“Have you ever heard of disc golf?”
That was the question posed to Columbus Disc Golf Association co-founder and current president Tony Hollis at the turn of the millennium.
At the time, the lone disc golf course in the Columbus area was at Lake Lowndes State Park, an 18-hole course.
Upon seeing it for the first time, Hollis thought they were just throwing frisbees around, but as he came to find out, there was much more to it than just tossing around a circular piece of plastic.
“I had no idea what the heck they were doing,” Hollis said.
Disc golf originated in the 1960s and has grown gradually since that point, with the Professional Disc Golf Association founded in Georgia in 1976.
Its appeal to families, as well as its lower bar of entry compared to traditional golf and other sports, has led to organic growth worldwide. Three-disc starter sets are sold for as low as $20 online, and entry to most courses nationwide is free.
However, since the early stages of the pandemic, attention toward the sport has skyrocketed nationally, internationally and most importantly, locally.
“The scene has definitely grown in part due to Covid,” Starkville Disc Golf Association Director Andy Hunt said. “People looking to get outside when everything was shut down and had nothing to do. As far as Starkville goes, I think starting the Starkville Disc Golf Association, getting people together, playing together in leagues each week, has helped grow the sport here.”
Starkville is one of two towns within the Golden Triangle with a disc golf association, with Columbus, thanks to Hollis and Shannon Lolley, forming first, in 2003.
Of the two, Starkville has seen more significant growth, with five courses currently installed, including a flagship course for the town in and around Mississippi State University’s Wise Center.
Wise came to be in 2021, one of three courses to be installed since 2018.
“The sport can be addictive,” Hunt said.
He began with the sport in 2019 in Hattiesburg, continuing it once he came to Starkville, and upon founding the SDGA with a few friends, dozens of people poured in to become members, with leagues starting soon after.
At the end of 2021, Hunt started one of three disc-golf-dedicated stores in Mississippi, Disc and That, a place many disc golfers in North Mississippi and elsewhere flock to.
“As far as I know, I’m one of three in the state,” Hunt said. “… I’m a year-and-a-half into having the store open and things are going well. People come from Tuscaloosa, Columbus, Tupelo to buy little plastic circles.”
Columbus and the CDGA grew to more than 50 members in the late 2000s, with more organic growth over time.
A second course was added in Columbus at Probst Park in 2010, and at the nearby Columbus Air Force Base in 2022, a third 18-hole course opened.
“Our desire is to grow the sport,” Hollis said. “… I’m surprised sometimes when I talk to other people and they have never heard of disc golf. … I see a lot of people on the course who are not members that are there just playing casually.”
Membership has risen recently thanks to the pandemic bump, and as the popularity of the sport internationally has risen, more players locally have begun playing on a more professional level, and PDGA-sanctioned events have come to the region.
Saturday will see several dozen disc golfers across the South descend upon Columbus for the 2023 Summer Sizzler.
In less than two months, Starkville will host the second annual Dawg Daze Open at Wise.
Events like that, bringing in outside attention and larger audiences, are the norm compared to a decade or even five years ago.
“It’s one of those things where I feel like the more people know, the more people that find out about it, they become more interested,” Hollis said. “… It’s doing well for us.”
Disc golf has taken a turn toward mainstream popularity in recent years, with PDGA events shown to millions on YouTube channels like JomezPro, which has doubled in subscribers since July 2020 to over 433,000.
PDGA membership, which hovered around 130,000 registered members and 53,000 active members in 2019 according to their year-end report, has skyrocketed to over 255,000 registered members currently and well over 110,000 active members based on 2021’s year-end report.
“I’m a member of a lot of online communities and we’ve seen a lot of growth,” CDGA Vice President Corwin Ensz said. “All kinds of social media are growing rapidly. The talk and the activity surrounding it has been incredible.”
The burning question, much like the sports card boom during the pandemic, is if disc golf’s growth is sustainable.
In Mississippi, it appears so, with new disc golf clubs and associations popping up all over. Ensz helped on that front locally, heading back to his hometown of Macon to help start a group and install the town’s first disc golf course this year.
Those who are involved are invested, and those helping to run the show are optimistic about what’s to come.
“I think it will continue to grow because there’s always going to be a spot where people need a good economical way to get outside and enjoy nature,” Ensz said.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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