Sources: Pat Bosco, 785-532-6237, bosco@k-state.edu;
Richard Herrman, 785-532-6412, trick@k-state.edu; and
Angelia Perry, 785-532-5480, angelia@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Andy Badeker, 785-532-6415, abadeker@k-state.edu
Thursday, August 30, 2007
LOOK! UP IN THE AIR! IT'S A -- OUCH!
MANHATTAN -- Though disc golf and its Scottish predecessor may have different dress codes, jargon and professional associations, they share at least one basic rule: You don't want to find yourself in the path of someone's tee shot.
"I was walking with a group of colleagues to the K-State Student Union from Eisenhower Hall to give a presentation, and I didn't even see him throw it," said Angelia Perry, an adviser in Kansas State University's College of Arts and Sciences. "I felt a sharp pain between my index finger and the middle finger."
She'd been hit by a student teeing off on K-State's unofficial but popular disc golf course. The cost: a torn collateral ligament on the middle finger of her right hand, six weeks in a splint and occupational therapy every other day. "I still have quite a bit of swelling," Perry said. "You can definitely look at it and see it."
The player had violated another basic rule: "Be cautious and courteous," states the handout that maps K-State's course, "You are playing on university grounds -- watch out for pedestrians and vehicles." The handout is available in Adobe Acrobat format at http://www.k-state.edu/ultimate
"I don't know why anyone would be playing during that time; they’re not supposed to be," said Bart Bryant, a disc golfer who also is a Ph.D. candidate in molecular, cellular and developmental biology. Popular -- and more appropriate -- times are after 5 p.m. and on weekends, when sidewalks and parking lots are less populated.
Many disc golf courses use chain-festooned steel baskets as "holes." But K-State's is an "object course," and if you don't know about it, it's practically invisible. Tee boxes are indicated by small white arcs painted over arrows on the sidewalks, and the pins are trees, lampposts and statues.
For instance, Perry was injured on the ninth hole, the tee for which is just north of Anderson Hall; to hole out a player has to toss a disc through the perforated concrete sculpture north of Holtz Hall.
Bryant learned the course not from a map but from older players, he said. It starts about 75 feet north of parking lot A3, next to Manhattan Avenue, and winds generally clockwise through its 18 holes, many of which crisscross streets and sidewalks.
"It's a common courtesy that people should not be playing in the middle of the day," said Bryant, who compares golfers to bicyclists who should know enough to walk their machines when pedestrians are present.
Golf discs are smaller than the familiar Frisbee, but they can weigh just as much. The denser disc also has a thinner, sharper edge. "I've been hit with them and they hurt," said Richard H. Seaton Jr., a Manhattan lawyer who plays occasionally, though not at K-State.
Capt. Richard Herrman of the university police said that Perry's injury was the first he'd heard of, "but I can understand how it could happen." More common casualties are windows and lamps, particularly the globes north of Anderson Hall.
"We have had complaints and damage in the past that the only logical explanation for is the golf," Herrman said.
"K-State has this magnificent campus, and we absolutely want students to enjoy it, and to use it," said Pat Bosco, dean of student life. "But we share a responsibility to watch out for one another. That goes for golfers, drivers, bicyclists -- everybody's on the move, so pay attention."
Perry's colleagues told her that the student obviously wasn't aiming at her group.
"He came over and said, 'My bad,' and asked if I was all right," she said. "But there were people everywhere. It was orientation day and there were families. So I'm glad it was me and not a parent.
"I understand that students love to play disc golf and I have no trouble with that at all," Perry said. "But I think it might be best if they realize that these kinds of injuries can occur."