With help from the Apple Valley Disc Golf Club of Stephens City, Virginia, Shenvalee hosted its first ever disc golf tournament on Saturday, December 9, 2023. Nathan Hughes, club and tournament director, and his assistant Phil Theis, designed the temporary 18-hole disc golf course within the nine holes of the Creek course. This event had 47 participants of various age groups and skill levels, including professional disc golfer Raven Newsom.
Though the origins of disc golf are unclear, people have been playing a version of the sport since the 1960s, at least. The early game was played with a frisbee until around the early 1980s when the disc was introduced, but is still typically played in parks and other venues that have a combination of wooded and open terrain and various changes in topography. As a version of the classic game, disc golf shares many of the same rules and terminology as golf, but can be played in half the time and is generally less expensive.
Also like traditional golf, disc golf experienced a boost in participation after the pandemic and, as indicated by Nathan Hughes, has since nearly doubled its professional player base from 150,000 members to almost 300,000. Nathan also shared that the Shenandoah Valley has a lot of good disc golf courses, but he believes there is room to include ball golf courses. According to the Professional Disc Golf Association’s website, there are only six registered golf courses in Virginia that offer disc golf. Both Hughes and Theis encourage the partnership as a way to offer a new experience to recreational disc golfers while creating another source of revenue for the golf course by way of disc sales, greens fees, cart rentals, and food sales.
Nathan Hughes and the members of Apple Valley Disc Golf Club ran a well-organized tournament and demonstrated how easily these two familial sports can coexist. Whether or not Shenvalee will include disc golf to its list of activities remains to be seen, but this latest event made evident the care and respect each player has for the game, for each other, and for the courses they play.