This course won’t “disc”appear anytime soon
Emma Ogren, Staff Writer
Photo by Emma Ogren
In the fall of 2022, North Greenville University established a dedicated spot for an activity that has continued to grow in popularity over the past few years: the school’s very own disc golf course.
There are currently nine holes included in the course, but there are plans to expand into a full 18-hole course in the near future.
According to the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) there are around four million habitual players of the sport in the United States. They also said that eight to 12 million people have played the game at least once before.
Disc golf is similar to golf, in the sense that the person with the lowest score wins. Players use plastic discs, and their aim is to get their disc in the designated basket in the lowest number of throws. Courses often use their natural terrain to make holes more challenging.
Jared Thomas, vice president of campus ministries and student engagement (CMSE), said, “We always look for recreational options for our student body. A disc golf course is a semi-permanent rec solution that we believed would be heavily used and could help us utilize an underdeveloped portion of our campus.”
The course is located in NGU’s athletic complex, with the first basket near the tennis courts. The layout is mostly flat and is currently about half a mile long. On average, it takes about 45 minutes to complete the current nine holes.
Right now, the course is par 29. This means, on average, it takes around 29 throws to get through the whole course.
The course is open and available to both students and the general public at no charge. There are also plans to bring back both a recreational club and a competitive team sometime in the near future.
According to Thomas, the course is unique for the area because it is located on a college campus. He also said that it will have another unique aspect as the planned second half will be in a mostly wooded area. This will differ greatly from the first half that is very open.
The final nine holes are still under development, but once the finalization is complete, there are plans to get new signs and fully refine the hole designs.
Thomas said it is a long-term project as there is a lot planned for the future of this course.
