Along the Ausable: Disc Golf at Whiteface

I had never played Disc Golf until this morning. This is the first summer that Whiteface has offered the activity and we weren't going to let summer disappear until we tried it out. Disc Golf is very similar to regular golf, except you play with a small frisbee and you have to throw it towards a basket.

The course at Whiteface is on the lower bottom of the mountain and zig zags under four different lifts. We found there to be many obstacles just like in a real game of golf. Coming up on the third tee, we noticed a truck parked directly in our line of play.

The basket was just behind the truck to the left of the trees. The vehicle gave us no problem, but the enemy turned out to be the tree. The disc went up, but didn't want to come down.

I went back inside and our friendly ticket seller, Ronnie, gave us another disc to use. When I returned to the site of the incident, I couldn't find Drew anywhere. I called his name and he said, "I'm up here!"

It was at this point, I realized why ORDA has their Disc Golf "athletes" sign waivers before playing. After getting a second disc for him to toss, I spotted the lost one in the tree next to where he was. As an ex-arborist, he climbed that one and was able to shake the disc down to the ground. Good thing ski patrol wasn't around to take away his season pass!

We were all set to start playing again. He had a good throw that landed over near Bear Lift. When he went to give his next toss, we discovered that it was not resting peacefully at the base of the lift, but in the depths of it! So, Drew lowered himself down to retrieve it and tossed it out.

Could this be considered a sand trap?

After the fourth basket, we stopped keeping score. With my consistent 25 foot launches, I was missing par every time and Drew was just having bad luck.

We only had one incident with a water obstacle when I threw it past the half pipe and it landed in a small stream.