Even if you’ve never played disc golf—a sport in which players throw Frisbee-like slabs of plastic hundreds of feet with the goal of ultimately landing them in waist-high wire baskets set under a ring of chains attached to metal poles—you’ve likely seen people lined up to tee off at courses scattered throughout green spaces around the Denver metro area. During the pandemic, the game exploded in popularity, particularly among women and kids: The Professional Disc Golf Association saw almost 75 percent growth in both of those demographics in 2021.

Despite disc golf’s low barriers to entry—starter discs cost $10 to $20 each, and most public courses are free—it can be intimidating. Luckily, disc golfers are, on the whole, friendly and eager to grow the sport: A recent survey by UDisc, a popular app many players use to record their rounds and rate and review courses, found that 90 percent of respondents had introduced at least one other person to the sport. Checking the Facebook pages of Denver-area disc golf clubs is a great way to find meetups and clinics for beginners, but if you want to go out on your own, check out our shortlist of free layouts in the Denver metro area, then read our primer on disc golf rules and etiquette below before heading out to bang chains.

Arvada

Johnny Roberts Disc Golf Course

Players logged 22,393 rounds through UDisc on this short 18-hole course near Olde Town Arvada in 2021, making it the fourth most popular disc golf course in America. Translation: It’s crowded, and for good reason. Pretty creek crossings and mature trees provide just enough of a challenge for newbies, while more advanced players chase aces (no hole is longer than about 250 feet) and come out to the course’s popular glow competitions, during which baskets are lit up with LEDs, after dark on summer Friday nights.

Bird’s Nest Disc Park
The brainchild of early disc sport legend John Bird (who also designed Johnny Roberts and named it after his contemporary and friend, an Arvada teacher who died in 1994), Bird’s Nest has 24 holes that sprawl across 40 acres of meadow just east of CO 93. Its wide-open nature makes it a good place to work on distance, but watch carefully to track where your disc lands amid the tall, wild grasses. Tip: Let…