margaret thigpen

The first permanent downtown disc golf course in the nation is opening next week in Dalton, Georgia, and the holes are already open for play.

There will be a ribbon cutting ceremony for the course on Friday, November 4^th at 3:00 pm at the Old Freight Depot at 305 S. Depot Street and the course will host its first tournament the next morning on November 5^th.

You might not know about disc golf, but the disc golf community nationwide definitely knows about Dalton.

Whitfield County has been home to one of the best manufacturers of disc golf equipment for nearly a decade and now Dalton is home to the nation’s first permanent downtown disc golf course.

The course will officially open with a ribbon cutting ceremony and tournament next week.

Disc golf, which also used to be referred to as “Frisbee golf”, is played like golf but instead of using balls and clubs, players throw a Frisbee-like disc and try to get it into a metal basket referred to as the “hole.” Just like traditional golf, the goal is to reach the hole in the fewest number of throws. According to the PDGA (Professional Disc Golf Association) the sport was formalized in the 1970s and gained widespread popularity in the early 2000s.

While it’s becoming more common to find disc golf holes or even full courses in public parks, the new course in downtown Dalton is the first permanent course to be housed in a downtown business district. 

“I think it’s a huge deal because it will bring a different market downtown,” said Candace Eaton, the executive director of the Downtown Dalton Development Authority. “As they walk the course, they’ll see local businesses downtown or stop and eat lunch or dinner, or maybe grab a beer or shop.”

The new course currently features eight permanent hole locations. There are holes in Burr Park, the Dalton Green, the greenspace adjacent to the County Courthouse Parking Deck, and the Old Freight Depot on South Depot Street. 

“From a tourism standpoint, it absolutely opens our downtown for visitors to have something more to do, to keep them there a little longer,” said Margaret Thigpen, Dalton’s director of tourism. “For all of our tournaments and events coming in to our community, just to have something else for the visitors to do when they’re waiting for their next game or their next event, that’s a great addition.”

Thigpen, who was one of the…