BDLD Spotlights: Meet Brittany -Five Months Into Disc Golf and Already All In

 

Some people ease into disc golf.

Brittany Hickman was apparently not interested in doing that.

Five months ago, Brittany had never even watched a round of disc golf. She went to a friend's tournament because she wanted to see what the sport was all about and decide whether it was something she'd want to try.

The answer came pretty quickly.

Basically, day one.

Today, she's already competed in three tournaments, won her women's division in two of them, thrown a personal best of 332 feet, made some incredible friends, accumulated significantly more discs than she probably intended to, and developed a remarkable ability to find trees even when there appears to be a perfectly good open fairway available.

So yeah. You could say she's hooked.

An Athlete Trying Something Completely New

While disc golf was new territory, sports definitely weren't.

Brittany grew up playing basketball, volleyball and softball, and she also threw discus in high school. That athletic background gave her plenty of competitiveness to bring to the course, but it didn't mean disc golf came automatically.

Her softball background did, however, give her one advantage: the forehand.

The throwing motion felt much more natural than a backhand, and the forehand quickly became the strongest part of her game.

The challenge now is consistency.

She's working on making that forehand something she can trust round after round while tackling what has easily been the more frustrating part of learning the sport: the backhand.

Her goal by the end of the year is to consistently reach 300 feet with her forehand while building a reliable 200 to 250-foot backhand.

And technically, the 300-foot barrier has already been destroyed.

Once.

Very, very destroyed.

Brittany's longest measured throw is 332 feet.

She'll also be the first person to tell you there was probably a little luck involved. She's only broken 300 feet two other times since.

But 332 is 332. We're counting it.

What's in Brittany's Bag?

Five months is plenty of time to develop some favorites, and Brittany already has a core group of discs she trusts.

Her distance driver of choice is the MVP Wave, while the Axiom Crave handles fairway duties.

For mids, she's reaching for the Thought Space Athletics Pathfinder, and when it's finally time to stop throwing and actually put the thing in the basket, she's using an MVP Pixel.

Of course, being friends with the people at Big Dudes Little Discs creates one minor problem.

She keeps finding more things she wants.

Helping out with Big Dudes has not cured this problem.

If anything, learning more about discs, plastics, flight characteristics, weights and equipment has simply given her more reasons to walk into the store and think, "Well, I obviously need that."

For research purposes, naturally.

Three Tournaments. Two Wins.

Brittany didn't wait very long before deciding to compete.

In her first five months, she's entered three tournaments and won her division in two of them.

She's proud of those wins, but she's also quick to point out something she'd love to see change: women's divisions can still be pretty small.

That's something she hopes changes as more women discover the sport.

Because five months ago, she was one of them.

She hadn't grown up around disc golf. She hadn't watched it. She didn't know the terminology, the discs or what she was doing.

She simply showed up.

That's one of the coolest things about disc golf. You don't need to have played since childhood. You don't need to throw 400 feet. You don't need a bag filled with 30 discs before your first round.

You can start.

And if Brittany's first five months are any indication, you might surprise yourself with where that leads.

The Best Part Wasn't the 332-Foot Throw

Ask Brittany what surprised her most about disc golf, and the answer isn't the equipment, the competition or how incredibly technical throwing a piece of plastic can become.

It's the community.

In only a few months, she's made friendships that have become one of her favorite parts of the sport.

Disc golfers show up.

They love the game. They help each other improve. They give advice. They celebrate great shots, laugh about terrible ones and are there for each other beyond the course.

That's also how Big Dudes Little Discs became more than just a disc golf shop to Brittany.

They became her friends.

And helping Big Dudes was her opportunity to give something back.

Their friendship, knowledge and advice have helped her grow as a player, and with her professional background in marketing, she found a way to return some of that support while continuing to learn more about the sport herself.

Although, again, this arrangement has resulted in considerably more time spent looking at discs she wants to buy.

Nobody said friendship was free.

Who Is Brittany Off the Course?

When Brittany isn't attempting to throw a Wave 300 feet or discovering previously unknown trees on a fairway, she's the owner of Altitude Marketing LLC, a marketing company focused on helping businesses strengthen their online presence and actually get noticed.

Her work spans social media management, SEO, website development, content, digital marketing and strategy. She especially loves working with small businesses and the people behind them.

That's a pretty good description of Brittany in general.

When she believes in something, she tends to go all in.

Business. Sports. Friendships. Family.

She's a lifelong athlete with a competitive streak, a Colorado sports fan who loves the Nuggets and Broncos, a dog mom several times over, and a wife who will proudly talk about Ash any chance she gets.

Underneath all of that competitiveness is probably the biggest thing to know about Brittany: she cares deeply about her people.

That's part of what drew her into the disc golf community so quickly.

It wasn't only a new sport.

It was finding another group of people worth showing up for.

Five Months Down

Brittany still considers herself a beginner.

There are plenty of things she's figuring out. Her backhand is a work in progress. Her forehand doesn't always cooperate. A 300-foot throw isn't consistent yet.

And sometimes the tree wins.

Actually, the tree wins more often than she'd like to discuss.

She's also learned another extremely important lesson during her first five months of disc golf:

Wear sunscreen.

Apparently being blonde does not provide natural UV protection, despite whatever Brittany may have subconsciously believed.

But that's part of what makes starting a new sport fun.

You learn. You improve. You meet people. You celebrate the great rounds, laugh about the terrible shots and come back the next week wanting to do it again.

Five months ago, Brittany went to a friend's tournament just to see whether disc golf looked like something she might enjoy.

Now she's competing, winning, chasing 300 feet, working toward a 250-foot backhand and finding ways to support the community that welcomed her.

It's safe to say she got her answer.

She's all in.