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History
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1975
Ed "Steady Ed" Headrick
(1924–2002)
It would be difficult to point out the exact starting point of disc golf. No single person has invented it. Instead it is a sport that has emerged among several people in the U.S. and Canada.
In this retrospect we have chosen 1975 as the year of birth for disc golf. That’s when the modern chain hole was invented by Ed Headrick, which meant that the sport we know today as disc golf started to take shape.
Courses
The world's first course was installed in spring 1976 in Oak Grove Park, La Canada, California. Oak Grove was the first course with chain holes. The first Swedish course with chain holes was Kärsön in Stockholm, which during its first year in 1979 had bunker holes that was replaced with chain holes in 1980.
Järva Discgolf Park 1995
The first pay-to-play course was Morley Field in San Diego, which opened in 1994 and is still there. In Sweden it was Järva Disc Golf Park in Stockholm that was first out as a pay-to-play course in 1995.
In 1981, the number of courses in the world exceeded 100. In year 2000 it was more than 1 000 and in 2005 there were more than 2 500 courses.
The chain hole was originally patented by Ed Headrick and it wasn’t until 1995 that it became possible for other manufacturers to make them. However, since the patent did not apply in Europe, a Swedish basket could be made by Disc Golf Specialisten through an initiative of Johny Gustafson from 1980 until a few years thereafter. Johny Gustafson was the one who introduced disc golf in Sweden.
Johny Gustafson
(1947–2002)
With his company Disc Golf Center, Johny sold discs and accessories. He also formed European Disc Golf Association in 1979 and organized the first Stockholm Disc Golf Open the same year. Johny marketed the sport and was the course setter for many of the first courses in the country. Further Swedish manufacturers of baskets were Ranstow in the late 80’s and Knickarpskorgen, starting 1995.
Championships
The first World Championships in disc golf was organized in 1975 and was won by Tom Kennedy. During this event however, sticks were used as targets instead of baskets. Back in 1975 the "Frisbee Championships" was sponsored by Wham-O and the only discs that were allowed to use during the competition were the ones from the Frisbee brand.
During these world championships the sport therefor was called Frisbee Disc Golf and was one out of many more disciplines, for example Freestyle and Ultimate Frisbee.
The last World Cup where only Wham-O's discs were allowed was played in 1982, when the monopoly ended. It was replaced by the PDGA World Championships, where all the discs (such as the Super Puppy and Brand X) were allowed. PDGA 1982 World Cup was won by Harold Duvall.
Ken Climo
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Juliana Korver
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Barry Schultz
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The most successful player of all time is undoubtedly Ken Climo, United States, with 12 World Championship titles and five victories in the United States Disc Golf Championships. He won nine straight World Championships from 1990 to 1998. Among the women, Juliana Korver from the United States and Elaine King from Canada stand out with five World Cup titles each.
In 1999 the United States Disc Golf Championship in Rock Hill was founded in South Carolina. The event challenged the PDGA World Championships in being the most prestigious competition.
United States Disc Golf Championship has been won five times by Ken Climo and two times by Barry Schultz. In 2001 disc golf was included in the World Games in Akita, Japan. Barry Schultz and Juliana Korver won the titles.
The first competition in Sweden was played on a temporary course at Bosön on Lidingö in 1978. Jan Ekman won this competition. No chain holes were used, only sticks that had been stuck into the ground. The first Swedish championship was played in 1978 and was won by Per Lindström and Agneta Fuglesang.
Among Swedish players, Jesper Lundmark is the most successful with four Swedish championship titles, a European championship gold in 2001, Eurotour winner in 2006 and 2007, and a third place in Worlds 2000. Fredrik Granåsen is one of the most successful players with four Swedish championship titles and two gold in the par golf World championships in 1993 and 1994, together with Tomas Ekström.
Jesper Lundmark
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Tomas Ekström and Fredrik Granåsen
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Markus Källstrom has three Swedish championship titles, one European championship gold in 2005 and two silver medals in the World championships in 2003 and 2007. The most prominent Swedish female player is Birgitta Lagerholm with her World championship gold from 2004, two European championship gold medals and three Swedish championship titles.
Other Swedish international placements include Peter Jansson's third place in La Mirada Open in 1980, Thomas Lindell’s split 7th place in the World Cup in 1987, Fredrik Granåsen’s 6th place in World Cup 1993 and Svante Eriksson’s 4th place in the World Cup in 1997.
The first official Swedish par golf championship was settled in 2003 and was won by Jesper Lundmark/Daniel Strandberg and Emelie Åström /Karin Spännare. The Swedish team championship was played the first time in 2000 and was won by Brunna from Stockholm.
Discs
The first disc developed exclusively for disc golf was Night Flyer in 1978 by Ed Headrick’s company DGA. This disc was based on an existing mold: The Wham-O mold 40, but was molded in heavier plastic, which made the disc better suited for disc golf. Night Flyer was relatively large and wind-sensitive and the need for a heavier and more stable disc lead to the release of a heavy small disc: Puppy from 1980. This disc was manufactured by Destiny Discs (later Dynamic Discs) led by Jan Sobel. The Puppy was the first modern golf disc, which totally outshined its competitors at the disc market at the time.
Dave Dunipace
In 1983 came the first low profile disc, Eagle, on which a sharper edge added another dimension to the sport and paved way
for the modern kind of drivers and midrange discs that we see today. Eagle was manufactured by Champion (later Innova
Champion) and the designer was Dave Dunipace, who has designed multiple important discs thereafter.
In 2005 the first Swedish golf disc was launched by the new manufacturer Latitude 64°, from Skellefteå. More history of golf discs can be found under the "discs" section.
PDGA
Professional Disc Golf Association, PDGA, was founded by Ed Headrick in 1976. This organization has since become the world's leading organization for disc golf. PDGA has, among other things, developed the official rules for disc golf and hosted the World championships since 1982.
Magazines
In 1987 the first disc golf magazine Disc Golf World News came out. At first in a simple small size, but since 1995 in today's conventional magazine format. During the period 1991–1999 the magazine Disc Golf Journal came out. Since 2004 there is also the free magazine Disc Golf Magazine.
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| The first
Disc Golf World News |
Disc Golf World News
1995 |
Disc Golf Journal's
last edition. |
Pre disc golf
Throughout the times, discs and plates of all kinds have been thrown through the air in order to test the objects’ abilities to fly and also to measure one thrower’s skills against another. The objects could have been anything from jar lids to rim caps, all with more or less good abilities to hover through the air. It is likely that it has been customary to try to get these "discs" to fly against specific targets in order to test the skills.
One of the earliest documented events with vague similarities to disc golf is from 1926 in Canada. A game among schoolchildren was what they called Tin Lid Golf. It was a game with simple rules, where the holes (such as trees or poles) were selected as the game proceeded. An early predecessor to today's disc golf.
In the 1940s the first plastic discs were being mass produced. At this stage the discs were toys named flying saucer (1948) and flying disc (1949). The trademark Frisbee came in 1959. A primitive forefather to today’s golf discs was the Flyin Saucer of 1948, which was the first mass-produced disc. Space Saucer from 1953 was the first disc with a smooth design without protruding shapes. "It Came from Outer Space Flying Saucer" from 1955 and Sky Saucer from 1959, are other relatively flat discs slightly similar to today's golf discs. However, these discs didn’t fly much better than the old bottle caps, in many cases they flew worse. A predecessor to the first golf disc, which was made in heavier fluorescent plastic, was developed around 1968.
One of the first competitions with similarities to today's disc golf was played in California in Brookside Park 1969, without chain holes and without many rules. But it was a competition where the winner was the one who played an occasional course in the fewest number of throws. They threw from various predetermined spots in the park and the goals could be just about anything, but most commonly trees, or marked poles. Minor competition for children have been said to have taken place in the Brookside Park since 1964, organized by George Sappenfeld.
Simple temporary courses and competitions took place in California during the early 70's. The first permanent track - without chain holes - came in 1975 in Pasadena, California.
Thanks to Jim Palmeri, Dan Roddick and Carlton Howard.
/Jonas Löf, translated by Jonas Lindberg
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