Disc Golf is Booming

By Tim DeFranco

We finally made it, spring 2021! Depleted from a full year of living life during a global pandemic. Weary of the unique challenges we all faced in creating a “new normal” peppered with masks and nose swabs, remote work and home schooling, closures and curfews. In an attempt to comply with social distancing guidelines, many of us were trapped inside until warmer weather and cabin fever got the best of us! Sure, streaming services got a lot of people’s time and money, while others opted to take up a new hobby or try a new skill. How many of your friends became hikers, bikers, runners or paddlers? Cheers to those that set out to tackle those challenges, but different strokes for different folks, right?

If you’re fortunate enough to live near or visit a state park or other multiuse park, you may encounter a strange, new object... What is that thing? Is it a deer feeder? A critter trap? A unique grilling apparatus courtesy of my local park? Nope! That chain-link supporting metal basket thing is a Disc Golf Target, or basket. Each basket positioned on the course, is equivalent to a “hole” in traditional, or ball golf. The disc golf green, or putting circle, is defined as 10 meters around the basket – this has implications for throwing/stance rules, but you’ll learn about that at another time!

So, it’s a beautiful, sunny day and you’re all teed up for a round of golf! In ball golf you grab your driver and swing away to launch the ball in pursuit of the ball-in-cup, using different clubs, in as few swings as possible. In disc golf there are putters, mid-ranges, fairway driver and distance driver discs. We’ll touch on the subtleties of the disc later, but once you’ve chosen your weapon to conquer the fairway, instead of swinging a club to launch that little white ball, in disc golf you use your body/arm/hand to throw your disc at the basket – in as few throws as possible. You really only need one disc to play a round, but after some experience – and the “disc golf addiction” (often referred to amongst players) sets in – you might carry a bag with as many as 20 discs!

Back to discs… This could make for a very long article with endless opinions and diatribes on the characteristics of the disc, but I’ll simplify. Each class of discs (putter, midrange, etc.) have different flight characteristics. It’s highly suggested for beginners to throw putters and mid-ranges to start learning the game. The “faster” discs, like a distance driver, require a lot of arm speed to throw correctly, such that the disc flies as it is supposed to. For example, if you throw right-hand-back-hand (RHBH), your disc will almost certainly end its flight crashing from right to left. Basically, that means if the disc you throw requires greater arm speed then you can muster, your disc will crash and land well before you want it to. Those of you who play ball golf know a good club can cost hundreds of dollars but disc golf discs will only run you about $10 to $25.

A disc golf “tee” may be made of concrete, pavers, rubber pads, natural earth/dirt, or whatever the course designer can utilize. One of my favorite tees is hole 7 at Christ The King Center in Greenwich. The tee itself is a helicopter pad, the fairway cascading down a beautiful landscape. I challenge anyone not to smile and enjoy that view!

Disc golf is one of the fastest growing sports over the last decade. As Sports Illustrated magazine recently observed, disc golf thrived during the pandemic because socially-distanced activities became the norm. As a frequent player on my local course at Saratoga Spa State Park, I witnessed that phenomenon. In 2019, I was unlikely to see an unfamiliar face on the course. By summer of 2020, seeing the park packed with new players became par for the course – pun intended!

This was obviously a silver lining of pandemic life for DisCap, a not-for-profit organization whose goal is to grow the sport of disc golf in the Capital Region. But it hasn’t been without its challenges… Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) sanctioned tournaments with 72 to 144 people, can pose logistical challenges. Local leagues, which run almost daily at different courses in the Capital Region, have also labored to implement socially-distant compliant safety measures for all of the participants.

The PDGA was established in 1976 and champions of the sport have been patient! Ten years ago, local PDGA tournaments may have taken six weeks to “sell out.” These days tournaments fill up in six minutes! The pandemic substantially tilted the needle towards growth. However, it’s the pre-pandemic disc golfers we all owe a debt of gratitude to! There are no tee times or greens fees at 95% of the disc golf courses nationwide. Virtually every disc golf course has a group of people who rally volunteers and donate their time to keep the courses clean and maintained for playability and safety – as well as run the tournaments and leagues.

The number of courses has grown at an impressive rate as well. For perspective, the Capital Region’s first legitimate disc golf course – a local favorite and choice destination since 2002 for folks outside of the Capital Region – is Hyzer Creek (Barkersville), 13 miles west of Saratoga Springs: hyzercreek.com. By 2010, the Capital Region had three courses with Hyzer Creek, and the addition of Central Park (Schenectady) and Joralemon Park (Coeymans), 17 miles south of Albany. By the end of 2015, three courses grew to 10 with the addition of Hunter Mountain (Tannersville), Blatnick Park (Niskayuna), Stonykill (Latham), Colonial Acres (retired course, Glenmont), Mine Kill State Park (North Blenheim), Saratoga Spa State Park (Saratoga Springs), and John Boyd Thacher State Park (Voorheesville).

In 2021, there are at least 19 courses, with the addition of Shenentaha Creek Park (Malta), Prospect Park (Troy), Christ the King Center (Greenwich), and Burbine Memorial Park (Charleston). I say at least because there are three courses under construction in Crandall Park (Glens Falls), Harry Betar Recreational Park (Moreau) and Steinmetz (Schenectady). There is also nine-hole course, in the planning phase at Garnet Hill Lodge (North River). That rapidly expanding number doesn’t include the on-campus course at Union College (Schenectady) or the course under-construction at Skidmore College (Saratoga Springs). Even a corporate campus in Schenectady got in on the action, though that course is reserved for their employees – the author may have had something to do with that!

If you want to give it a go, know that this sport is welcoming to everyone, from children to retirees. To get started, do a little bit of research on beginner-friendly discs before you pick some up, preferably from a local retailer: Mountainman Outdoors (Saratoga Springs and Old Forge), Play It Again Sports (Latham) and Fountain Square Outfitters (Glens Falls). 

Next, decide where to play. Visit your local club websites and their group pages on facebook.com. DisCap (Capital Region): discap.net. Central NY Disc Golf (Central NY): cnydga.net. Upstate NY Disc Golf (Northern NY): discgolfscene.com/clubs/unydog. Professional Disc Golf Association: pdga.com. DisCap does provide lessons upon request and you’ll probably notice some planned clinics being promoted as well. A good source for tips and instructional videos, with an easy search, is youtube.com.

Now you’re ready to give it a shot. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a disc golfer who won’t say, “I only wish I discovered disc golf earlier in life.” With enough casual play and comingling with the regular players, you may soon find yourself in leagues, or even pursue the challenge of a PDGA-sanctioned tournament!

Tim DeFranco (tim22def@hotmail.com) lives in Saratoga Springs. He started playing disc golf in 2010 and got involved with DisCap in 2012.