Disc golf course proving popular in North Huntingdon park

The weather outside might get frightful, but that won’t deter those who love to play golf at a North Huntingdon park, albeit with a twist —disc golf that requires the player to throw a specially designed Frisbee into metal basket rather than hitting a small ball into a hole.

“We’ll play year-round. The disc golf community has a very passionate network of players. It’s much like those who like to play pickleball and softball,” said Dan Flannigan of North Huntingdon, who helped to design the 18-hole course in 2021 at the township’s Oak Hollow Park off Morris Avenue.

The disc golf course developed at Oak Hollow Park has been so popular that about 2,100 rounds of disc golf were played at the park’s course by more than 600 people last year, Flannigan said.

The rounds of disc golf being played at the park are tracked on an App, where players can log their scores, said Flannigan, who has been playing the sport for about 20 years.

“More people are taking advantage of that (course),” said Flannigan, a member of the Professional Disc Golfers Association, a nonprofit that promotes the sport.

Having a new course close to home is a blessing for the disc golfers.

“Everyone involved in disc golf is hungry for new courses,” said Adam Eisaman of the West Hempfield section of Hempfield.

Before the Oak Hollow Park was created, local disc golfers had to travel to Monroeville, Tarentum, Deer Lakes or Schenley Park in Pittsburgh, Eisaman said.

The plans to have a disc golf course in a township park started last year when Flannigan contacted the township, asking officials to consider creating a disc golf course, said Dan Miller, director of North Huntingdon’s parks and recreation.

They walked around the 110-acre park to determine the best places to establish the holes, setting tee boxes further from the hole for more experienced and stronger players, and closer to the hole for others.

“The topography is not a deterrent,” Miller said. “It’s a challenging elevation change.”

Construction of the course began last year and continued this spring, Flannigan said.

There are doglegs and narrow openings through the woods that a player must get their disc through to reach the basket.

Players throw their plastic disc — similar to a Frisbee but with slightly different molding — with the goal of hitting a metal chain dangling from a holder on a post.

Ideally, that drops the plastic disc into the metal basket below the chain, all of which is held up by a post of about 30 inches tall. Just like golf, the lowest score wins.

There is skill to tossing the different-colored discs that are for throws of varying lengths — putters, drivers, fairway tosses and long-distance.

A short hole night be a 206-foot toss, while a long hole might be 790 feet, Eisaman said.

The sport is not as easy as throwing a Frisbee, said Carl Huszar of North Huntingdon, who has played the Oak Hollow course with his his son, Zach.

“We found it requires some new skills,” Huszar said.

There’s different ways to throwing the disc, whether it is tossed across the body or side arm and putting a different spin on the disc, said Huszar, who also plays “golf ball” with his son.

Disc golf in plans

Establishing a disc golf course at Oak Hollow Park was identified as a possible use of Oak Hollow Park and Lions Park off McKee Road, in a comprehensive park plan developed in 2017 by Environmental Planning and Design LLC of Pittsburgh, Miller said.

The master plan suggested other amenities, such as a walking trail, a pickleball court and fitness equipment.

Setting up the course, purchasing the poles, the chain-catching metal baskets and planting them throughout the wooded park cost about $40,000, Miller said.

“You pick what you can afford,” Miller said.

Since the course was established, concrete has been poured for the 36 tee boxes — two per each hole.

Miller wants to expand the usage of the disc golf course by creating disc golf leagues and have tournaments next year at Oak Hollow Park.

“My goal is to make Oak Hollow Park a destination not only for regional tournaments, but national ones,” Miller said.