About 15 years ago I was at a job where my work friends formed a kickball team to participate in a league and they asked me if I wanted to play. For two seasons once a week I felt like I was back in school P.E. playing a kids game. It was quite fun, but I eventually realized that as a guy in his 40s trying to physically compete with 20- and 30-year-olds, it was a lot of work. Near the end of the second season there was an incident where I was playing in the field and the ball was kicked up high in the air. As I went to catch it, I tripped and fell and rolled. I was laughing before I even got up, and blamed the base for tripping me, even though I personally thought the foul line itself reached up and tripped me up. After that, I figuratively hung up my cleats and searched for less physical pursuits.

A while ago we had some new neighbors move onto the street, and over the course of time in chatting with said neighbors, found out the husband was a passionate disc golfer. I had never known anyone who was really into this sport, so it was an ongoing topic of discussion between us over several months. I was invited to go play, and we set a day.

Now, I am familiar with regular golf, and squeeze in a round or three each year, so I understand most of the basic rules of golf. Disc golf follows many of the same rules and structure, and a bonus: It’s a lot less expensive, especially if one gets to use your neighbor’s extra equipment.

Back during the first term of the Reagan presidency I was in college, and this is around the time someone, probably bored, broke and drunk, invented Frisbee golf. The fad eventually found its way to the little towns in Iowa, and I played my share of this sport. The rules…