YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan – Aficionados of the flying disc are scoring points on a new course at the headquarters of U.S. Forces Japan in western Tokyo.

Yokota’s disc golf course incorporates the essentials of golf with the popularity of flying discs. It shares the fairways at the base’s Par 3 course without interfering with the swings of conventional golfers.

The nine-hole disc golf course opened in January with $5,000 worth of new equipment, Toshi Nakamura, manager of the Yokota Golf Center, told Stars and Stripes during a recent tour of the course.

Instead of using skinny clubs to hit small white balls into holes in the ground, disc golf players toss molded plastic discs into metal baskets suspended from upright poles. The sport was once commonly called Frisbee golf, but the makers of Frisbee, a trademarked brand name, are only one among several disc manufacturers.

Yokota owes its course in part to Air Force Maj. Marshall Gries, a host nation support officer at USFJ. The avid disc golfer helped Morale, Welfare and Recreation staff set up the course so that it takes advantage of the Par 3 fairways without impacting regular golfers, he said, before a casual round on Thursday.

Air Force Maj. Marshall Gries makes a disc-golf tee shot on the Par 3 course at Yokota Air Base, Japan, April 6, 2023. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)

Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Joshua DeMotts, left, and Maj. Marshall Gries chat during a round of disc golf on the Par 3 course at Yokota Air Base, Japan, April 6, 2023. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)

Air Force Maj. Marshall Gries makes a disc-golf tee shot on the Par 3 course at Yokota Air Base, Japan, April 6, 2023. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)

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