While visiting with our boys in Asheville, North Carolina, we decided to check out one of the many disc golf courses in the area. Richmond Hill Disc Golf Course looked to be the most promising. After a lovely brunch at Tupelo Honey, we made the 20-minute drive to the course. After we parked, we distributed discs to everyone. We took a few minutes throwing at the practice basket to warm up and acclimate the girls to throwing the disc.

A couple went ahead of us at the first hole. We watched the man throw his disc too far right, ending up in an area of tall grass. The couple didn’t find the disc and left. We hoped we would have better luck.

As there were six of us, with two brand new players, we decided to play captain’s choice. Each person throws, and then you pick which shot you want to throw from next. This way can make the game move along faster and is less frustrating to new players more likely to have drastically errant shots.

We teamed up by couples and were on our way. The first shot is through a field with high grass to the right and the basket just inside the trees. The ladies were surprised that they threw as well as they did on the first shot.
We walked into the woods to the second hole. We noticed trails were running right beside and through the course. We were careful to watch for hikers before we threw.

As we continued through the course, there were several places where we were confused. With no markings directing us to the next tee, and the multitude of trails, it was easy to follow the wrong one.

Richmond Hill is a mountainous course. It is long and challenging but a lot of fun. Eight holes play parallel to each other across a ravine. There was a lot of climbing up and down. If you stray off the fairway, there is plenty of vegetation to punish you.

At one point, Theresa threw her disc too far left. But, with all of us watching her shot, we were confident we knew where the disc was.  When we went to retrieve it, though, we couldn’t find the disc. After a long and diligent search, we finally gave up, only to find the disc had rolled after it hit the ground. It was in plain sight, right next to another “lost” disc, but nowhere near where it had landed.

We had multiple times where we searched long and hard before finding our discs. Luckily, we didn’t lose anything on this day and even found two discs while looking for ours. As the afternoon progressed and we grew tired, the ladies opted not to throw if the guys had good shots.

After an intense workout, we came out of the woods to the eighteenth hole. It is one of the few flat holes on the course, playing next to the parking lot and one of three holes with mandos. Eighteen had a double mando, requiring you to play around a patch of trees between the tee and the basket.

While the course was intense, we had a blast, even with a snake encounter. Chris and I ended up at five over par. The kids ended up at 14 and 25 over par. But considering Jordan was new to the game, Theresa has only played once, and Nick and Kevin haven’t played in years, we thought they played well overall. Everyone had at least one great shot, and I give kudos to Theresa and Jordan for sticking with it and their determination to figure the game out. As it turns out, they enjoyed playing enough to want to play another course the next day.