Rules to Know Before Playing Tournaments | Beginner Disc Golf Tips

Taking that step from casual play into tournaments can feel like an overwhelming move. With a host of rules that exist inside of our sport, with most casual players unaware, the room to mess up can happen often. I wanted to put together a video you could reference covering some of the most common rules folks overlook or mess up when stepping into a sanctioned round for the first time. Nobody likes being called out for “cheating” even if you aren’t doing it intentionally. So what rules do you need to know?? You’ll have to watch to find out!

Have you heard of the Birdie Fam? It’s a community of disc golfers who are striving to excel and improve together. We are going to talk about your struggles and plateaus in a safe and healthy environment. When we come together as a family, we’ll grow together as people. So if you’re ready to take that next step in your disc golf game, and start improving with the greatest community in Disc Golf then head on over to the Patreon website!!
https://www.patreon.com/robbiecdiscgolf

If you enjoyed the content or it was helpful, don’t forget to Like and Subscribe to support the channel!
New content comes out every Thursday here, and every day over on Instagram!
Join the Instagram family over at https://www.instagram.com/robbiecdiscgolf
As always, I want to take a quick moment to recommend all of my incredible sponsors who keep me geared up and ready to compete!

The best place to find discs, head over to https://foundationdiscs.com/
For the best putting tool in the game, head over to https://discdotusa.com/?sca_ref=461240.iNMCZcBeOn and use the code “rcdiscgolf” for 10% off!
The amazing FlighTowel and other related products to massively improve your game can be found at https://flightowel.com/​ and use code “128799” for 10% off!
The best beginner bag, as well as a phenomenal bag overall for the under $100 price point, check out Atlas DG Supply at https://atlasdgs.com?sca_ref=1360340.9uuH1iN8RU
Finally, to look the best on the course and keep that sun out of your eyes, head over to https://www.blenderseyewear.com and use the code “rcdiscgolf” for 16% off!

Thanks again for stopping by, but until next time I hope the birdies outnumber the bogies!!

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:38 Setting the Table
4:00 Marking Your Discs
6:31 Mini Markers
8:43 Circle 1 and Balance
10:15 Time for Throws
12:10 Lost Discs
16:16 Provisionals
18:55 Advancing Towards the Basket
19:40 Dangerous Lie
21:36 Final Thoughts

What is up YouTube fam morav C here we are out and it is like with the wind chill and all that we’re definitely feeling like we’re in the 20s but I’m headed to Northeast disc golf Expo this week looking to play Maple Hill so of

Course we got to get used to the cold Rocky B boa time baby never cold never see them so what’s up Rocky how are you doing today you having a good one cuz we’re about to talk about some rules Catch all right now though real talk I mentioned that like when I try to play in the cold I get really bad circulation people gave me some hints and tips on getting used to it so we’re doing a couple things while we’re out here filming this video today first we’re

Getting used to playing in some cold weather because I’m pretty sure that I’m going to be playing Maple Hill in snow again the guy who suggested that I wear mittens instead of gloves it’s really backfiring on my finger usage right now but my hands feel pretty warm back to

Second we got some awesome discs sent To Us by nsh custom discs this company 3D prints discs and when you hear 3D print you may think like not that durable but we’re going to be hitting some trees now in vlogmas we threw the 8472 I believe it

Is be bites custom disc this is the pumpkin spice version he’s got a new red and black version out there now they also sent me a bird of prey which is an overstable distance driver they sent me the sector which is uh pretty sure also an overstable somewhat distance driver

But it’s got a really unique feeling rim on the inside so excited for that one I have a mini 8472 with check that out Venom printed on it that’s so sick this is like with 3D printing available yeah awesome and then I asked them about like

3D printing a pig and they sent me a Mr Putt which is their version of an overstable putton approach disc so excited to try these out today and we’re going to talk about some rules cuz that’s number three so what do we mean by rules and you saw like sort of the

Thumbnail things like that this is a video for those of you who 2024 is your year to jump into into tournaments or even for those of you let’s say you’re not jumping into tournaments but these are PDGA rules that are designed to sort of help keep pace of play going help

Keep competitive fairness things like that that you may or may not know that if you decided to ever jump into tournaments or if you’re playing with people who play in tournaments for most tournament Players I know they try to stick with these rules pretty much all the time even when they’re playing

Casual rounds so that way it’s keeps them on the focus on the grind I would say the rule that I see people most commonly step away from is like course OB if you’re playing a casual round I have seen plenty of times where people won’t play course OB just because

They’re like whatever I’m just looking to have a fun time out here personally I like to learn what the OB is and play it at all times cuz I feel like I’m getting a good feel of the course but once again to you each his own or her own my bad

Lot of Zoomin on the camera I’ll tone it back we have at least four discs that we’re trying to throw today so we’re going to try to get a good feel of those but we’re also just going to go over some common rules that I see people mess

Up or common rules that people discuss that you should know so that way when you step into your first tournament if this comes up you’re going to be in the no that was a quick caveat of course we got to mention that there is a PDGA rule

Book so if you’re watching this don’t take my word is law I’m bound to mess up one of these rules so I’m going to be looking in the comment section as well to make sure that if I do misstep or I say something wrong I can be corrected

In the comments I’m not infallible I mess up all the time so but there is nothing better than checking your pjj rulebook and if you were going to compete in tournaments you’re going to have to have a phone or device available to help keep score cuz as of 2024 every

Person in a round of PDGA sanction round is going to be required to keep score so before we even get started you got to make sure that you have your phone charged ready to go and the PDGA live scoring app it looks like the icon right here actually has access to the entire

Rule book right there you can search specific examples and everything makes it super easy so that way even if you end up in a situation that I don’t know what to do the rules are right there okay so first rows of the day we’re going to get used to this I think they

Make underst stable disc I think that that’s possible um but the ones that I have gotten a hold of are all overstable options so we’re going to be throwing a lot of hisers weird stuff today here we go starting off with the sector uh and we’ll talk about discs oh yeah

Okay felt really good I like that Rocky Bob time get the get the feed let get the feeling going to the hands here we go Birds of Prey or bird of prey overstable distance driver we’re like really far past it but so Ami didn’t deceive us but really

Thought we were going to ring that up here for a second okay 8472 I don’t expect to actually be able to get this there yep that’s what I thought okay and last but not least Mr Putt and that’s going to bring us to when you’re prepping for tournament one of the first

Things if you’re going to play tournaments that a lot of people don’t do is having a custom mark on their disc because if let’s say I get out there and I have this mis Putt and it looks like this you may think oh this is custom enough but what if we had these

Available for people if you were interested in that then people could go get their own Mr Putt and they could have the same exact colors to this so if we both land right next to each other how are we supposed to know who’s is who’s we’re not misplaying so according

Pdj rules every single disc that you should throw should have some mark on it that distinguishes it from others for lots of people are going to do a signature write your name write your number things like that that totally counts but doesn’t have to be that in-

Depth you could quite easily just put like for instance on my putting Putters I put four dots in the middle of the putter on the bottom Ezra and Brody they actually because they’ll have like two Raptors that are the same color they’ll just take a sharpie and just go and just

Write a line across the top even if they didn’t didn’t sign it or anything like that that line going across actually is a distinguishing Mark and counts towards separating it and that’s why if you ever hear e rare of them they’ll say like oh it’s a line Raptor Brody has said that

When I C you for him that’s what he means is it’s not the Raptor that is the green Raptor that goes there it’s the green Raptor that has a line okay so you are overstable sick all right cool mini time so here’s the thing about Minis and mini markers if you’re going

To play in ptga sanction events you probably need to have and by probably you’re required to have a mini marker now mini markers come in a variety of sizes and things like that I think I mentioned in a video like over a year ago that if you don’t have enough discs

You can use one of your discs in your bag as a marker and I’m pretty sure we disprove that like that’s actually not true so mini markers come traditional sizes which would be more like this one on the left this little smaller one and then and they also have XL minis which

Would be like an XL Buzz an XL Tesla things like that which is much more of what this like 8472 like 8471 whatever remix or the larger one is so this is about as big as a standard mini can come and when you’re marking the disc you can either mark it

In front of the disc or you can mark it behind the disc and you’re going to pick the disc up that you’re throwing especially if you want to throw that disc again so once I place it and Mark it down that’s where I need to know that

If this is my mini marker behind it there is a sheet of paper and that is my lie this sheet of paper so some part of my foot when I release the disc needs to be in contact inside of this sheet of paper behind the mini I don’t choose to use a

Mini that sheet of paper just exists behind the disc sheet of paper is always what you’re looking for and like I said your whole foot doesn’t have to be in there just some supporting part of your foot foot has to be inside that sheet of paper now the biggest reason that you

Have to have a mini marker cuz you could play an entire round without actually marking any of your discs in the fairways or even on the greens like that but if your disc does go out of bounds when you remark your position and you walk it in from the OB line which when

You go out of bounds you get one meter or three steps 3 ft and in those circumstances when you mark your line you can’t use the disc to do it you have to actually place it down also we have the Texas Flip or whatever depending on

What state you’re in you all call this but a lot of people they’ll walk up they’ll grab the disc when it’s on the ground and they’ll flip it over and that’ll be their lie can’t do that during a tournament have to actually mark it if you want to advance you like

If you want where this would be you mark the front of the disc you can’t flip it over here’s a great example of I’ve got Mr Putt on the ground and I want to putt with Mr Putt so I’m going to pull a mini marker out I’m going to place it down on

The ground pick up Mr Putt and I got to establish my foot behind the lie and this is where we get to in the circle putting which the circle is the 33 ft or 10 m outside of the basket so this is extends all the way around even if

There’s trees water lake in the way whatever that may be whenever I’m inside the circle I really should have brought sunglasses because that sun is so bright dude so right here I miss that putt when I’m inside the circle I’ll see lots of people in casual rounds they’ll pick up

This putter like this and they’ll go all right sick and they’re just kind of walking in or they get really close and they really want to make it so they’re right here and they’re like got it if you’re inside of this circle the 33 ft surrounding the basket

Whenever you throw your putt you have to demonstrate balance before you move forward if I would have in that instance thrown the Putt and Fallen forward it’s technically a footfall and what ends up happening is I have to either probably definitely should have looked this one up but it’s

A foot fault so once the card agrees on it taking a one stroke penalty for throwing that putt so not only usually even if I make the putt I’m still going to take the penalty on top of it but if I throw a shot like that and I still

Miss the putt double whammy because I’m going to miss the putt have to like I’m going to take the stroke from missing the putt but also I’m going to get a penalty now next rule that’s important how much time do I have when I go to throw the disc I’m not

Going to throw it from these teads These teads are trash basket is tucked really there’s this tree like right here it’s tucked right behind it you going see one way off in the distance there that’s not it so how long do I get to throw I know that’s one thing especially in casual

Rounds that you may not be used to and a sanctioned event I get 30 seconds to throw after that 30 seconds I’m occurring a courtesy violation or a delay of time I don’t I don’t know what the technical thing is but I’m going to get a penalty that 30 second starts from

The time that it’s my turn to address the shot so for instance in this taking way more than 30 seconds just standing here talking to you guys so I’ll be incurring a violation doesn’t mean that I need need to like get up and just automatically rip it but I make sure

That I’m steady on top of it interesting cuz it just kind of died out of the air that was a lot better yeah that was a lot better like that one bird of prey is really really zooming not so sure about the sector just yet now if I’m outside that Circle

Outside of 33 ft I am allowed to progress I’m allowed to progress forward and Step Beyond like you saw there although I have to be careful CU I still have to by the time the disc is released I have to make sure that the disc is out

Of my hand by the time my supporting contact behind the LIE actually goes like away after it disconnects that’s where a lot of people you’ll see get into snapo about step putting and things like that is because they’re trying to do this whole like kind of motion and gets real hairy

Real fast on this next hole basket sits right through that little crevice up there there’s a wide open Fairway here moving to the right but there is water in this Creek going up the right side and we’re going to be throwing a lot of shots they’re going to move left to

Right in order to get close to the basket which brings into play a really important principle or rule of the Lost disc let’s say you’re playing around and you lose a disc especially in a casual round if we’re playing and you lose a disc and you’re up there and we’re like

I don’t know it went out I think up there sick it was over there most often in a casual round friends are going to be like yeah we’ll just spot you right there you take the stroke or whatever you just throw from right here that’s fine in a PDGA sanction event there are

Two options yeah that’s right we’re holding up two fingers here those two options when it comes to a lost disc are whether or not there is OB or Hazard presence such as water being the most common example or is there no OB there at all if there is no OB there at all

Let’s say I was in fact on like the previous hole and I threw it long into the woods behind the hle let’s say I just absolutely mushed that thing and I got it back there but we couldn’t find the disc well we know that it’s lost up

There because we saw it go there so where do I take the LIE well considering there’s no OB like water or things for it to fall into back there my lie I actually have to go backwards and consider it’s a lost disc from the last point that I know where I threw from

Comfortably which in this case would be the T box I would be ring for three because I would basically have to abandon that shot come back here take the stroke penalty for the Lost disc I’d have my throw lost disc as if it went out of bounds and throw again at least

I’m pretty sure that’s how it plays out for that scenario in a different scenario let’s say that I’m playing on this hole and I go super high with a Hiser and it fades out into the right here and it rolls down the hill we go down there and we can’t find it we’re

Looking around and the water’s a little dark and murky and we can’t seem to find it it’s still a lost disc but because there is the possibility that it ended up in the water and it’s lost and retrieved there the last point that we reasonably saw it was over there by the

Water which means that I actually get to take my next shot instead having to rete from back here I get to progress forward up to where the card agrees we last saw it and take it from there is OB present that you could lose the disc in or are

You just losing the disc in an open field I’ve actually had this rule come back to bite me in a tournament because it was a over, foot par five and a big wide open field there’s nothing to be done here and I threw a big t- shot

Turned it over and flexed and did its whole thing and then it crashed out into some tall grass on the right we couldn’t find the disc we started the timer added 3 minutes to look look for the Lost disc and I start looking around can’t find it

So I’m like up we declared a lost disc and I start making my way back to the tead doing my thing I get up there rete take the stroke penalty throw it all the way down there and then as the disc leaves my hand a friend is like oh we found

It we found your disc unfortunately I’ve already thrown so we have to play the new one I can’t take the shot that’s out there till we talk about provisionals this is where I could really hurt myself with uh cold hands and uh these discs but we’re going to go thummer here see

What we can do yep that’s what I thought was going to happen I will say for nsh Customs the nice thing about these is that they are more durable than I think you would ever give credit for for a 3D printed disc the one thing to keep

In mind is because they’re going for like more extreme shapes a lot of these like edges on their rims and everything just are a little sharp so it’s something to consider I think they’re really good in warmer conditions in these colder conditions where my hands are a bit more sensitive the sharp edges

Really are rearing their ugly head let’s see what Mr Putt does on a forehand okay that Branch was so extremely rude bask is still right there let’s talk provisionals now the PDGA rules are supposed to be pretty straightforward but anyone who’s ever tried to take in the official exam can

Tell you it’s real confusing at times even if we just look at the rule that we just talked about on you lost a disc in bust an air but because there was a water present that changes things that’s where you’re going to throw a provisional provisional looks pretty

Simple going to grab another disc out of my bag I’m going to look at the card I’m going to blatantly say everyone I am throwing a provisional so that provisional disc I’m going to sit there and I don’t know why I’d be throwing a provisional from here based on how the

Holes played out but I’m throwing the provisional I’m going to take that provisional disc and I’m going to throw it o that went down the hill and that provisional is going to be played out I’m going to score the hole and play out that shot but I’m also going to play out

My standard shot as well because I need to play both perfect so I would come over here and I would throw said provisional and I would play the hole till I completed it I would take note of whatever happened here and I would mark it down on an alternate

Scorecard so that it exists as if it’s like a real score that I took I’m also going to come over here and stand in the midst of these thorns and finish out the hole from my standard shot as well as the provisional so on the scorecard I’m going to Mark whatever

Score I took from the MR put Li but I’ve also made a note of my provisional the reason I do this is because I’m going to go to the tournament director after the round is over and we’re going to as a card share the case we had this

Provisional the TD gets the ultimate call on what happens there but because I officially scored out both of them with one of them being the provisional I’m declaring it a provisional so I get to throw that shot and if that’s what ends up happening then I end up taking that

Score and I don’t get penalized for having that error in scoring by not calling that the official shot because we didn’t know the rules so provisionals are always your friend make sure you’re throwing provisional all right 150 ft up here got a couple more rules and I

Really want you guys to head of the comment section and talk about rules that you come across that you wish more people knew when it come to playing their first round things like that cuz I definitely think that it is something that lots of people want to know but don’t necessarily

Know it’s just a Mr Putt Mr Putt has like negative Glide marking front of the disc make sure it’s okay that I stagger out to the left or right as as long as when I stagger I’m not staggering towards the basket think of like that Circle that we talked about

It there was like a string attached to the bottom of this basket and I could pull it out towards me I know that somehow lots of courses that something they Mark the Circle but I just got to make sure that my right foot my off foot

Or if I’m switching around my left foot is not Advanced further towards the basket than my lie allows so I can step out to the side I just can’t step out to the side and forward on this putt or else football once again let’s talk about relief because I think relief is

One of the more confusing areas things like that and we’re going to talk relief about OB and relief on unplayable lies these right here these are thorns and this would be a really unfortunate place for my dis to land no one likes having to dive into the swarm of the thorns in

Order to get to their lifee it’s uncomfortable causes a lot of cuts things like that I have to go in here and play that lie unless I want to take a penalty for Relief I can take the penalty for Relief if I’m willing to give up a stroke if this feels super

Uncomfortable for me I would go in line with the basket which is that way and I would draw it back out of the Thorns till I felt more comfortable as long as I’m in a straight line with the basket and then I would use my mini marker over here to Mark the

New position and I would play my from back here unfortunately I don’t get to do that for free that would cost me a stroke so I almost have to decide is it worth the pain and suffering to get in here and get in the Thorns or do I want the relief to throw

A more comfortable shot there is an exception to this rule though and that is dangerous lies AKA animals if you’re approaching your lie and there is an animal or like something alive in the way that’s making it dangerous this can range from something like be

Or an anthill being on top of your lie all the way up to if the Power Rangers and their Zords are getting in your way Mastadon saber-tooth tiger Triceratops probably should have got masted on on this one but my bad if your disc has landed in that Hazard of some sort

There’s a snake or anything else of that nature you can take up to 5 m back or that’s 15 steps backwards to give yourself the relief away from that dangerous object or something like that because nobody wants to play a full PGA sanction round getting stung by a bunch

Of beasts now that only pertains to animals and dangerous things of that nature it does not pertain to the danger of let’s say some Thorns although inconvenient that’s just what it is and before we dive into the last hole of the video before we throw this try to see

We’re going to throw we’ll throw all four of these see if we can’t a whole 11 I want to go ahead and add the preface that with all these rules it can feel super confusing and super overwhelming especially because in certain divisions people are going to be real like uptight

About this I don’t think that it’s a problem that people are uptight and trying to hold the rules because truly as one of the moderators and the birdie fam said if you’re going to sign up for a PDGA sanctioned event you’re agreeing to play by the rules of disc golf and we

Need to hold those people accountable there are a few things that get under my skin as someone who walks with a lot of am cards when people are like bro this is M4 you just kind of do what you want let’s just have some fun down here no we

Need to make sure that we’re following the rules everybody’s holding to the same standards same things like that so it can seem like a lot but truly try to think about like the positive mentality of like okay this these all are supposed to make sense it’s supposed to help and lean towards

The advantage of the player and that’s another thing is that you’ll hear people say oh benefit of the doubt goes to the player and that’s probably the rule that gets misspoken the most the benefit of the doubt going to the player is the final tie breaker if a card can’t decide

What’s happening benefit goes to the player the goal of tournaments is to have fun become a better player overall don’t let the rules get in your way don’t let the rules bog you down but you do need to know them so that you are a balanced and fair competitive

Player it’s just so stable dude okay I want to I got to talk to nsh and I got to see if you guys make understable stuff because that would be sick like this is a tough cuz the Hydra Line’s not necessarily there so you kind of go like flexer right at

It and that was the line is too high sick easy peasy oh broke my own rule here this was further back that’s my bad guys that’s going to wrap it up for today’s video hope this was helpful like I said be sure to check out the comments

So that you can see other rules that maybe I didn’t have a chance to cover in this video cuz I wanted this video to be like a medium length video and it probably ended up being a longer one like 20 range so that’s my bad looking forward to seeing the comments seeing

The discussion let’s keep it civil let’s keep it friendly things like that hope you have a fantastic rest of your day thank you as always for tuning in if you haven’t I’ll say it today we really appreciate that and help if you want to hit that like And subscribe button so uh

The like button is free the Subscribe button is free neither of those like cost you anything and help support the channel what we’re trying to do here so hope you have an amazing rest of your day make it fantastic for someone else too but for now we’re going to leave you with the

Bird A