The elusive disc golf ace. That one perfect (or not so perfect) throw that finds the chains. At times, when it rains it pours and the aces come on a near regular basis. Other times, it is a desert and you’ll find yourself wondering when your next ace comes.
Over the last four years, I’ve hit seven aces. Each ace has its own unique story behind it, but each have been memorable. A few of the aces have been rewards from well executed shots. I had the right disc on the right line and it faded directly into the basket. I’ve also had a few where if the disc didn’t land in the basket, it was going well past our intended target and we’d be left with quite the long putt (or worse).
Earlier this week one of our readers, Jeff Jaynes, reached out to us with a very exciting disc golf ace story. Jaynes is part of the Peterborough Disc Golf Club in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. Jaynes said at a local league night earlier this week they had FIVE different people hit an ace during the round. Adam Gowland, Brad Cooper, Andrew McLean, Clint Bradley, and Kevin Marr each threw a perfect drive that crashed in the basket. Congrats to the whole group on each of their successful drives. Way to split that ace pot five ways… or not. 
This got us thinking though on our favorite ace stories. My very first ace came in a tournament ran by friend of ATDG, Dana Vicich. At Riverview Disc Golf Course in Pontiac, Illinois, Vicich put the 17th basket into the top of a chimney. The location is close to where the intended pin placement is, but he wanted to step things up for the tournament. As my group walked up to the hole someone on the card talked about how the pin placement was unfair and no one could ace this.
Admittedly, I took a slightly higher line than I initially wanted to, but once it came around the trees it barely caught the chains and landed in the basket. The doubter on the card turned around and said, “That’s one way to shut me up.”
My favorite ace story is actually about a pair of aces, back-to-back in fact. During a casual round we hit an ace on a slightly uphill and blind shot. A quick high five with our playing partner and we walked over to the next hole. I switched discs and lined up my next drive and watched this one crash right into the heart of the chains. Two consecutive throws and two aces. Certainly one that we’ll remember for a while!
We want to hear from you though. What is your favorite ace you’ve hit? Have a fun story of one you’ve seen in person? Let us know in the comments!
7 Comments
We were playing a tag match at our local course Borderland and I had won the previous match so I was to tee off first. The first 4 holes are somewhat separate from the rest of the course so we had a straggler from the first round stick around to play them before leaving. I was filling up my water and walking down the path to meet the others when I heard a bunch of yelling and screaming around the tee pad area. I jogged up to see what all the noise was about and one of the other players had made the executive decision to box jump me so we didn’t get stuck behind a large group of casuals that had started to congregate at the tee. He turns to me and smiles and says “You’re up!” to which I responded “F*** you I am starting this off down 2 strokes.” I busted balls for a couple holes and took the box back on hole 3. I stepped up to the tee on the 4th hole and skipped it in off the ground to level the playing field. Needless to say I went on to win the match but it was quite a hilarious few holes of giving each other a hard time and our 4-hole spectator/player got quite the treat for sticking around an extra 20 minutes.
I don’t know where that Q came from in my name, but awesome.
Funny that the Peterborough course this was achieved on is also called Riverview. NICE JOB PTBO!
I grip locked a shot it sailed super high hit a tree about 30ft up and shot straight in.
2015 Paradise plates disc golf tournament held at Paradise in New Zealand. This tournament has been running for 17 years. Mostly an object course. Hole number 9 is 90 mths long with an elevated tee shooting down to a marked tree with a fork in it which you need to go through. This hole has never been aced. During the Plates tournament, there was three aces on this hole in 10 minutes. And it was all caught on tape. I was lucky enough to be right there when it happened. Here’s a link to the clip. http://youtu.be/YZkbdhDhYcs
First and last throw with an 11X Cheetah, on the first time playing the hole, with a number of other juicy details to boot: http://schoolofdiscgolf.com/2010/07/14/anniversary-of-the-hambrick-day-ace/
Throw a big anhyzer to get around a group of mando trees. Lost the disc as it curved but knew it was in the general area I was hoping for. Suddenly we heard the chains. A separate group said they saw it hit the ground hard and ricochet right in the basket.
Last week playing a super short hole #1 (138 ft), I threw my putter way too hard and definitely overshot the basket by a bunch. But the disc took a hard line for the basket and smashed into the chains.