For only $10 I purchased the Franklin Disc Golf set from Walmart.com
My reviews of inferior disc golf sets continue, and for the third time in the last five reviews I’m claiming that,
“This is the worst set of golf discs ever made.”
The Franklin Disc Golf set is available in an attractive package that provides “useful” information instructing you how to play disc golf. It’s obvious this information will be reliable, because this is a “tournament style set.” According to Franklin,
“Fewest throws to land Disc in Disc Golf Target wins!”
Hmm. I thought the objective was to get the fewest throws after an entire round, but then again, there are many ways to play disc golf, and if you have only a one hole course this is accurate.
The valuable tips don’t just stop there. With all their wisdom, Franklin is able to instruct us on when and why to use each of their “engineered” discs.
Driver Engineered for Maximum Distance: 200-300 Feet. Play commences with a “Drive” from the Tee Box, throwing the disc as far as possible towards the target.
It looks like the maximum distance a disc golf disc can be thrown is 300 feet. Good to know that there are limits.
Mid-Range Engineered for Maximum Stability: 100-200 Feet. A player’s subsequent throw uses a more accurate “Mid-Range” Disc which must be thrown from the landing spot of the drive.
OK, so I guess the rule here is that you MUST use the midrange disc for the second throw. That is kind of interesting being that in the Franklin disc golf set the driver and midrange are exactly the same!
Putter Engineered for Maximum Accuracy: – 0-100 Feet. When close enough to the target, players will choose to use the more stable “Putter” to complete the hole.
To help us understand when and where to use each disc (even though the midrange and driver are identical).
Franklin provides us with this super informative graphs to help us understand the difference in “accuracy” and “distance” that will be achieved from their disc golf set.
Now it is perfectly clear when and why you would use the identically looking mid-range instead of the driver.
If only Franklin Sports had ever actually consulted with someone who had played disc golf before contracting with a Chinese manufacturer to produce these garbage discs.
Price usually does equal quality and there is definitely a reason why you should buy discs from a specialty store like InfiniteDiscs.com rather than a big box store like Walmart.
This disc golf set is so bad it is almost comical. I’m pretty sure that either the Chinese company that makes Franklin’s discs copied Halex’s disc molds or the other way around. Both the Halex Set and the Franklin set use the same super shallow “160g” driver/midrange mold (the same disc just printed with different stamps) explaining which one is the midrange and which is the driver. The Putter’s are also very similar in shape.
While these discs are so similar, there are noticeable differences between Franklin and Halex which leads me to believe that they are manufactured at different locations using different processes. The Franklin plastic is substantially softer, and the edges of the disc are sharper. In addition, the Franklin discs each have two “notch” marks on the inside of the rim.
The positive of the Franklin set compared with the second worst disc golf set ever made, the ESP set, is that the plastics used in these is soft, feels fairly good, and doesn’t cut your hand when you grip them.
The negative of the Franklin disc golf plastic is that it is incredibly flimsy. If you hit a tree with one of these discs (which is actually hard to do as it’s probably easier to roll one of these discs into a stump than actually hit anything in the air) it will severely bend the disc. The good news of this ultra soft plastic is that after impact, I have been able to to bend the disc back to something close to the original form.
The irony of the disc names being birds is that birds fly and these discs don’t.
For any more information about the terrible flight of the Franklin Discs, you can simply read my review of the Halex Disc golf set, since the molds used are almost identical with the same awful flight/roll.
If you’re looking for a good disc golf set, check out our post: The Best Disc Golf Sets of 2019.
