Disc golf as we know it today was invented in the mid ‘70s in California by “Steady Ed” Headrick. There are reports of people playing forms of disc golf as early as 1960, but it was Headrick who really standardized the sport. In a nutshell, the object of disc golf is to get the disc into the “basket” and traverse the course in the fewest number of strokes possible. Originally the sport involved throwing discs at objects such as trees or garbage cans to score points. With Headricks invention of a disc golf “basket” and writing standardized rules the sport was poised to enter the mainstream sports realm. Headrick was heavily involved with the formation of the Professional Disc Golf Association, which he started in 1975. Headrick handed over full control of the PDGA to the players in 1983. Headrick established the very first standardized disc golf course known as Oak Grove Park in La Canada Flintridge, California. At the time of his death Headrick had personally designed over 200 courses in the United States. The PDGA now writes and revises the official rules and also manages the sport at the professional level. They have a player registry and rating system for each player to determine their rating, whether they are professional, amateur or recreational.
Disc golf permeates so many social classes and different types of people. It has infiltrated everything. There are disc golf courses on all seven continents. From courses that are high in mountain ranges from Scandinavia to the Rocky Moutains. Some of these mountain courses may have elevation changes in the thousands of feet. There are disc golf courses in some of the most remote places on the planet as well. There is a disc golf course in the Atacama Desert in Peru, located at an elevation of 8,500 feet. It is one of the driest and most desolate places on Earth; water and a tank of oxygen might be things to consider at this course. Believe it or not, there is a disc golf course in Anarctica too. It is called McMurdo Flights and is on an island just off the coast. If you want to play there, full winter gear and a survival plan might not be a bad idea. There are people who make their living on disc golf. There are thousands of people who work for one of the big disc golf companies like Innova, Discraft, MVP or Latitude 64. There are professional player cashing in on tournaments with jackpots that can easily reach $10,000 or more. There are others who or sell specialty products such as custom made jerseys, disc golf bags and a plethora of other disc golf related products. As you can see from my information, stories and statistics gathered here on this Storify page, it is an exploding sport. Even the PDGA agrees: It’s the fastest growing sport you’ve never heard of.
While initial growth of the sport was slow, it has seen a huge surge in the number of players and the number of parks being built all over the world. Disc golf is played in approximately 40 countries worldwide with over 3000 courses in the United States alone. Over the last 15 years, disc golf has grown by nearly 15 percent every year, with the number of players doubling between 2000 and 2008. The top three disc golf states, in terms of number of courses and players, are Texas, California and Iowa. Texas and California have over 200 courses each, with Iowa having roughly 160 courses. Missouri is home to about 80 courses statewide, with a heavy concentration of them right here in the northwest part of the state. Kansas City alone is home to over 10 courses alone. Below, there is a map of courses in the state of Missouri. It includes the name of the course, city, zip code, number of holes and its PDGA rating if it has one.
We have our own disc golf course here at Missouri Western that was built in 2005. It was originally a 9-hole course that featured tight and technical holes, with hazards that include dense woods and a very deep and very muddy valley that a creek runs through. The amount of vegetation that grows there in the summer, and the leaves covering the ground in the fall and early spring, makes finding discs extremely difficult; should you be unlucky enough to accidently throw one of your discs in there in there. In the spring of 2013 the course was expanded from the original 9-hole layout to a full 18-hole course. In a nutshell, Missouri Westerns course is a blend of tight and technical on the front nine, to wide-open power holes on the back nine. It is a great blend of different holes that is challenging but is also a great course to hone your skills on, whether it’s your first time out, or your millionth.
Registered PDGA player Rich Carroll, on his second time out at the course, had praises for the course.
“The front nine are kind of compacted, but they seemed to have made up for it on the back nine. They have a lot of space here. It’s pretty decent. On the back nine there are some [par] 3’s and 4’s so it makes it entertaining at least.”
Veteran disc golfer Eliot Hicks explains it more simply for those who may have not have ever player the Western course, or any disc golf course for that matter.
“The front nine is where you practice your finesse and touch with discs. The back nine is where you bring out your cannon and just throw it as far and as hard as you can.”
There are large numbers of people who play the course, but surprisingly most of them aren’t even students here.
“I see a lot of the same people out here, and most of them aren’t even students. I think with a little bit better marketing and updating, like concrete tee pads and signage, we can get the word out there that we have this course. It’s a nice course; I think it could be nicer,” Cody Freeman said, a Western senior and regular on the course here at Western.
Other players agree that while the course is good, it could be better, with most of them voicing the same suggestions for improvement.
“Some actual concrete tee pads and decent signage showing the hole numbers, yardage and stokes for par would be nice,” Ryan Sherwood said, a non-student, but regular player at Westerns course.
The video below is an overview of the course here at Western, and the opinions of people who play here regularly. It is a more in depth look at the course, both the things that people like about it and things they might not like so much.
Disc golf itself is a much more complex and technical game than many would think. There are three basic categories of discs. There are drivers, mid-ranges and putters. Drivers are characterized by their wide lip, sharp bevel and flat profile. They are designed to fly the furthest. The current world record for a disc thrown on flat ground is 856 feet. These discs are almost always used from the tee, except for the occasional very short par three. A subset of drivers comes into play on these types of holes. These would be fairway and approach drivers. These discs have the same sharp bevel, but have slightly narrower lips. These discs are good for short par threes from the tee or from the fairway on a long par five. The next category of discs would be mid-ranges. These discs are characterized by having a slightly domed profile, a less aggressive bevel and almost no lip at all. These discs are designed to fly several hundred feet and are used to get into a putting position. Lastly, there are putters. These discs are characterized by a very domed profile, almost no lip to them at all and a tendency to fly very straight. They are designed to be for shots within about 30-40 feet of the basket.
All discs are made to suit certain conditions. Everything from elevation, wind, curves around holes and factor into the design of discs. Disc golf companies all have their own way of rating the performance of discs but generally speaking it comes down to four categories: Speed, Glide, Turn and Fade. Speed refers to the potential distance the disc is capable of reaching, providing you have the power to throw it that hard. Glide is the ability of a disc to stay in the air and “float” as it is traveling. Most discs, if properly thrown, will follow an “S” pattern through the air. Turn refers to how hard or soft the disc will “turn” through the first part of the “S” during flight. Lastly you have Fade, which refers to how hard the disc will cut towards the ground during the last part of the “S” flight, when it starts to run out of power.
As you can see from all of the information above, there is much more to disc golf than most people realize. Below is a story I curated on Storify. Here you can see how far disc golf as a sport has infiltrated people’s lives, the media and the world. So get out there and enjoy a sport with relatively no downsides and an abundance of upsides. Enjoy!
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