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Sports

Disc Golf Increases In Popularity

One of St. Louis' 19 disc golf courses is in Eureka. Here's a look at the local background and history of the rapidly growing phenomenon of disc golf around St. Louis.

A man with a friend and a Frisbee will play catch. A man with just a Frisbee, however, plays disc golf.

With roots that trace back to any number of America’s backyards or church parking lots—whoever first thought it might be challenging to throw something at a tree or a stop sign—disc golf found its origins sometime shortly after the advent of the familiar plastic disc.

Literally a quiet spread, with most noise kept to the occasional sound of plastic hitting one of the chain basket “holes”, the once steady growth of disc golf has seen a continuing rise of players in the past decade. The sport is now exceptionally strong across the nation, and is now stretching out to a worldwide community. Since its first recognized course in 1975, “Steady Ed” Headrick’s Oak Grove Park design in Pasadena, CA, the sport spread to 560 courses nationwide by 1995 and doubled that number by 2000. Last year, the Professional Disc Golf Association counted 3,276 courses around the United States.

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Disc golf is a serious pursuit. With 19 courses around St. Louis and counting, including a course in in Eureka, chances are good there is plastic flying in a park near you.

Just don’t let the word ‘disc’ throw you off. This is golf, requiring long drives and short putts, and a whole lot of patience. If you think watching your drive slice into the woods or missing a five-foot putt feels any different with a Frisbee than with a ball, you’re sorely mistaken.

Though it shares many of the same fundamental rules, disc golf does have a leg up on its ball-and-club counterpart, a few characteristics that have helped its rapid growth. Needing not much more than a chunk of park space, the only major cost to construct a disc golf course is nine or 18 hip-high, pole-mounted chain baskets. This is a small, one-time investment that will ultimately last for years.

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And its inherent cost-efficiency works for the player, as well. Though technology took the Frisbee and ran with it, disc golf discs now resemble a discus, rather than a Frisbee, and some golfers tote full bags of discs. These range in specialty from driving to putting to flight paths, though it still only takes one disc to play.

A good mid-range disc, able to both drive and putt, will cost around $15 and can often last several years, provided you practice retrieval after tossing it into the forest. And with no tee times or greens fees, disc golf costs little more than a lunch break.

“It’s appealing for a number of reasons, and certainly one is (that) it’s free to play,” said Chris Kinsella, president of the St. Louis Disc Golf Club, the River City Flyers. “It is very easy to pick up, and it is very difficult to master. So, from the get-go, you’re having a great time and there is always room to get better.”

The Flyers are a volunteer organization directly responsible for the maintenance of four core St. Louis courses: Sioux Passage in Florrisant; Endicott Park in St. John; Jefferson Barracks Park in South St. Louis; and Creve Coeur Park. But the Club supports any course where members play, instituting a program last year that earmarks a portion of each person’s membership to go back into their home course. This includes maintenance of retaining walls, steps and bridges, and also course improvements, such as tee signs, concrete tee pads or the creation of new obstacles.

Funding itself through tournaments and seasonal leagues, the RCF club has experienced its own recent boom of players, doubling from 251 members two years ago to 557 in 2010. This year, Kinsella expects to break 1,000 members. Most are drawn by the competitive aspect of disc golf, as evidenced by the club having scheduled tournaments or fundraising events nearly every weekend through the end of the year.

“There were an awful amount of golfers that weren’t part of the organized group, and for the first time, all we really did was ask,” Kinsella said. “I don’t think some of those people were ever asked to join the club … if you don’t play tournaments, you never really had a reason to come across the St. Louis Disc Golf Club.

“So we finally asked, and I think that’s pretty much what gave us the growth.”

It’s high visibility in a city that hides several gems for the sport, the least of which is the No. 1 ranked disc golfer in the world (as of May 2011), Nikko Locastro. In 2009, Locastro won the U.S. Disc Golf Championship, one of the majors along with the Japan Open and the PDGA World Championships. Last year he broke the record for most money won in a season by a disc golfer.

Perhaps carrying the torch from the disc golf world of yesteryear, Locastro is the nephew of Dave McCormack, widely considered a pioneer in the sport. After ranking as one of the world’s best in the 1980s, McCormack opened up Gateway Disc Sports, now a legitimate name in the professional ranks for disc manufacturing and apparel.

Gateway’s putters, specifically the Wizard, are coveted worldwide and, thanks to the power of the Internet, McCormack sells them out of a little shop above the 18th hole at Jefferson Barracks Park.

Beyond equipment, McCormack also is a sought-after course designer. He’s directly responsible for 25-plus different courses around the Midwest, including several world-class designs, and most of the St. Louis courses.

That previously mentioned man with just a Frisbee? That’s McCormack.

“I think Dave McCormack is disc golf in St. Louis,” Kinsella said. “We have grown exponentially not just in St. Louis, but across the entire nation because of Dave McCormack. He’s a genius. He eats, sleeps and breaths disc golf. You get somebody like that on your team? The sky is the limit.”

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