The sport of Disc Golf, also known as Frisbee Golf, is where individual players throw a flying disc at either a basket to catch the disc or at a specific target to hit. The disc golf player with the least amount of throws by the end of the course is the winner. Variations of disc golf include staging tournaments and contests between teams of competitors or mixed gender players, even though these events are typically separated by leagues or divisions. So with a flying disc the only equipment necessary for a person to start playing, and with a little practice, no matter whether you are male, female or physically challenged, the sport is fun and great exercise as it crosses all gender lines and ages.
Disc golfing has grown in players by 12% to 15% each year as the availability of disc golf courses has exploded. The governing body for the sport is the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA), and has a total of 44,064 registered players worldwide, with 12,589 current and active disc golfers. As of today, disc golf is enjoyed in over 40 countries, including Australia, Canada, United States, Mexico, Japan, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Germany, and most other countries in Western and Central Europe. Globally, it is estimated that there are over 3,000 disc golfing courses, with around 87% of the course being free for the public to play and conduct tournaments upon.
The history of the disc golf dates back to the early 1900s with the invention of the flying disc, called the Frisbee, which became a great recreational activity. However, moden disc golf as we think of today, was first started in the early 1960s by many different people and in many different places around the United States. Traced back to early 1964, students attending Rice Unversity in Houston, Texas, held tournaments where a course of trees were used as targets. Further, in the early 1960s, flying disc golf players out of Pendleton King Park located in Augusta, Georgia, constructed a course of 50 gallon trash cans as targets to keep score when throwing their Frisbees.
Three of the most important historical figures responsible for the modern day sport of disc golf are George Sappenfield, Dave Dunipace and “Steady Ed” Headrick. George Sappenfield, who call the sport “basket golf” privately, was a recreation counselor during 1965 thought of using the flying disc, much like in golf, to aim at targets and keep score in order to provide fun for the kids in the playground. In 1968, Sappenfield introduced the sport to adults and organized a Disc Golf Tournament after he became the Supervisor for the Conejo Recreation and Parks District in Thousand Oaks, California. Wham-O Manufacturing was contacted and asked to sponsor the competition and was provided the Frisbees to be thrown and hula hoops to be used as targets for the disc golf course.
Dave Dunipace is immortalized as a historical figure for disc golfing with his contribution of inventing what would become the modern golf disc. While “Steady Ed” Headrick, considered the “Father of Disc Golf”, was the first to come up with a formal golf target that utilized chains and a basket to catch the flying disc. At the Oak Grove Park, in La Canada Flintridge, California, Headrick designed and installed the first formal disc golf course using his chains and baskets as standardized targets. Headrick formed the Professional Disc Golf Association in 1975, to place official and standardized rules of play for the sport. Headrick, coined the term “Disc Golf” when he formalized the sport in a patent application for the “Disc Pole Hole”, the first disc golfing target that incorporated the chains and basket elevated on a pole.