Jennifer Argue Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

April 13, 2023

After what seems like the longest winter ever, it’s finally a decent spring day in the lakeside Village of Buena Vista. The snow is finally receding on the community’s 9-basket disc golf course. Not that it really matters when it comes to the popular game of disc golf that can be played year-round. 

The website discsportshistory.com says, “According to The Complete Book of Frisbee, disc golf’s earliest recorded history was in Bladworth, Saskatchewan, Canada in 1926. Ronald Gibson and a group of his Bladworth Elementary School buddies played a game of throwing tin lids into 4-foot wide circles drawn into sandy patches on their school grounds. They called the game Tin Lid Golf and played fairly regularly. However, after they grew older and went their separate ways, the game ended.” Fast forwarding to 2023, according to the udisc.com website, there are more than 14,000 courses worldwide. In 2022, 4.3 courses were being installed daily.

…well, why don’t we give this a try.”

The community of Buena Vista has jumped on the disc golf game. President of the Buena Vista Parks and Rec Committee, Donna Hall, said, “We had this park, and no one would ever go there because no one ever knew it was there. A big open space where nothing happened. I knew disc golf was becoming popular in the province so I thought well, why don’t we give this a try.”

In 2019 after researching the viability and consultation with people knowledgeable about disc golf, the area was designed in 2020 they got going. “We said ok, let’s do it.” They ordered the baskets, and in 2021 the course took shape. Community donations came in to help them put it together. By the end of July, they had their grand opening. “And it’s taken off ever since. It’s really popular.” The game is free to play, and the Udisc website offers an app that keeps score and lists all of the disc courses in the world.

The game is played like golf and takes around 45 minutes. Frisbee-like discs are used instead of golf balls. The discs are smaller than a child’s frisbee. “You can get a long-range disc, you can get a putter, you can get a short-range, you can get all kinds of different variations of discs.” Discs can be relatively inexpensive and purchased online and in some sporting stores. Players “tee off” from a cement pad to get their disc into the basket at the end of each “hole.” The course is considered a par three, so it should take…