When it comes to cheap, accessible summer activities, it’s hard to beat disc golf.
With three courses within Eugene and another just 15 miles away, finding a course is no problem. Combine that with the inexpensive costs to begin the sport and it’s easy to see why the popularity, and demand, of disc golfing has increased recently.
“You know when people find out about it, it’s amazing,” said Bruce Sisson, treasurer of the Eugene Disc Golf Club. “It’s just addictive.”
While disc golfing’s success can be traced to it being cheap and outdoors, it also owes some of its popularity to its simplicity. Much like regular golf, golfers tee off from a tee box shooting toward a hole, which, in disc golf’s case is a metal chain basket.
Buying the necessary equipment is equally as easy. Numerous sporting goods stores sell discs as low as $10, from drivers to putters and all discs in between.
“It doesn’t cost anything, because it’s free to play at all the courses and I think that’s the key thing,” said University student Justin Becker, member of the UO ultimate team EGO. “It’s real cheap to get into.”
Local disc golf courses vary dramatically from the hilly, forested Dexter Park disc golf course southeast of Eugene near Lowell, to the wide-open and flat Westmoreland course near 18th Street and Chambers.
Students at the University need not even leave campus to find the closest course, which begins on the lawn of the Erb Memorial Union and cuts across campus near 13th Avenue. Maps for this course can be found at 102 Esslinger. Though the course is unofficial, that doesn’t stop students from playing it.
“It’s not like an official course, but it’s like ‘That lamppost is the first hole, that bench is the second,’ but people do that a lot,” said Judson Mead, a University student who also plays for EGO. “The campus one is like the urban course.”
Becker echoed Mead’s sentiment. “Back in high school we used to come over and play the course,” said Becker. “A guy who used to coach Sheldon High School’s team created the course, but I showed it to all the guys on the UO ultimate team.”
As arguably the most difficult course in the area, the Dexter Park course has been one of most popular, too, since its construction in 2001. The course was built by the EDGC at a cost of $10,000, and the club maintains the course to this day while keeping the cost free of charge. From Eugene, golfers can reach the course by driving south on Interstate 5, then get off on U.S. Highway 58 until you reach Dexter Park.
“I believe it’s the most popular state park in this region too due the disc golf being put in there. It’s the only challenging course until you get into Corvallis or down to Roseburg,” said Sisson, who volunteers at the course. “That’s what disc golfers like, the challenge to throw between the trees and to negotiate turns.”
Bullseyediscgolf.com, a Web site that helps promote Oregon disc golf, remarks Dexter as “perhaps the most polished disc golf course in the entire state of Oregon.”
For Mead, the Dexter course is the best because of its surroundings.
“It’s cool because you’re going on a little hike because the trails are through the woods. It feels like you’re isolated; there’s no buildings around,” said Mead. “You’re surrounded by nature and playing this game.”
While the course’s first two holes look innocent enough shooting into an open field, its third hole signals a sign of things to come as golfers are challenged to negotiate a downhill, narrow passage between two stands of trees, eventually finding the basket in a clearing. Following holes alternate between relatively open clearings to tight passages of forest.
The Dexter Park course might have been the EDGC’s first course, but Sisson doesn’t expect it to be the last. That’s because the club expects to renovate existing courses at Fern Ridge Reservoir west of Eugene and at Links Hollow Park in Creswell in the near future. There are also hopes to transform part of Laurelwood Golf Course off of 30th Avenue into both a golf and disc course. As of now, there is only a rough, unofficial course at the site without baskets or tee boxes.
Another marker for judging the game’s popularity by is the attendance at tournaments around the state, such as the Willamette Open, held in October each year. Compared to five to six years ago, when players could show up the morning of the event and find an open slot, almost all the entries have already been filled.
For Sisson, the EDGC and disc golf players in the Eugene/Springfield area, the game’s increased demand is a clear sign that it will continue to be a summertime staple. Just be sure to show up early.
“If you’re going in the afternoon you’re going to be waiting to take your turn to get on hole one.”