DISC GOLF -
The History of Disc Golf
Disc golf, in some form, has probably been played
informally since the early 1900s, according to Victor Malafront's,
"The Frisbee Handbook." But modern disc golf started in
the late 1960s, when it seems to have been invented in many places
and by many people independently. Two of the best-know figures in
the sport are George Sappenfield and "Steady Ed" Headrick.
For example, George Sappenfield, a Californian,
realized that golf would be a lot of fun if played with discs. He
set up an object course for kids to play on, and other early courses
were also of this type, using anything from lamp poles to fire hydrants
as targets. A year later, Sappenfield introduced the game to many
adults, and courses began to crop up in various places in the Midwest
and the East Coast (some perhaps through Sappenfield's promotion efforts,
others probably independently envisioned). Some of Sappenfield's acquaintances
are known to have brought the game to UC Berkeley. It quickly became
popular on campus, with a permanent course laid out in 1970.
The first standardized target course was put in
by "Steady Ed" Headrick, a flying disc innovator known as
the "Father of Disc Golf",[citation needed] in what was
then known as Oak Grove Park in La Canada Flintridge, California,[6].
(Today the park is known as Hahamonga Watershed Park). This park is
immediately to the south of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which supplied
at least a few of the earliest players. Ed worked for the San Gabriel,
California-based Wham-O Corporation and is credited for pioneering
the modern era of disc sports.
Headrick coined and trademarked the term "Disc
Golf" when formalizing the sport and invented the Disc Pole Hole,
the first disc golf target to incorporate chains and a basket on a
pole. Headrick founded the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA),
Disc Golf Association (DGA), and Recreational Disc Golf Association
(RDGA) as governing bodies for professional, competitive amateur,
and family-oriented play, respectively, and worked on standardizing
the rules and the equipment for the quickly-growing sport. Headrick
abandoned his trademark on the term "Disc Golf", and turned
over control and administration of the PDGA to the growing body of
disc golf players in order to focus his passion for building and inventing
equipment for the sport. Upon his death, Headrick was cremated and
his ashes were made into a limited number of discs per his wishes.[7]
The discs were given to friends and family, and some were sold with
all proceeds going toward funding a nonprofit "Steady" Ed
Memorial Disc Golf Museum at the PDGA International Disc Golf Center
in Columbia County, Georgia. One of the discs that contains Headrick's
ashes will be permanently placed on the roof of the center. When asked
why this was to be done, by a member of the local media, PDGA Executive
Director Brian Graham quoted an old Frisbee addage, "Old Frisbee
players are like old Frisbee's ... They don't die, they just land
up on roof."
