Beau's Blog

On November 19, 2023,  I played my first Japanese disc golf tournament. It was the 36^th Tochigi Championships. I had a blast!

I got talked into registering only a couple weeks beforehand and I’m grateful I did – it was my favorite competitive disc golf experience.

My Frisbee Background

Frisbees have been a part of my life as long as I can remember. Sometimes, I’d throw in the parking lot after mountain unicycle rides. In high school every day after lunch, my friends and I would walk into class, drenched in sweat with our shoes full of grass and dirt after squeezing in as much ultimate frisbee as possible. For disc golf specifically, I have playing since I was nearly 10 years old. My first experience was at the famous De Laveaga Disc Golf Course in Santa Cruz, California with my Dad and David.

Until only a few years ago, it was an off and on hobby for me. I did try a couple super low key tournaments in high school but it wasn’t anything serious at all for me. In 2019, I moved to Boulder, Colorado and disc golf made sense.

• The only person I knew in the area was my childhood friend Matt and he and I cherish our memories of playing together in high school
• Colorado has a thriving disc golf scene with many sweet courses and a strong community
• And then COVID hit

Each of these reasons further pushed me towards disc golf. In 2020, I found myself getting out onto the course more consistently than ever before and with Matt’s encouragement, we signed up for our first ever official PDGA sanctioned disc golf tournament – The Bloom at Bailey, Colorado. I got first place in the second highest amateur division.

I resolved to take it more seriously and keep competing. I kept playing, got more of my Boulder friends into disc golf and did some solo practice. I actually wasn’t committed to improving thaaat much. Since then I’ve played in a handful of tournaments and generally have been a middle of pack player in the top amateur division in Colorado. In my first round playing in Japan, I met a true OG. He’s been a part of the local Tokyo scene since the primary course at Showa Kinen Park went into the ground over 30 years ago. After we had been playing half a round, he surprised me when he casually told me “oh and of course you’ll play in the pro division”. I’m clearly not a pro player in the state of Colorado. It’s a different level of play in Japan vs Colorado, or the US in general.

Tournament Day

I arranged to stay over at my buddy Josh’s place beforehand. We got up at 4:30am and were out the door around 5am. We went to Hachioji where we met with Mark, Chadwick and Blake. Next, we drove north for a couple hours. On the way we fueled up at a 711, each of us picking out our disc golf fuel of choice.

We arrived at the course and had about 45 minutes before the pre-tournament meeting. I warmed up with Chadwick and his buddy Sou. They had played the event in prior years and gave super useful tips on how to approach the holes. We practiced each hole and I quickly learned that I should “disc up”, meaning use a faster and further flying disc rather than a slower disc for many of the holes that seemed like I could use a mid-range.

For me, this course played nicely where I had the power to reach and birdie every hole BUT the course was full of out of bounds (OB) and hazard, ready to inflict many penalty throws on folks who had poor shots. This was exciting for me since the weakest part of my game is distance so many courses have many holes that I am unable to birdie since I lack the distance to get close enough to the basket.

Round 1

We commenced with a shotgun start. Due to good random luck, I started on hole 1. I threw my trusty FD on a forehand hyzer right to the pin, tapped it in and started a good round. My cardmates were nice and from a variety of divisions. Honestly, it was hard to feel very competitive since I was so far ahead of them but sometimes less pressure is a good thing.

I was throwing the disc really well, rewarding myself with many chances for birdies. My short distance putting was excellent. My long distance C2 putting was not – I didn’t make a single one.

My only blemish was making a terrible mistake on hole 7. I threw early OB, followed up with a bad second shot and ended up taking a double bogey: a sad 5.

The round ended and as the scores from the round came in, it became clear I shot a great round. I was tied for second place: 3 strokes back from the leader.

Lunch

We had about an hour between rounds and I resolved to make the most of it. First, I eagerly pounded a few onigiri from 711 to refuel. I also made sure to hydrate and refill my waterbottle too. The one part of my game that wasn’t working was long distance C2 putting so I worked on that. Chadwick gave me some pointers, we got in a few reps and before we knew it, the shrill alarm sounded. Time to play the second and final round!

Round 2

Being on lead card, I had the fortune of starting on hole 1 again. Overall, I struggled with my drives more yet my long distance C2 putting made up for it! Thank you Chadwick for your lunchtime putting advice.

 On hole 2, I didn’t account for the strong headwind enough. It flipped my drive and I ended up OB, resulting in a bogey.

For the par 4 hole 3, I went with the high risk, high reward play of using my flippy Corvette distance driver. I overcooked it and ended up short and out of position. Fortunately, I had a solid approach and then hit the uphill 60 footer for birdie! My cardmates all secured the birdie, without the need for putting heroics. Later, my heart skipped a beat as my FD drive hit the cage on the island hole 16… A couple inches higher and it could’ve been an ace! Or if I had missed the basket, at that speed it may have easily skipped off the island dealing me an OB penalty stroke. In this way, the drama continued throughout the round.

Despite this being another round on the same day, same exact course, starting on the same exact hole and playing well both times, the two rounds felt night and day different. My 3 cardmates and I consistently showed that making it onto lead card was no fluke. We ended up with 6 starframes (everyone birdied)!! Many rounds I play with 4 people, there are 0 starframes so this was a shocking, impressive and a wholly new experience.

My cardmates: left to right

• Toka san: Super solid chill good natured older dude. Totally smooth shots with dead straight midrange throws. The cool uncle you wish you had.
• Kenta kun: This young gun launches the most beautiful anhyzer putter shots. He is effortless power; 400’ all on hyzer is no problem and he’s competing in this year’s world amateur championships.
• Kawasaki san: This is an OG legend who has been in the game for decades. He’s even played at the US Disc Golf Championships back in 2007.

Results

Kawasaki san started round 2 with a 3 stroke lead and successfully held on.

Kenta did have an opportunity to play aggressively to put pressure on Kawasaki san on the last couple holes. However, 17 and 18 have punishing OB holes and dealt him double bogeys. Generally, I stuck to my plan, shot one stroke better than round 1 and ended up in 3rd place, 4 strokes back of the champion, Kawasaki san. Fortunately, we all played well and held onto the top 4 places.

There was a nice little award ceremony and I won some gift card money. I cashed it out for an Eagle McMahon Razor Claw 3.

Conclusion

All in all, this was a great experience. It’s hard to pick the best part.

• American road trip vibes in Japan was a totally new experience for me
• Meeting Japanese disc golfers: some amazingly skilled, others less so – all friendly and fun to play with
• Exploring new places in Japan – I’ve hardly spent any time in Tochigi prefecture and certainly not through the lens of disc golf
• Competition: I’m a competitive person and love fun opportunities to focus up and see what I’m made of
• Accomplishment: Of course I made mistakes, but largely, I performed to my potential

On the way home, we stopped at a tsukemen restaurant. Of all dining establishments I’ve experienced in Japan, this one’s portions are the biggest. We figured we were American dudes who had spent all day outside and that we could put away massive amounts of food. We did not order the largest size of anything and yet for each one of us, the portion defeated us. We felt embarrassed.

Disc golf is not a top priority for me in life now. Despite that, I am excited to see where disc golf and disc golf competitions take me in the future!

Thank you Chadwick, Josh, Mark, Blake, all my cardmates and everyone who helped with the event. I had a terrific day.