Montgomery County, the golf course capital of Maryland, is growing another version of the game.
Unlike traditional golf, disc golf doesn’t require greens fees, dress codes or tee times. And the only equipment necessary is a plastic flying disc.
People who play usually become “enamored with the flight of a disc,” said Andrew Fish, one of roughly 120 players regularly competing on the professional disc golf tour.
Fish, who worked as a civil engineer before joining the pro tour, designed Montgomery Parks’ first disc golf course, which opened last weekend.
Disc golfers have flocked to the 18-hole course, which winds through a forest next to the National Capital Trolley Museum in Northwest Branch Recreational Park. People who played during the first weekend said cars filled the parking lot, and players logged more than 100 rounds on UDisc, the popular app for the sport.
Northwest Branch is the first disc golf course owned and operated by Montgomery Parks. Howard and Prince George’s counties have courses, and there’s one at Seneca Creek State Park.
The new course is meant to appeal to players of all skill levels, from first-timers to professionals. (Maansi Srivastava for The Banner)
Those who have long advocated for a new course want to attract local players, community groups and tournaments.
They also hope the course will boost the popularity of the sport, the trolley museum and the county park.
Evan Dintaman, a project manager for Montgomery Parks, said he didn’t know much about disc golf three years ago, when planning for the course began. He only recently realized the pent-up demand for a county-owned course.
When the course opened, he said, “people just flooded in to play it.”
A growing sport
The rules of disc golf largely resemble traditional golf’s. Players begin each hole by throwing from a tee pad toward a chained basket, and the goal is to land the disc in the basket in as few tosses as possible.
The discs are smaller and heavier than the ones people toss at parks and beaches or use in ultimate Frisbee games. There are also different discs meant for different throws. Some travel farther or curve more than others.
The discs are smaller and heavier than the frisbees people throw at the park or the beach. (Maansi Srivastava for The Banner)
Players throw from a tee pad toward a chained basket, aiming to land the disc in the basket in as few tosses as possible. (Maansi Srivastava for The Banner)
“You can make it do things that you can’t do with a ball,” said Nathaniel Pearlman, 60, who played the course Monday.
His former co-worker and longtime disc golf partner, Tim Kovacs, 48, likes the sport for many of the same reasons people appreciate traditional golf.
“You’re out with nature. You’re walking around. It’s easy exercise. You don’t have to be a professional athlete to enjoy it,” he said.
The two men, who’ve been playing together for more than 20 years, drove up from D.C. on Monday to check out the course.
Tim Kovacs and Nathaniel Pearlman, local disc golf players and friends from Washington, D.C., try out the Cloverly course. (Maansi Srivastava for The Banner)
Many new players are turning to disc golf, said Fish, the tour player. He saw the game’s popularity begin to spike during the COVID pandemic, when public health restrictions prompted people to recreate outdoors.
Organizers on the pro tour saw the growing market, too, Fish said. They held more events, hired more staff and paid more to winners.
A larger number of media companies began following the tour, which brought more eyes to the game online and inspired more people to attend tournaments, he said.
Fish’s vision
Until recently, the land beside the National Capital Trolley Museum was mostly forest. Invasive plants had taken over parts of the property.
“It was so thick that you needed to bushwhack your way from hole to hole,” Dintaman said.
The parks department has transformed the site but not entirely. The course, with its concrete tee pads, narrow fairways and trimmed greens, snakes through a largely forested area.
The course winds through a forest next to the National Capital Trolley Museum in Northwest Branch Recreational Park. (Maansi Srivastava for The Banner)
The course contains many reminders of the trolley museum next door. It begins just a few yards from the museum’s entrance and ends facing the area where old trolleys roll in and out. Railroad ties surround the disc golf basket on several holes. And the course shares land with the tracks on which trolleys carry museum visitors around the park.
Montgomery Parks plans to build a plaza area next to the museum and the course that will include a covered pavilion, picnic tables, benches and bike racks.
The new course is meant to appeal to players of all skill levels, from first-timers to professionals.
There are two tee-off pads at the start of each hole, one of which is a few yards farther from the basket than the other, offering a challenge to more advanced players. Each green includes two potential basket locations, providing variety for regular players.
Northwest Branch is the first disc golf course owned and operated by Montgomery Parks. (Maansi Srivastava for The Banner)
People can generally play the 2 1/2-mile course in a little under two hours, according to UDisc.
Fish said he expects people of all ages, including parents with children, to play there. He met a couple in their 80s playing the course.
Compared to the courses around the country and in parts of Europe where Fish plays as part of the pro tour, Northwest Branch features shorter distances between each tee pad and basket.
But it has challenging elements that other Maryland courses don’t, including out-of-bounds areas and island greens, where landing outside a circle of railroad ties costs players a penalty stroke.
Fish said he incorporated concepts from traditional golf and from the more than 500 places he’s played to construct a course that can help even competitive players improve their games.
Montgomery County’s home course
Players have been impressed.
“When you launch one of these courses, it’s usually like some disc golf baskets and some weeds,” said Kirk Shinkle, who created an online group to connect players in the area and help organize outings at the new course.
Before Shinkle went to Northwest Branch last weekend, players told him they had “never seen a course launch and look this nice.”
On UDisc, the course had an average rating of 4.4/5 from 130 reviews posted as of Wednesday.
Players in Montgomery County had course options in the area before Northwest Branch opened. They often traveled to the course at Seneca Creek State Park in Gaithersburg or to courses in College Park and Elkridge.
But Shinkle wants local players to make Northwest Branch their home course.
People have contacted him to schedule tournaments, leagues and events for the spring, including singles nights and regular outings for LGBTQIA+ groups. And volunteer groups have reached out to set up course cleaning days.
Shinkle, who for years lobbied the parks department to build a course, said it exceeded his hopes. He wants it to build more. But for now he’s more than happy to play at Northwest Branch.
“I want to be here on Hole 16 and then have my kids go by on the trolley,” he said.
