Alternative Disc Golf Formats

Kickstart your disc golf game by trying something new! If you’re new to disc golf, you are in luck, as you are about to embark on possibly the most fun, challenging, and rewarding sport on the planet. Whether you are looking for a new activity, a reason to get outdoors, or to meet a great community, you are in the right place. Disc Golf is all of these things, and great exercise to boot. You won’t even realize you’ve hiked over 10,000 steps, you will just be excited about your next shot, and enjoying the scenery on your way to the next hole.

If you have been playing a while, stay tuned, as we are going to learn about some fun new variations of the game you already love. With tournament season parked for the winter, it’s the perfect time to explore more casual and friendly competition. This is not an exhaustive list by any means, as variations of our favorite sport are virtually unlimited, but these are some of our favorite alternative formats that you will find us using to mix things up:

Ript Revenge: This one never gets old, and we really like that it provides practice on shots that would not have been taken otherwise. Ript Revenge is the sequel to the Ript Disc Golf Card Game. The deck consist of 54 original full color playing cards and 1 rules card. Three cards are dealt to each player in the party for the round. There are ways throughout the round to get more cards to put in your hand, and opportunities to play cards you are carrying with you to enhance the play of the game. The cards vary from a free mulligan, to a card that forces one of your opponents to make their next drive with a mini. These cards create a fun and competitive round of Disc Golf and because of the wide variety of cards included, no two games are ever quite the same.

Doubles: Wish you had your friend’s drive? Or short game? Here’s your chance. There are various formats to play a round of disc golf that incorporates the shots of a partner. Have an odd number of players? One person plays as a ‘wild man’ or ‘cali’ (or whatever it is called in the region), acts as their own partner for the round, and in most regions gets 1 extra shot per hole. Some regions play 2 extra shots depending on the length of the hole, and some play where the wild man gets an extra shot for each lie on the hole. So double-up and decide on a format:

• Best Shot Doubles: Probably the most common alternative format, best shot doubles is played by both partners teeing off, followed by collectively choosing which shot the pair will play from. Both partners then take that next shot, decide which shot to play from again, and so on.
• Worst Shot Doubles: Not for the faint of heart – now the opposing team decides which shot you play from.
• Alternate Shot Doubles: One person tees, the partner takes the next shot, back to the first partner for the next shot, and so on.

Wolf: Wolf is best played with a minimum of three players. After player one tees off, player one can then choose to call ‘wolf’ which means they are going to play that hole alone. If they do not call wolf, then the next player tees off, and then player one may declare that player as their partner for that hole. If they do not, then the next player tees off, and then player one may declare that player their partner for the hole. If after every player has teed off, player one has not chosen a partner, the last player becomes player one’s partner for that hole. Scoring can get complicated, but this is a fun format that incorporates a surprising degree of strategy to win.