Beacon Inspiration

Hi there! I'm Kevin, the founder of Beacon. I wanted to share a bit about what started Beacon and rep some of my local courses along the way.

I was just starting to get good enough at disc golf in 2021 to start buying specific discs for the flight line that I wanted. I quickly started loving my Shryke and Mako3. Overall, I liked having the control and ability to throw it straight.

So I started to play some of the tougher courses by me in the northwest suburbs of Chicago (Shady Oaks, Rolling Knolls, and Black Bear). All of these courses had high reeds, tall grass, trees, and water. All of these courses are fantastic in their own way, but Shady Oaks offers a whole different challenge. Shady Oaks (Streamwood, IL) has swamps, rivers, or dense trees at nearly every hole. Some of them are long, some just have a tree right in your line.

I'm on hole 7 (345'), there are high reeds to the right, and the rest of the hole is open. I pull out my Shryke to toss a straight line with a slight fade. Great line in my head, but not the line I threw. I turned it over...heading straight for the high reeds. I gave up looking after 15 minutes. I finished out my round, but felt a bit off from it. It's a crappy feeling losing your favorite disc. So I went home...and bought a new Shryke.

Fast forward a couple weeks. Shady Oaks, hole 10, 400', with reeds to the right. Shryke again. Same plan, straight line, slight fade. I turned it over again...straight into the reeds. I swear I watched it down this time, but watching how far it landed in the reeds was tough to see. Same search, same frustration building. This was a brand new Shryke! I knew it was close, I just couldn't see it. I figured if I could just get a bearing on it, I could find it. I wasn't that lucky. Another day, another Shryke. 

This time I went home and I bought some supplies. I had an idea...