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Move over, pickleball. Before you hit the scene with your clever part tennis, part ping-pong, part badminton, part trendy curiosity fame, there was another reigning mash-up sport in town, no court renovations required.
Disc golf.
Old-school fun for the passionate sports unprofessional, disc golf hit the scene in the 1920s with the street-smart name “tin lid golf.” Targets were anything from trees, trash cans and light poles to chicken wire baskets or fire hydrants.
Fast forward to the 1960s when Ed Headrick, while working for Wham-O Toys, patented the modern-day frisbee when tasked with utilizing leftover plastic from hula hoops. On lunch breaks, Headrick and coworkers would head outside to throw the frisbees at trash cans. At night, discs in hand, they often snuck into golf courses. Eventually, Headrick further honed the pastime activity by inventing the chain basket as a receptacle.
According to discgolf.com, Headrick’s pole + basket design was inspired by a need to have inarguable proof of whether a disc made winning contact with the targeted object, or not. The invention eliminated precious break time spent debating success (while also saving innocent community objects from wear and tear.) The first standardized disc golf course launched in 1975 with 21 “disc pole holes” in Oak Grove Park in Pasadena, Calif., and a cult phenomenon was born. (And may or may not have paved our penchant for sports oddities. You’re welcome, pickleball.)
Not Too Professional, Not Too Serious
Today, the Professional Disc Golf Association has more than 310,000 members who frequent more than 17,000 courses worldwide. Still it’s not an activity that has grown too professional or too serious for people of average coordination. Disc golf is huge, but it’s not too huge to try. It’s as casual a pastime as you want to make it, with courses in beautiful, fresh-air settings, exercise that isn’t air-gaspingly stressful, enjoyed alongside like-minded buddies. Not unlike, say, poker night, just with a little more calorie burn than intake.
Nick Dishon, treasurer of the New River Disc Golf Club, began playing in 2005 with friends from college. “I would say the main perk originally was that it is a sport which can be played completely for free once you own a disc or two. Being pretty broke at the time it was a great way to hang out with friends,” he says.
The New River Valley has several courses, including Golden Hills Disc Golf Course in Christiansburg, Buffalo Mountain Disc Golf Course in Willis and Camp Success in Narrows. However, like activities that don’t have the backing of sponsorship dollars, it’s up to the communities and dedicated folks, like Dishon and the club, to keep momentum going and courses up to, well, par. “Our club worked with the Town of Blacksburg to coordinate the installation of the disc golf course at the municipal park and ran fundraisers to put in the teepads there. As a club, we purchased a new set of baskets to put in Randolph Park in Dublin,” Dishon adds.
Tidy Courses and Events
In addition, the club coordinates clean-up workdays at local courses, removing underbrush growing in fairways or low hanging branches. Currently, they are working to replace the trail stairs at Golden Hills.
“Montgomery and Pulaski counties are always more than happy to meet with us to go over concerns and cut down trees that are problematic. They have helped financially over the years to accomplish our shared goals.”
While his usual playground is in the southwest Virginia area, Dishon’s favorite course is in nearby neighbor, Princeton, W.V. “Glenwood Park has a little bit of everything you could possibly dream of as far as shot variety, open/wooded holes, water hazards and elevation. It also has some of the prettiest views of a mountainous background.”
The New River Disc Golf Club organizes six to seven events per year with a weekly get together on Sundays. Every year, club members travel to South Carolina for the Myrtle Beach Open, nearly 350 competitors strong. They’ve also competed in a statewide club competition, Old Dominion Club Championship, which brings together clubs from all over the Commonwealth for a weekend competition.
With a foundation in discarded parts and unconventional “holes,” disc golf feels like a B-side hit. Despite decades of growth and organized leadership, it still manages to preserve an underground coolness.
“We have had some of our weekly rounds in the winter when it’s under 20 degrees with snow on the ground. We still have 10 to 15 people come out. I know there are people who think we are lunatics. But I think it’s a thing where when you’re part of it, you get it.”
Flying Free
Headrick was a part of it at the very beginning and also a part of the forever. Upon his passing in 2002, his ashes were incorporated into a small number of discs gifted to friends and family so his soul could forever “fly freely.” Perhaps a final, inarguable declaration that he hit
his target.
Text by Nancy S. Moseley
Nancy S. Moseley is a writer who has never thrown a disc at a trashcan or any other inanimate object. Or animate for that matter. She’s way more talented hula hooper.
