Baton Rouge’s welcoming disc golf community is on the rise
, 2022-09-07 11:26:17,
Disc golf is more than a game of throwing Frisbees into a basket. In Baton Rouge, it’s a community uniting young and old, amateur and professional, from all walks of life.
“With the low entry level and the high skill ceiling, even a little 8-year-old or a 5-year-old could pick up a disc and throw it—but then you can spend years to actually get really good,” says Lance Gremillion, vice president of the Baton Rouge Disc Golf Association.
Far from the “NASCAR of golf,” Gremillion jokes, disc golf is essentially golf with different objects. Players move through courses, keeping score and trying to reach the hole in the fewest number of “strokes.” But here, the end point is a metal basket with chains inside to slow down the discs.
Much like golf’s variety of clubs with different purposes, disc golf has a range of plastic discs designed for different speeds, distances and shots. Players toss round-rimmed putters for closer, more accurate shots, as well as midrange and driver discs, analogous to their cousins in their sister sport.
Gremillion discovered disc golf just out of college. It was the cheapest way he found to be active (starter kits cost about $40) and get outside.
The pandemic was a boon to the growth of Baton Rouge’s disc golf community, as many sought out new ways to stave off boredom or stay fit. Following lockdown and an injury that prevented her from playing in her women’s soccer league, Kate LeBeau, a digital network manager at Lamar Advertising, became hooked.
“It’s like hiking, except there’s discs involved,” she says. “When I’m out there, I don’t really think about any of my personal problems or anything like that. I just play.”
LeBeau regularly attends events at Highland Road Park, including weekly low-stakes tournaments that have been held on Wednesday evenings since the 1990s, when the sport first peaked in Baton Rouge.
At the time, Highland Road Park was known nationally in the disc golf world for its picturesque course with trees and a series of bridges. Now, with new groups and a dedicated disc golf…
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