Wearing a red, white and blue bandana, 57-year-old John Roy picked up a fluorescent yellow plastic disc off the forest floor Thursday morning and threw it, hard, down the trail.
Satisfied with the throw, he picked up his camouflage backpack – filled with other brightly-colored discs – and hiked forward to retrieve his disc. After one more toss, Roy’s disc landed in the goal: a metal basket.
As former president of the Colonial Disc Golf Club, Roy has been playing the sport for nearly two decades, but he is also part of a growing group of disc golf lovers populating the Peninsula.
“I’ve been watching this sport grow for a long time,” Roy said. “What gets me is there are a lot of people making a living off it professionally now.”
As others discover the joy of disc golf, courses are popping up on the Peninsula, including at Waller Mill Park on Airport Road in Williamsburg.
On Thursday morning, Roy and Waller Mill Park Superintendent Michael VanAudenhove threw some discs together out on the park trails.
The goal of disc golf is to throw a frisbee-like disc into a metal basket. Like golf, each “hole” has a par for the number of throws it should take to get the disc in the basket. The game is played both in the woods and in open areas.
“It’s fun for everyone,” VanAudenhove said. “Kids and adults can play. It doesn’t matter who you are.”
A new golf is born
According to the Professional Disc Golf Association, the concept of disc golf has a “long and blurry history.” While the precise origin of the game is not quite clear, the association credits George Sappenfield, a California-based Frisbee enthusiast, with connecting the game of golf to the hurling of plastic discs.
In 1965, Sappenfield was a recreation counselor during summer break from college. While playing golf one afternoon, he realized that kids on the playground could play the golf game with Frisbee discs, the association states.
Sappenfield then contacted the Wham-O Manufacturing Co. about his idea and asked them to sponsor a Frisbee golf contest for his recreation program. The company sent Frisbees and Hula Hoops to use as targets — and the sport was born.
Fast forward to 2016, when the association boasted a record 31,000 active members and over 3,000 major events.
“What we can say is that disc golf is growing at a rate that is breathtaking,” the association stated in a report. “All we can do is continue the push to introduce this amazing sport to more and more people.”
Building Waller Mill
The 18-hole Waller Mill disc golf course was built in 2014 through a partnership between Colonial Disc Golf Club and the City of Williamsburg Parks & Recreation.
Roy approached VanAudenhove several years ago about building a disc golf course at Waller Mill Park. Using funding from the disc golf club and the parks and recreation budget, VanAudenhove and Roy were able to bring the course to fruition.
“It turned into more than I thought it would be,” Roy said. “But it’s one of those bonus things, you know. That’s what disc golf is all about. It’s a feeling, it isn’t just a game.”
In total, the disc golf course has cost between $15,000 and $20,000 to build so far, Roy said.
Without volunteer help building the course, the project cost could have been closer to $200,000, VanAudenhove added.
Roy said the disc golf club has put about 3,000 hours into building and maintaining the course, and VanAudenhove said about 300 people, including Eagle scouts and a William & Mary sorority, have volunteered to help.
While the course is not 100-percent finished, Roy, other club members and parks and recreation staff work together to maintain and upgrade the trails.
Passion
For Roy, disc golf is a lifelong passion that started with playing frisbee growing up in Hampton.
A Navy veteran, Roy has worked full-time servicing electrical switchgear in power plants, ships and other similar facilities for 30 years. He now co-owns CR Electrical Distribution Services, Inc.
Despite the full-time job, he spends many weekends out on disc golf courses. Saturdays are for working on the courses, and Sunday’s are for play, he said.
Like Roy, many other people are also finding their personal passion for disc golf, VanAudenhove said. The sport is popular with nature lovers, athletes, families and area residents young and old.
“I always explain to people, that at least to me, it’s very similar to put-put golf,” VanAudenhove said. “It’s one of those things that’s just fun whether you’re good at it or not.”
“If you get one good shot, that’s the greatest thing you’ll take away,” he added.
Getting in touch with nature
Disc golf is a very nature-oriented sport, VanAudenhove explained.
Unlike ball golf, disc golf involves up to three miles of hiking through wooded areas. The courses are also less invasive than ball golf courses, and are tucked into the woods among trees.
“It’s a bit more at one with nature,” VanAudenhove said.
Disc golf, while fun, is also challenging, Roy said. Discs can get lost under leaves or in water, hit trees while in flight or go in the opposite direction the player intended.
“Don’t get too attached to your plastic,” Roy said. “Never get too attached to it, that’s one of the first rules you have to learn.”
One of the most important factors in playing disc golf is attitude: No matter what level, players shouldn’t shouldn’t take failures too seriously, Roy said.
“I can tell you exactly how it feels,” Roy said of playing disc golf. “You know when you’re sitting there by yourself and that song comes on that just touches you? You don’t know what it is about that song, but you think ‘Man, that’s cool, it makes me feel something’ – that’s what disc golf does for me.”
The Colonial Disc Golf Club will host a professional tournament Nov. 4 and 5 at Waller Mill Park, the 20th Annual Fall Colors tournament. Professional disc golfers are expected to attend.
Fearing may be reached at sarah.f@localvoicemedia.com.
Want to play?
Park entrance fee: $2
Disc rental: $1 per disc
Location: Waller Mill Park, 901 Airport Rd., Williamsburg, Va.
Park hours May 1 – Aug. 31: 7 a.m. – 8 p.m.
