The Business of Disc Golf

The game of disc golf came about in the ’60s, played casually and unofficially using object courses made up of trees, water fountains, and light posts as targets. An official Disc Pole Hole was invented by Ed Headrick in 1976, and the game began gaining traction nationally. 

Still, disc golf courses were scarce, and many communities continued to play object courses, including Tallahassee. 

Lofty Pursuits business owner Greg Cohen recalls those days fondly. 

“It was sort of the prehistory of disc golf—we were using lampposts with electrical tape on it,” Cohen recalls. “Back when I opened my storefront in 1993, I carried the first of the golf discs, maybe six or eight at a time, and it took me a year to sell them.”

When Tom Brown Park opened its disc golf course in 2002, Cohen added a larger selection.

Photos by Erich Martin

“I ended up at that point keeping about 300 discs stocked,” Cohen says, “which was a lot for the time. It became pretty large. There was a little drop in the market, and it all picked up about just before the pandemic.”

Public lockdowns piqued interest in the game of disc golf, which could be played out in the open air, allowing players to social distance with ease. Cohen noticed the demand for discs increase, driving him to up his inventory to 3,000, which he maintains today. 

“Globally and nationally, disc golf is one of the fastest-growing sports,” notes Taylor Wheaton, a spokesperson from Visit Tallahassee. “Post 2020, it rapidly evolved from a niche hobby into a highly structured, professionalized industry featuring corporate sponsorships, dedicated media broadcast networks, and touring professionals.”

Tallahassee’s 24-hole Tom Brown course ranked No. 1 in the state in 2024 in a list of the top disc golf courses based on course ratings from disc golfers on the app UDisc. The park has since ranked No. 2 in the state in 2025 and 2026 and is listed among the top 100 in the U.S. 

“A major reason for our elite status is that Tom Brown Park was completely redesigned in 2017 by local legend Dave Muntean,” says Wheaton. “His deliberate layout balances nine tightly wooded, highly technical holes with sweeping open fairways that test the best players in the world.”

Jack McLean Park offers another 24-hole course for local and transient players, and last year, Paradise Park opened, offering an 18-hole disc golf-only park that has already gained traction for casual and tournament play. 

Photos by Erich Martin

“We have people that travel from Jacksonville, from Pensacola, from South Florida, North Georgia,” says local tournament organizer Marshall Griffiss, adding that the pros tend to draw larger crowds when they compete in town. 

Attendance differs year to year, but Griffiss says the amateur and pro tournaments average about 270 players and around 500 to 1,000 spectators throughout a weekend-long tournament. 

Griffiss is part of the Southeast Disc Golf Events club, which runs 15 professional and amateur tournaments in the Tallahassee area each year. He works closely with the Tallahassee Disc Golf Association, which manages local club events like league play.  

Tournaments are classified in tiers that reflect difficulty and scale. A- and B-tier tournaments require PDGA membership to compete and have higher difficulties, respectively. C-tier events are more casual and include amateur players.

The Open at Tallahassee, an A-Tier event, is the largest-scale tournament seen so far in the Capital City and is hosted in partnership with Visit Tallahassee. Larger tournaments like The Open take place at Tom Brown Park, but some C-Tier tournaments take place at other local parks, like Jack McClean and Paradise Park. 

“An elite event like The Open at Tallahassee (a premier PDGA Pro A-Tier event) draws hundreds of out-of-town players, caddies, and families who stay in our hotels for three to five consecutive days,” Wheaton says. “Unlike traditional sports stadiums that require tens of millions of municipal dollars in climate-controlled infrastructure and maintenance, disc golf utilizes existing public green space. The return on investment for tax dollars spent to attract a disc golf tournament is incredibly favorable.”

Griffiss says the amateur tournaments still bring in more out-of-town participation rather than locals, estimating 70% of players traveling in from outside of Tallahassee to compete. With weekend-long tournaments, participants and spectators are often staying for three to five days for amateur events and five to seven days for pro events. 

Photos by Erich Martin

All this contributes to a growing influx in sports tourism, creating business revenue locally for everything from local hotels and rentals to dining and shopping.

“Disc golfers are active consumers who disperse heavily into the local economy between tournament rounds,” says Wheaton of Visit Tallahassee. “They aren’t confined to a stadium; they fill up at local gas stations, eat at local restaurants, and explore our community.”

“The tourism community, when the tournaments happen a couple of times a year, makes for great weekends,” says Cohen of Lofty Pursuits. “Every time there’s a tournament, everybody who’s in the tournament knows about my shop and shows up.”

Cohen says he also sees non-tournament transient business becoming more common. 

“We have people who are traveling around the state, doing their tourism in Florida, and they’re stopping in every city, looking for the best courses. And of course, since our course was rated No. 1 in Florida, this is a Mecca. And when they get off the interstate to go to the course, they discover they’re right near my store, and they come in.”

According to Wheaton, successful local tournaments thus far have created a resume worth touting to the Professional Disc Golf Association. 

“With our established infrastructure and a highly successful track record of hosting elite A-Tier events, Tallahassee is incredibly well-positioned to scale up and bid on a permanent stop on the Disc Golf Pro Tour or a PDGA Major Championship,” she says. 

Throwing Discs Across the Panhandle

With online communities and apps like UDisc, disc golfers are throwing their reach far and wide. There are 263 courses throughout Florida. From Pensacola to Tallahassee, there are more than 50 courses of varying length and terrain. Ease of travel across the Panhandle makes disc golfing day trips fun and accessible. Here are a few highlights to plan for on your Northwest Florida tour: 

University of West Florida Course
Pensacola  |  21 holes

Gator Links Course
Milton  |  18 holes

Pat Lunsford
Blackwater Course
Milton  |  18 holes

Ferry Park Course
Fort Walton Beach  |  18 holes

The View Course
Crestview  |  18 holes

Chain Dragons Course
Freeport  |  19 holes