The disc golf ace or hole-in-one is one of the most exciting things to happen. From a casual, solo round on your home course or in a tournament, aces are an awesome feat. Some disc golfers are better, or maybe luckier, than others when it comes to getting that ace. They can seemingly come in bunches or take years to get. For those new to the sport, there is a disc golf ace protocol of sorts to follow.
The wrong place to write
A common occurrence after drilling a sweet ace is to commemorate it. Unfortunately, this often ends up with the lucky disc golfer either writing on a tee sign or a target. This is the move of an ace hole. Don’t be an ace hole.
Course or park equipment is not the place to bust out your Sharpie and mark the moment. Many who are new to disc golf may consider this as a normal thing to do. In reality, it’s vandalism.
Don’t be an ace hole.
Disc golf courses are usually the culmination of lots of hard work from many people. They may have been built by donations or fundraised from local disc golfers. Regardless of who paid for the course, built it, or maintains it; when you write on the equipment, you are not only disrespecting the course, but those who play on it and enjoy it the same way you do.
The right place to write
Celebrate your disc golf ace by writing on your disc. Add the date, course, distance of the hole, and you can even have any witnesses sign your disc, too. This is a fun and respectable way to incorporate a Sharpie in to your celebrations.
Coming from someone who has not kept track of their aces, I encourage you to document your aces. This could be in a disc golf journal, or simply the notes app on your phone. Being able to confidently say you have 63 aces is much more satisfying than saying, “I have somewhere between 50 and 70 aces.”
Does an ace ever not count as an ace?
The debate over whether or not extra tee shots or unloading your bag and acing on your sixth try actually count as an ace. We’re not here to settle this, but maybe offer up the idea that you can categorize your aces.
- Casual
- Competitive (tournament or league)
- Practice (extra shot ace)
- Total (add up the three categories)
For some people this matters, others it may not be an issue.
Should you keep throwing your ace disc?
When asked this question, 24 members of Team Discmania said they continue throwing an ace disc, while only 4 members opt for retiring an ace disc.
"I retire every ace disc. Two reasons: one, so my discs are always working toward their retirement, they want to ace so they they can retire. Two, I secretly have the goal that when I get my 100th ace I can contact someone to break all of them down and make a run of plastic made out of my ace discs. Can you imagine, a run of discs made out of 100 aces? Those would be the best flying discs in history." - Austin Montgomery
I typically don’t retire ace discs. If it’s a go-to, I keep it in rotation until it isn’t reliable anymore. I have given some ace discs away to close friends and family to get them started as well." - Skyler Stoker
I figure if it went in the basket, I must be throwing it pretty well. So I keep those in the bag. It's exciting when you hit an ace, though I tend to think they are over hyped. I'm totally guilty of this myself. Birdies over aces all day. I do have one disc that I aced twice with in the same round with both hands! I don't think I will ever give that one up." - Bryan Peterson
If you throw your ace discs, hang them on the wall, or give them a new home, just remember one thing. Don’t be an ace hole.
Contact the Disc Golf Academy
You can submit your questions for Disc Golf Academy instructors or suggest topics for upcoming articles. Tell us what you'd like to see and how we can help you by emailing academy@discmania.net.