Since the dawn of time, humans have found ways to entertain themselves using mundane objects and creative thinking. One of these forms of entertainment involves hitting a small ball with a stick a long distance in an attempt to get it into a hole; we call this “golf.” Another form is taking a disc and throwing it back and forth between each other; we call this “Frisbee.” Then, about 10 years ago, a brave soul decided to combine these two concepts and create “Frisbee golf,” and the world was changed forever.
The rules are simple: players meet at a specific location and throw a Frisbee at a “hole” from that point. There are some unique differences between frolf and regular golf, however.
“Instead of everyone doing the course on their own, it’s a team effort,” said Bluffton alum Greg Koviak. “Basically, the person who goes the farthest, everybody will then throw the Frisbee off of that person.”
“At the end of the course, you go back to the first hole and if someone gets a hole in one, everyone gets to do the course all over again,” said sophomore business major Skyler Wilson. “If we do it three times, we get to go to Denny’s.”
“Typically it’s a group of students that go around with ultimate Frisbees, and then there’s certain holes around the course on campus that were made ten years ago or so,” said Wilson.
The courses span all around campus, though there’s no real signifier. In fact, the courses are more or less just specific landmarks across the entire campus.
The games take place spontaneously and usually at night. While there are regular competitors, there’s no concrete team or club that requires a membership.
“It’s basically a spontaneous thing,” said Koviak. “If we want to do it, we just go with our friends. We try to find other people, as well. So it’s not really like a club, it’s more like a friend thing.”
“We just have a group chat and somebody will say ‘do you guys wanna go frolfing tonight’ and people respond,” said Wilson. “It’s not an exclusive thing.”
As for the frequency, it varies.
“It kind of depends on everyone’s schedules,” said Wilson. “I know last year it happened just about every week, this year it’s been closer to every two weeks or so. Two or three years ago, it used to be every night, but now it’s a weekend thing because people have homework.”
Frolf is just one of many ways students relax on campus. Even a decade after inception, when its creator’s identity has been lost to time, students continue to enjoy frolfing and show no sign of stopping anytime soon.
