Pine Nursery Park’s 18-hole disc golf course is beautiful. Each tee is marked with a concrete slab and a stainless-steel sign indicating the length and design of the hole.

The course is considered appropriate for both novice and experienced players, but as a disc golf player who’s played the sport just a handful of times, I’ll readily admit that it’s slightly beyond my abilities.

My fiancé and I recently played the course with a couple of our close friends. They were similarly inexperienced and had each picked up a driver the day before from Big 5 Sporting Goods ($11.99). Since my partner and I had owned only one set, I also purchased a starter pack from the same store with a putter, mid-range disc and driver ($19.99).

The fact that it’d be a high of 96 degrees was not lost on us, so we attempted a somewhat early start by heading out at 9 a.m. We parked in Pine Nursery’s parking lot, then walked west toward the roundabout on Rock Park Drive to the first tee.

The first basket was situated among several tall trees and easily visible from the tee. Little did we know, it was a warmup for the holes to come. It took most of us a few throws to cover the 297-foot distance before all of our discs made it into the basket.

The second hole was a fairly straight shot, with the tee just visible behind a cropping of lava rocks. I enjoyed weaving my disc through natural obstacles that surrounded the basket.

At the third tee, the basket wasn’t visible until what felt like more than halfway through the fairway. And on the fourth tee, one of my friends lost her disc amongst the junipers.

As the four of us walked around in search of the blue disc, we realized another couple had come up behind us and were waiting to play. They noticed that we were looking for a disc and patiently joined in on the search, discovering the lost disc just minutes later.

As we hucked our plastic discs in the direction of the tee of the sixth hole, the sun seemed to beat down on us more intensely. After that hole, we crossed Rock Park Drive to find other players on the seventh hole.

We were tired, hot and wrapping up our game on the adjacent open hole, seemed to be a natural decision.

I enjoyed trying my hand at Pine Nursery Disc Golf Course, but perhaps I’ll work on my disc golf technique at some of Bend’s easier courses before I come back.

If You Go

What: Pine Nursery Disc…