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Even in cold weather, disc golf has appeal

By ZACHARY SIEBERT

February 10, 2008 | 4:37 p.m. CST

COLUMBIA - It is a freezing Friday afternoon at Oakland Park in northeast Columbia. A frosty wind skates through bare trees and around snow-enclosed knolls. On a more hospitable day, it’s the park’s main attraction as a disc golf course, playing host to numerous fun-seeking disc golfers. But on this wind-blistered day, there is only one: Skyler Babcock.

On a lunch break from his job as a store manager at Play It Again Sports, which sells the city’s largest of selection of golf discs, Babcock, 23, throws plastic spheres at baskets for fun.

“I love the individual competition (of) trying to lower your own score,” Babcock said.

Disc golf is an increasingly popular sport that strongly resembles both Frisbee and golf. The game’s objective is to throw a plastic disc into a chained bucket in the least amount of “strokes” possible.

Unfortunately, stiff winds and having to repeatedly retrieve snow-covered discs with his bare hand prove to be serious setbacks to Babcock’s lunchtime fun.

“Definitely the best time to play is on perfect days with no wind,” Babcock said. After only five “holes,” Skyler heads back to the central heating at his workplace. Fortunately, the disc golf course will be available for many more lunch breaks.

ZACHARY SIEBERT Skyler Babcock eyes his putting disc as it heads into the chained basket at Oakland Park's disc golf course on Feb. 1. Disc golf's simple rules dictate that a player throws his disc into a basket in a as few throws as possible.
ZACHARY SIEBERT Snow or shine, Skyler Babcock, 23, of Columbia, can be found most days enjoying his favorite sport of disc golf at one of Columbia's two public disc golf courses.

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