The sport of disc golf is becoming more and more popular, and many student disc golfers at Tech say they are okay with that.
Disc golf is a sport in which players throw weighted discs at targets known as DISCatchers. The object is to get the disc in the DISCatcher in the fewest number of throws of the disc. According to the Professional Disc Golf Association’s website, the origins of the pastime date back to the mid-1920s.
Several groups of students at Tech have taken to creating their own disc golf course on campus in recent years, and now that course has gotten much more popular, according to campus disc golfers. They said the course spans all the way from South Patio to the outskirts of Sherlock Park. Many of the signs in front of the buildings on campus serve as the DISCatchers. Additionally, some trees and light poles also serve as DISCatchers for a couple holes.
Not all students that play disc golf think an on-campus course is as good of an idea as others. Junior Christa Cody said playing a disc golf course on Tech’s campus is a senseless concept when there are other courses around the area.
“I think that playing a course on campus would just be a really stupid idea,” said Cody. “No matter what time you play, there are always going to be some cars around that you can hit if you have a bad throw. I don’t understand why anyone would want to take that risk since we have a course in town at Cane Creek.”
While Cookeville is home to one real disc golf course at Cane Creek Park, Cookeville also has another course near Tech, according to the Professional Disc Golf Association’s website.
On Aug. 26, a grand opening was held for a new disc golf course located near the Averitt Express Baseball Complex, according to Tech’s website. However, the course is not a full disc golf course. The course is only made up of nine holes, which is only half of a regular eighteen-hole course. The Intramural Disc Golf tournament was held at Cane Creek Park this year and not at Tech’s new course.
“I had no clue that Tech had a real disc golf course near campus,” said Cody. “If it’s a smaller course, then that could be why they don’t use it for the tournaments.”
Cody said the sport will continue to grow among students.
“It’s a sport that’s relatively cheap and not hard to learn,” Cody said. “It’s just something fun to do in a town where there really isn’t much to do, in the first place.”
