Luwero-based Ndejje University has set up a course to kick-start Disc golf, a flying disc sport that is played using rules similar to that of golf, a club-and-ball sport.

The player with the least throws in a given round wins just like the one with the least strokes in golf does. A standard course is about 25-30 acres but small ones can be built even on 5 acres.

This is going to be the first project in Africa for the sport run by the US-based Paul Mcbeth Foundation, whose mission is to develop and introduce sustainable disc golf experiences in underserved locations with limited or no access to the sport.

Paul Wright the project manager from the foundation and Peter Fust a disc golf course designer were in the country for about a week on the invitation of the university, to do a feasibility study about the course; following the visit of Senior Chaplain and Lecturer Reverend Latimer Muwanguzi to the US.

Samples of the discs used for playing Disc golf. Photo by Michael Nsubuga

Wright and Fust toured the 25-acre piece of land in Luwero on which an 18-hole (basket) course will be set up. What is now left before the sport can be played is the arrival of equipment (discs) and set-up of the baskets, holding of clinics about the sport before students of Ndejje University and the surrounding schools can start playing it.

Wright says they will ship in about 200 discs to Ndejje for a start, alongside baskets and about ten people to do the clinics and install baskets on the course. Fust adds that for a start, playing the sport will not be competitive until people have learned all the rules and how to play.

According to Wright, the discs have different edges and vary in weight. An average disc golf bag can contain from 3-25 discs depending on the preferences and ability of the player because they do different things.

One disc can cost in the region of $12-$20 (sh45,000-75,000/-) but the foundation is at the moment supplying them free and soliciting others from different clubs that play the sport to partner with other countries to donate the discs because they are expensive for countries just starting.

Samples of the discs used for playing Disc golf. Photo by Michael Nsubuga

Apart from a good pair of shoes, there is no particular dress code for disc golf players but the sport can be played in different formats and teams of two or four each. It can also be played by children.

“Disc golf courses are adapted to play over the existing landscape; you can keep as many trees as possible and so, it is very sensitive to the environment that it is played in,” Fust said.

Most courses are 9 or 18 holes like the ones planned in Katosi and Ndejje respectively. The disc is thrown into the basket to complete a ‘hole’.

“It has been wonderful since we arrived in Uganda, we have been warmly received. After the clinics it will be up to the university to distribute the discs and then select some students that will be picked to continue training others,” Wright stated.

According to him, you can get a scholarship for playing Disc Golf in the US.  He said the sport will be introduced in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics as a new Olympic sport.

Six-time world champion Paul Macbeth is the brain behind the spread of the sport which is now played in more than 40 countries. The sport is big in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Germany, and England.

“At Ndejje we are the inner circle but we want to spread the sport to all schools within the vicinity of Ndejje University who will first compete against themselves before we can spread it to other schools,” Muwanguzi noted.

“We have a reputation of starting things and this sport is going to start at Ndejje because we value sports and we want to add this to the many disciplines we compete in because it is a simple game but sophisticated enough to cause a challenge, so that paradox attracts us; simple to learn but hard to master.

“It also resonates with our university values; integrity, teamwork, and critical thinking, so we are going to use Ndejje as our base and keep growing it as we did for woodball,” Muwanguzi stated.

Vanessa Ainembabazi, a student at Ndejje said students had already registered to take on the sport and that they are eagerly waiting to start playing.

The Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) is responsible for the rules of the game, which saw modern disc golf starting in 1976. When tournaments are organized, they are run through the PDGA. The sport grew slowly until 2005 there started to be more courses which doubled in 2014 and doubled again until 2021. Currently, there are over 10000 courses in the USA.

Disc golf, occasionally known as Frisbee Golf, is a flying disc sport in which players throw a disc at a target. Most disc golf discs are made out of polypropylene plastic, otherwise known as polypropene, which is a thermoplastic polymer resin used in a wide variety of applications. Discs are also made using a variety of other plastic types that are heated and molded into individual discs.

The game is played in about 40 countries and, as of March 31, 2022, there are 90,916 active members of the PDGA worldwide.