Rice invited two other friends to play, then two became four, and they play all the time.

“Then we found out there’s a whole subculture that’s all disc golf,” he said. “There’s a disc golf pro tour, there’s hundreds and hundreds of YouTube videos, all these specialty discs.”

The sport itself has been around since the ’70s, he said. The rules are similar to actual golf – there’s a concrete pad to “tee off” of, chain baskets to throw the discs toward, and the lowest score wins. The game typically has nine or 18 “holes,” or in this, case baskets.

But Shelby County doesn’t have a course, so Rice travels to Franklin, Rushville and other surrounding communities to play.

“Shelbyville is really the only town around here that doesn’t have a course,” he said. “Basically, every town of any significant size has a course.”

He knows this because there’s an app that shows where disc golf courses are located, and while the surrounding counties are swarmed with courses, Shelby County has none. Rice has taken to calling the county a “disc golf desert.”

So when Rice joined Leadership Shelby County, and his group had to pick an impactful community project to plan and execute, he was quick to suggest installing the popular outdoor game at Sunset Park.

“When I first proposed it, I was like, ‘I don’t know if anybody thinks this is a decent idea or not,” Rice said. “I was real nervous about introducing it to the group.”

“We could tell the minute he said it, his face lit up and his eyes were twinkling, and I was like ‘this guy is passionate about this, and I’d never heard of it,’” group member Carol daSilva said.

daSilva said after the initial pitch meeting, she went down to Columbus for a retreat, and passed disc golf baskets.

“I had driven this road numerous times, and I’d never even [seen it],” she said.

This group is looking to install nine concrete pads and 18 baskets, two baskets per pad. Each hole will have an A course and a B course.

Rice said a disc golf course is fairly cheap to set up. The only expenses are purchasing baskets, pouring concrete tee off pads, and placing signs designating each course. These signs typically depict a map of the hole, as well as the par for each course.

Now, the group is in its fundraising phase. They are seeking to raise $11,000 for installation. They’ve already raised $3,000. Anyone seeking to donate to the project can send checks or cash to the Shelby County Chamber, with ‘disc golf’ in the memo.

“I like the idea because it gives us an opportunity to bring people to Shelby County,” daSilva said. “We get a club here, we start having tournaments – when you go some place to play, you’re going to eat supper. You’re going to get gas. You’re gonna do all these sort of things, and if we can bring those people here, who have never been to Shelby County before – these are people, from what I understand, they go all over the place playing tournaments.”

Rice added they don’t just drive for tournaments, they also drive to play in leagues. He plays in a Thursday night league in Rushville, and one of the other players drives from Ohio to play.

Players do have to purchase their own discs. Just like there’s different golf clubs, there are also different kinds of discs. Rice said a starter pack of three discs costs around $20.

“It’s pretty cheap to get started,” he said. “I take my youngest son, Hudson, he goes with me a lot. Now I’m buying discs for two people, so that’s what great about this. For $10, $12 or $15, I can fit him out with discs.”

Rice added that people tend to lose discs in the weeds or water on these courses, so sometimes they find discs that aren’t theirs. And the community is really good at making sure Hudson has all the discs he needs.

“The community itself has been great about making sure they’re aware an 11 year old is there, because normally it’s pretty adult,” Rice said. “We’ll play in foursomes, the other two people in [our group] will be just great to him, helping him figure out how to throw, what he needs to be throwing. The disc golf community has been great.”

Rice hopes installing a disc golf course in Shelbyville will bring that community here.