handful of professional disc golf courses in the country and its run by the UK’s number one, Derek “The Wind” Robbins.

The idea is simple, you have a series of discs that you guide around 18 holes with the aim of getting them into the cup. It’s much harder that it sounds and it’s a lot more fun, but don’t just take our word for it!

Derek was bitten by the bug in 1973, when he bought his first Frisbee. At the time, the manufacturers had a marketing ploy which automatically gave owners entry into a series of competitions and exhibitions, featuring exponents from all over the world.

In 1977, Derek entered his first competition and just a year later he won his first UK title, giving him a free trip to California – a feat he repeated the following year.

After year’s spent establishing himself as the UK number one and one of the top players in the world, Derek began to dream of creating a course of his own back in 1984. He moved to Coventry in the mid-90s, was able to release some capital and began to turn his dream into reality.

The gates opened at Quarry Park in 1995 featuring holes designed by Derek himself.

“I spent about a year working out the designs for the holes,” he said. “I wanted a course that would be challenging for the better players but wouldn’t be too difficult for those with lesser ability.”

Quarry Park is set in greenbelt land by the Blackdown Clinic and when Derek moved in, it was pretty much just a 15-acre field. He set about devising plans for the planting, using natural features like the nearby river Avon and those trees that did exist as hazards.

“It’s great seeing it maturing every year, seeing the fruits of my labours. It changes so much – and I can see the holes I designed coming closer,” said Derek of the course, which features a mix of native and ornamental trees which are still young but growing all the time.

Over the years it has been open, the course has attracted more and more interest. Many groups stop by for stag nights or day trips and Warwick University even has a club that meets at the course once a week.

Quarry Park even hosted the British Open in 2004 – which Derek won – and attracts many international players to other competitions held through the year.

So why play disc golf? “I think it’s great because anyone can play it. You don’t need to start out with expensive equipment or anything, just come along and have a go.”

The principle of the game is very similar to standard golf. The player has a bag featuring a range of discs that do different jobs – drivers, middle distance discs and putters. Each disc has certain properties that make it spin to the right, spin to the left or just nip straight on. It’s very complicated.
It’s not just the discs. How you stand, how you throw (forehand and backhand are just two of seemingly scores of possibilities), your run up, your balance…it’s as tricky as conventional golf then!

As a novice though, you needn’t worry about all these things too much, however. Derek stresses that it’s all too easy to get hung up on technicalities – the easiest thing to do is just get to grips with how each disc behaves and do what feels natural to you.

The most important tip Derek can give you, however, is the very zen-like “it’s all in the mind”.

“If you visualise where you want the disc to go, actually see the shot, it will go there,” he said just before he fired off another disc that snaked around groups of trees in an S-shape to land directly beside the cup.

I must have been looking wrong, because I could only see my disc landing a few feet away from me after it staggered wildly to the right. We can offer you our own web-team top tip too – make sure you practice!