Editor’s note: We thought you would like to get to know some of our journalists. This week in the editorial space, the members of the Tribune newsroom write about their interests.

Top 5 disc golf courses in Minnesota

1. Bancroft Bay Park, Albert Lea

2. Bear Cave Park, Stewartville

3. Blue Ribbon Pines, East Bethel

4. Cedar Creek Park, Fairmont

5. Kaposia Park, South St. Paul

Seeing a disc fly 250, 300, 350 or even 400 feet through the air produces wonder. Seeing a disc fly those distances and land accurately at the intended target is simply stunning.

My interest in disc golf began in August 2008 following the installation of baskets at Bancroft Bay Park in Albert Lea. A friend, Jeshua Erickson, had a couple of cheap-o discs and invited me to try this sport with him. We started on Hole 10 and chucked them to the best of our ability, thinking scores like 7 and 8 were normal.

After Hole 18, we walked to the tee of Hole 1 and encountered Lars Tonding. He drove a disc almost to the basket. Whoa! How did he do that? The first thing Jeshua and I noticed were he had discs made just for disc golf. He said Martin’s Cycling & Fitness sold these discs. We finished the round with him, then scurried over to the store and purchased a starter kit of three discs.

Since then, I have many more discs and a couple of bags for carrying them (an old one and a new one). I have a portable basket for practice at home or at family gatherings. By no means am I a top player in Albert Lea, but I am addicted to the sport. I helped found the Flying Lea Disc Golf Club, and I assist in running leagues and tournaments.

My top accomplishment last summer was winning the consolation title of the league championship. People who lost the first day battled the second day in the consolation tournament. As my friend Buck Monson put it, I was the best of the losers. (He won best loser the year before.)

The second-best feat last summer was winning the points race in the intermediate division, which earned me a new bag for holding my discs.

I love how accessible the sports is, even at the top levels. I attended the Minnesota Majestic last summer, which is on the Professional Disc Golf Association’s National Tour, and saw some of the best players: Dave Feldberg, Eric McCabe, Nate Doss, Nikko Locastro, Nate Sexton and Minnesota’s own Cale Leiviska. Not only could fans, say, make a comment to a guy like Nate Doss about a good putt by Cale Leiviska — imagine doing that on the PGA Tour — you could end up in an entire conversation during a break with Eric McCabe on why some of the greats skipped out because of a last-minute change in the tournament’s location.

“C’mon. It’s just disc golf,” McCabe soundly reasoned.

Indeed, some of the big guns can hurl a disc 500 or 600 feet. But watching some pros play all facets of the game — putting, upshots, getting out of tough predicaments, shooting through woodsy corridors — was the real thrill. Like in ball golf, aim and finesse win disc golf tournaments.

There is a saying, “Throwing is for show, but putting is for dough.”