These aren’t your average Frisbees.
In fact, they aren’t the Frisbees of old at all.
They are discs and they are the weapon of choice for sportsmen, and women, in the growing sport of disc golf.
Barrie’s first disc golf course officially opened in May 2014 at the Sandy Hollow Disc Park in a northern section of Barrie's Sandy Hollow landfill property on Ferndale Drive North in Barrie.
It’s located on a beautiful and heavily treed area and players could be forgiven if they didn’t realize the city’s landfill is nearby.
The game sees players throw a flying disc at a target called a basket (or a pin) and is, more or less, played like traditional golf with the winner having the fewest number of throws.
It’s a game for all ages and of different skill levels, according to Bob Cole, one of the original disc park organizers.
He said the first tournament back in 2014 had 40 players from across the province.
“Today, we have 90 players, so it’s more than doubled over the past six years,” he said on Saturday, adding there has been amazing growth in the sport over the years, with everyone from teenagers to people in the 70s taking part.
“It’s free to play. It’s a great way to get outside and experience the outdoors and do something fun and get to play in a sport and play in an event where the community (of players) is just fantastic,” Cole said.
“It’s really positive. People are giving discs to people (who might not have one ) all the time.”
Dan O’Halloran, from Barrie, took part in Saturday’s tournament and says the sport is really catching on.
“It’s nice to get out with a bunch of guys (or women) and play disc golf during some beautiful weather,” he said. “There’s the challenge. There’s so much to it with all the different discs to match the hole.
“This is my fourth year playing; you can improve your playing in just a couple of years,” O’Halloran said. “I’ve seen courses sprout up all over the place — Collingwood, Orillia, Bradford, Tottenham — over the last few years. We have a league night every week and we try encourage the ladies to come out.”
Carloynn Howard, from the Whitby area, agrees with that sentiment. She also took part in Saturday’s event.
“It is growing. There is definitely an effort to engage women in the sport,” she said, prior to ’teeing off’. “It doesn’t really cost that much to play. And typically, disc players are friendly enough that if you don’t happen to have a disc, they will give you one.
“I have discs in the back of my car that I have in case I see new any new golfer out there. I want to make sure I have something to get them engaged,” Howard said. “There’s no excuse not play if you have a disc in your bag. If you can walk, it’s a fun sport to play.”
She said she and her friends love to travel checking out different disc courses.
“The tourism dollars that are generated are outstanding. We come into a town beforehand, practise, stay in hotels and Airbnb rentals and they’re eating in the area,” Howard said. “It’s an untapped potential that I think cities should be aware of.”
Michel Lewis was also testing his skills on Saturday and said he took up the sport after friends and family got him into it.
“We love disc golf and a little competition is nice,” he says after tossing a few practice ‘putts’, adding the area around the Sandy Hollow Landfill is being put to a good use.
“Disc golf provides a great service to cities for making use of green space that wouldn’t otherwise be used,” he said. “It’s a wonderful idea to add more human traffic to a park and then those parks become more safe.”
Thomas Gilbert, 20, of Toronto, is a regular at the Sandy Hollow Disc Park.
He’s a top-ranked — and sponsored — world player and is the second highest rated in Canada.
“This has been a local course for me and I played it a lot when I was growing up. I always love coming back here,” he said. “It’s a unique sport.
“It’s something casual you can do, throwing discs around the park, but you make it as competitive as you want it to be.”
