Par excellence — Disc golf aficionados say the game has it all

Once you start throwing things, pretty soon you might want to test your skill by throwing them at a target. That's how Frisbee golf — more commonly now called disc golf — got started.

It's possible — even probable — that variations of disc golf were played early on in the history of the Frisbee. But the person who gets credit for founding the sport is Ed Headrick, who put in the first standardized disc-golf course in California in 1975.

Over a 10-year period, Headrick worked in advertising, research and development, as general manager and CEO of Wham-O, the parent company of the Frisbee, and it was his innovative designs that created discs more suitable for sports such as golf.

Today, an estimated 2 million or so recreational players play disc golf in the United States, and there are growing professional leagues.

A number of those players are Utahns.

Team Utah Disc Golf was organized in 1992 to promote, encourage and provide outlets for the sport. The group began holding a weekly doubles tournament to develop interest in the sport. In those early years, maybe eight to 10 players showed up each week. Even three years ago, says Steven Sharp, who currently runs the tournaments, "we'd have about 20 people show up. But in the past couple of years, it's really started to take off." Now, on any given Tuesday evening, it is common for 45 to 60 players to come out.

The random-draw doubles tournaments are held each week at the Walter Frederick Morrison Disc Golf Course, named for the Frisbee inventor, at Creekside Park in Holladay. That course is one of 20 throughout the state listed on the group's Web site, www.teamutahdiscgolf.com. And while the weekly tournaments run pretty much while we're on daylight-saving time, says Sharp, most of the courses are open year-round. "A lot of people play all winter."

Disc golf is similar to "stick-and-ball" golf, Sharp explains. "The goal is to get the disc in the target in as few throws as possible." A disc is thrown from a tee area to a target. The most common target is called the "Pole Hole" and is an elevated basket 2 feet in diameter attached to a pole with looped chains.

A player progresses down the fairway, with each consecutive shot made from the spot where the previous shot landed, until the "putt" lands in the basket.

The discs used for golf have a different shape from regular backyard Frisbees. They have a lower profile and a beveled edge. "You have to throw them hard," says Sharp. "It's like throwing a baseball compared to a beach ball to throw a golf disc compared to a Wham-O."