All great points! Although I would note that the better you are at approaches, the less 60 foot putts you’ll have to make. Improving approach skills by default makes your putt % go up. Improving putting doesn’t do anything for your other disc golf skills.

I love your distinction between being a “golfer” and a “thrower”. Would be a great topic for a post.

I see a lot of people trying for 360 or other huge distance shots. The problem I see is that these same people could usually benefit from putting and approach practice a lot more. While I agree that for pros this huge distance shot might be important (although if you watch many tournaments there is seldom a call for it), on the list of important disc golf skills to master, it’s relatively low on the list.

That said, it is super fun to throw the distance shot you describe. Getting the disc high and nose down and surfing that tail wind is really fun to do and really fun to watch. If you list disc golf skills in order of fun, not scoring potential, it’s probably top 3!

30 footers are coming along. Still not the % I’d like, but when I get dialed in I’m good for a few per round, keeping my scores reasonable. Too bad I’m only dialed in once a month or so 🙂

Thanks for the comment, Alan!

I make a case in part two of the article for 350 being an ideal distance to be happy with. You outline a lot of the other stuff that people could work on instead of distance once they at or around that mark.

You also gave me a great idea for another post or two… How do I approach disc golf in my mid forties and how is that different than if I had played when I was younger. I love it! And you are right, thoughtful approaches to things didn’t exist in my world when I was 20!

To be fair, at 45, all of this is easy for me to comprehend. If I were 25 and there was still legit hope that one day I could throw 450, I would probably still be feeding the distance habit like a disc golf Tyrone Biggums. Tyrone, Crank >Crack!

Thanks for the comment Steve!

There’s a lot to be said for playing defensively. It allows you to pick the moments when it’s smart to take a chance and go for it. If you are hitting 250-300 accurately, you are way ahead of the game. That combined with solid putting should let you put up some quality scores!

Nice! I’ve spent many practice sessions trying to throw over an outfield fence. A 50 foot putt would be awesome, but that’s a tough one. How about your 30 footers? If you can go 275 and be deadly 30 feet and in, you’d be a formidable opponent.