A disc sails through the air toward its intended target, swinging from its level course into a right-leaning arc around a tree. It lands on the grass. Next, a carefully placed shot leads to a satisfying clanging of the chains, signaling the end of yet another hole.
Sometimes regarded as the weird love child of golf and a Frisbee, disc golf combines the two and has become a beloved niche sport for many in Middle Tennessee. Gameplay is organized like golf — with either nine or 18 holes, and a par for each hole — but subs a Frisbee-style disc and metal-chain baskets in place of a ball and a hole. Some say its appeal, like golf, is that it’s easy to pick up but difficult to master.
Tennessee has more than 200 courses, 15 of them in the greater Nashville area. Nine of the Nashville area’s courses have been built since 2016.
Music City Disc Golf, a local nonprofit that helps organize events, recently held a stop in the PDGA’s Elite Series called the Music City Open, with the most recent purse for the event totaling $80,000. The event was originally hosted as a local amateur tournament before moving into the Elite designation — the highest designation for a tournament.
Zachary Hoy, president of Music City Disc Golf and director of the Music City Open, says community is what makes the sport so unique.
“There’s room for all types of people in disc golf, and I think that’s one of the biggest things,” says Hoy. “And it’s funny how [you’ll meet a player] who’s a lawyer, somebody’s a plumber, somebody’s a contractor, somebody who’s a guitarist, it’s all kinds of people.”
Hoy also notes that in the Nashville-area courses, most of the upkeep is done by community members. While upkeep of the parks themselves is done by Metro Parks and Recreation employees, each course has a designated course captain who works with Music City Disc Golf and communicates their plan with Metro for approval and assists with immediate maintenance of the courses. Other volunteers also contribute to course upkeep.
The Nashville Disc Golf Store serves as a hub for the city’s scene, with amateur and professional players alike shopping for specialty discs at the Murfreesboro Pike shop. An advanced player might use a combination of discs including a driver, a midrange and a putter disc when playing a course. Owner Shawn Groton has seen many changes in the sport since opening his store in 2015.
“I could see it really gaining momentum with YouTube, and more and more coverage and the tournaments on the weekends,” says Gordon. “And social media presence was really growing year by year since I opened the store.”
Groton also attributes disc golf’s increased popularity to the COVID-19 pandemic. He says lockdowns and social distancing brought many old fans back to the sport, and introduced new players who were looking for a safe hobby to keep them busy.
Among these new players was Bryan Stringfield, who now participates in a number of local tournaments and leagues. Stringfield says he averages at least three to four games a week with friends, and he credits the sport’s popularity to its ease of entry.
“It is just kind of an excuse to hang out with a bunch of people and meet as many people as possible,” Stringfield says. He also says the diversity of the game’s participants is part of its appeal, citing the wide range of backgrounds of players. Also, for Stringfield and many other players, the appeal is in the simplicity. The game really only requires only three things: a disc, a course, and the patience to learn. If a player can find these three things, they should be ready for just about anything on the course.
“Coming together through a shared sport is something really special,” he says, “and the bonds or the friendships of people that you play with on a regular basis is something that I would have never guessed.”
If you want to put your skills to the test or just see the sport in action, Nashville has a handful of upcoming disc golf events. The Cane Ridge Open is taking place Sunday, Aug. 27, at Cane Ridge Park in Antioch, with both pro and amateur-level competitions. The upcoming Labor Day Ams is all amateur, and will take place Sunday, Sept. 3, also at Cane Ridge Park. Visit discgolfscene.com for more information.
