Saturday in the Park: Disc Golf Flourishes in Kahului

In an almost silent setting deep inside a big Central Maui park, T.J. Meinecke closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly delivered the putt. After a brief, dramatic pause, a metallic clang spurred the other members of his golf group to erupt in near unison: “First par!”

Wait. Clang?

In golf?

Welcome to the world of recreational disc golf. On a random Saturday morning at Kahului Community Center Park, these visitors from Las Vegas and Bentonville, Arkansas, discovered the local 18-hole course through the sport’s popular UDisc application.

On any given day, visitors can find several groups of avid disc golfers working their way through the course that winds, zig-zags, and criss-crosses the 34-acre park with a great variety of natural features. If not them, you can find father-son combos traversing the links, or the serious lone disc golfer getting in some practice time.

“It’s just like golf, except it doesn't cost as much,” said Paul Stromberg of Kihei, who trekked north to get in some spinning drives and putts all alone Saturday.

The Kahului disc golf course is a marvel of course engineering, crossing just about every type of terrain known to regular golf courses, including long flat fairways, plenty of pesky trees, deep ravines, and moderately steep hills.

The visiting group Saturday spent a fair amount of time searching for errant discs ~ which are specially made for the sport, a growth from its Frisbee origins. Along the way they offered lessons on disc golf etiquette.

“You’re supposed to write your name on the disc,” said Adam Dacosta of Bentonville. “So if you find one, it’s kind of an unwritten rule to call the owner.”

Dylan Engle, an avid player and member of the Las Vegas Disc Golf Club, saved one of Dacosta’s discs with an expertly tossed bottle of water. “One of the rules of disc golf is, if anyone loses a disc, everyone goes and looks for it,” Engle said. “Some groups will carry sling-shots for the trees.”

Recreational players are asked to be respectful of more experienced groups playing behind them, encouraged to let them “play through,” meaning let them pass by to play ahead of your group.

The Kahului course is one of two public courses on-island, with the other being a 9-basket course in Napili.

Each has unique course rules, including specified tee boxes (some with tee mats), fairways, and a sort-of “green” around the disc golf-specific (and rather strange-looking) basket ~ this sport's hole.

The baskets are a contraption on a metal pole, where several metal chains attached at top slope downward above a large basket underneath, resulting in a sort-of upside-down pyramid shape. Players want to get the disc into the basket ~ not just striking it or the pole, but to stop spinning while inside the basket ~ in the fewest number of throws.

Like golf. The primary differences being lack of bulky golf bags and expensive clubs, no golf carts in sight, and, for the most part, attire. At least on this tropical island, disc golfers dress mostly in shorts, tee shirts or tank tops for comfort, along with comfortable and supportive shoes. Flip-flops are not recommended.

Courses have official flight paths, out-of-bounds areas (like outside fences or even on paved walkways) that penalize a stroke if the disc ends up there, and rules to always give park users and walkers the right of way.

While the Kahului course is located in a Maui County park, it is maintained by the Maui Disc Golf Association, a not-for-profit organization established in 1997 to promote the disc golf sport in Maui, and around the entire state of Hawaii. The Kahului course was established in 2012, so it is approaching a full decade of use.

It looks little for the wear, since unlike regular golf courses, disc golf courses do not need professional manicuring and a lot of watering. Players don’t have to rely on playing balls right where they stop on the ground, so in disc golf, the surface on which the disc lands is irrelevant. The player picks the disc off the ground, and throws from there.

Newcomers to what is known by players as KCC park might come across the hanging basket contraptions and wonder if they’re some sort of a big bird feeder, something special for local chickens, or … who knows? Especially when no one is playing. They almost look like they were dropped into some hilltop locations from spaceships.

But once disc golf play is witnessed, the basket construction and locations make sense: players try to make their disc hit the vertically hanging chains, which usually stop and deflect discs down into the basket. But not always ~ a constant frustration for players, even while putting from not far away.

It's not as easy as it may appear. Hence the reaction by the visiting group noted above. That first par? It was by a player new to the game, and occurred on the 11th hole.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The MDGA holds weekly and monthly tournaments open to players and skill levels from around the world. It hosts larger events like the annual Maui Open and the Hawaii States Championships. Along with food drives and local other charity events, the association is dedicated to supporting the community, growing the sport, and “getting you off your Okole!” For more information, to volunteer, or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities, click here.

The Maui courses require ongoing maintenance efforts to create challenging and safe environments for play.

About Disc Golf

Today, disc golf is played in about 40 countries, with an estimated 71,016 active members of the Professional Disc Golf Association worldwide. Disc golf is said to have originated in Canada in 1927 when a group of elementary school buddies started throwing tin lids into circles drawn on the ground. However the sport as we know it today began to flourish in the 1960s, with the advent of the popular Frisbee plastic flying disc, followed by development of engineered courses and equipment specific to the sport, like the discs.

The discs come in different weights, sizes and styles, for a typical set of 3: the driver, mid-range, and putter discs. The sport has come a long way since college students in the ‘60s would spin-toss Frisbees into 50-gallon barrel trash cans. Disc golf now is the 4th fastest-growing sport in the United States, behind mixed martial arts, roller derby, and parkour. There are at least 6,800 disc golf courses worldwide.