Winging It for Flying Disc Competition

They call the game “Guts,” and they’re not just blowing smoke, Jack.

You just stand there, see, while another guy, only 45 feet away, winds up and whips a Frisbee right at you, as hard as he can, up to 60 miles an hour. Your object is to catch it, with one hand. His object is to whistle the thing past you--better yet, through you.

“Guts” is one of three events--along with golf and free style--to be contested today and Sunday, 9 a.m. until dark, in the 11th annual Bud Light Wintertime Flying-Disc Open at Oak Grove Park in Pasadena. It’s called “flying disc” because the missile of choice often is something other than a Frisbee: an Innova, for example, which is heavier, sports an airplane-wing edge and goes farther than anything else yet made.

“Most ‘golfers’ favor the weighted disc,” tourney director Mark Horn says, “because of the nature of the course.” All “holes”--actually, baskets, into which a player must scale his disc--are par-3, many of them much too long to even contemplate a hole-in-one, all sporting hazards of the flora persuasion.

“You have to go over, under or around trees,” Horn says. “It needs a deft touch.”

Free style is just what it implies, though participants--from all over America and as far away as Finland--”are phenomenally good. Basic move, from which most of the others stem, is the ‘nail delay.’ You spin it on your fingernail while doing the darndest acrobatic, athletic movements you’ll see this side of rhythmic gymnastics,” Horn says, “stuff that’s physically impossible for the average person.”

Guts, though, is the competition’s piece de resistance . A five-man team forms a line, with 15-yard gaps between them. Across a no-man’s land is the opposing team. Fire a Frisbee through the Maginot Line and you score a point. Catch it and you foil the bombardment. All things considered, the only thing harder than catching a flying saucer in one hand would be stopping it with your teeth (which has happened, but not on purpose).

“On the attack,” Horn explains, “you wobble it or throw it nearly vertically--anything to prevent the catch. If you throw it flat, they can deflect it for a teammate. Whatever, it’s mayhem.”

Prize money totals $7,500 (all finals on Sunday), but admission is free (complimentary Frisbees for the first 200 guests on Sunday). Oak Park is at 4550 N. Oak Drive, just across from La Canada High School.