How amazing is it that one of the top-ranked U.S. disc golf courses is located in Newtown at Tyler State Park?! This 36-hole course begins at the Upper Plantation Picnic Area.
Near 101 Swamp Road, the course is known for being scenic, well-maintained and challenging, with a mix of wooded and open holes. For those who've never tried this sport, course maps with rules and scorecards are available at the park office and at the Upper Plantation Picnic Area parking lot.
Disc golf is played much like traditional golf. However, instead of a ball and clubs, players use a flying disc, or frisbee. The sport shares with 'ball golf' the objective of completing each hole in the fewest number of throws.
A golf disc is thrown from a tee to a target, which essentially is an elevated metal basket. The basket can be one of several disc golf targets; the most common is called a Pole Pin/Hole/Wire Tray. As a player progresses down a fairway, he or she must make each consecutive shot from the spot where the previous throw landed. Trees, shrubs and terrain changes located in and around fairways provide challenging obstacles for disc golfers. Finally, the 'putt' lands in the basket to complete the round.
Bucks County Disc Golf Alliance participants, also anchoring from Newtown, offer tournaments, clinics and leagues.
BCDGA President Ed Carroll says new players are welcome all year. "Presently, just show up by 5:15 p.m. every Wednesday for league play, and we'll register everyone, get set up and on a card with other players."
Ed says there's been an active club at Tyler State Park since the disc golf course was first built 32 years ago. In fact, the Bucks County Whitetails Disc Golf Club established in Tyler Park during 1994. In 2000, permission was granted to install an additional nine holes, which made Tyler Park a 27-hole Disc Golf Course, the first of its kind in Pennsylvania. This was completed in April 2001. Then the Flying Squirrels Club arrived.
"I’ve been involved for about 15 years, president for the last five years," Ed says.
He says they have a variety of competitive disc golf events throughout the year, as well as many days of groundskeeping and course maintenance. "Our summer league averages 40 attendees a night. Winter league on Sundays averages 60 players each week. And most of our dozen or so sanctioned PDGA tournaments, which typically take place either Saturday or Sunday, usually have 50-75 players."
The group's cabinet has about eight members, but Ed says overall they have about 100 active disc golfers in the club. "There are hundreds more casual players who enjoy the park every year, most of whom we don’t even know. The course is free, maintained and run by our club for the benefit of all local disc golfers and Tyler State Park visitors overall," he states.
According to UDisc.com, the United States has 11,245 disc golf courses; among these are 5,230 courses with 18 or more holes. America's also home to 11,785 game leagues and 2,273 stores that sell disc golf gear.
Details from Professional Disc Golf Association staffers indicate that the sport originated in the early 20th century, with the earliest known instance being "Tin Lid Golf" in 1926 in Saskatchewan, Canada, where children threw tin lids at targets. Modern disc golf began in the 1960s using frisbees, with the first official course designed in 1975 by "Steady" Ed Headrick, aka "the father of disc golf," at Oak Grove Park, California.
Fast DG Facts
- Ed Headrick worked for California-based Wham-O Corporation, and is credited with pioneering the modern era of disc sports.
- He founded The International Frisbee Association and established competitive standards for various sports using frisbees, such as Distance, MTA, TRC, Accuracy, Freestyle and Guts.
- He coined/trademarked the term "disc golf" when patenting the Disc Pole Hole, the first disc golf target to incorporate chains and a pole basket. He designed this because he reportedly was tired of arguing over what counted as a scoring disc with his friends. He founded the Professional Disc Golf Association and Recreational Disc Golf Association for competitive and family-oriented play, and standardized rules and equipment for the growing sport.