Disc Golf in Central Oregon

I learned how to play disc golf in Santa Cruz at Delaveaga Park. It is a world class course. It often makes “Top 10 Courses in the World” lists. Realistically, Delaveaga is the only course in town. There is another small 9 hole course in a park heavily populated by homeless people. They built the course hoping it would dislodge the homeless population. It wasn’t successful. There are smaller courses in nearby towns, but it is roughly 30+ minutes to get to them. Anyway, for the 10 or so years that I played disc golf in Santa Cruz, I played the vast majority of the rounds on one course.

The situation in central Oregon is very different. There is one established 18 hole course in Bend. However there are a dozen courses within 20-30 minutes from Bend. Some are small 9 hole courses (Seventh Mountain and Rockridge) and some are seasonal (Mt Bachelor in summer and Skyliner in the winter). However many of them are “renegade”, courses built semi-legally on National Forest land.

Disc golfers got frustrated with the Parks and Rec Department which resists allowing more courses. So disc golfers went into the forest and built their own. I can’t speak for all courses, but several of the designers told NF rangers that they were building the courses and if they got any complaints, the designers would take the course down. The rangers have two requests, 1) don’t make anything permanent and 2) don’t be visible from heavily used roads or trails. Most teepads are cleared patches of dirt. Some designers will actually rake the teepads every week or so and some will tamp down the dirt to give a firm level surface. Most targets are piles of rock holding up a post with either cans or an empty plastic bucket. Almost all of the renegade courses can be found on the UDISC application.

My friends and I mostly play the renegade courses. Many of them are well made. The designers have created unique, challenging and fun holes. The courses are not very heavily used, we rarely see more than one other group on the same course. Some of the courses are on the mountain side of the town. Very wooded and hilly. They are better in the summer with the shade and firmer ground. Not so good in the winter when they are covered in snow. Some of the courses on the desert side of town are not so good in summer as they are hot, dry and sandy. Better in the winter when the mountain courses are covered in snow. Anyway, it is fun to be out in the woods playing disc golf with your friends.

There have been problems with theft and vandalism the last couple of years. Someone has been stealing buckets or cans from the courses. In some cases they will take down all of the targets on a course (rock piles, posts and cans/buckets). No one knows who is doing this. Several disc golfers have contacted the Forest Service. The rangers say that no one in the forest service is disturbing the courses. Many disc golfers are also mountain bikers. They are not aware of any group of mountain bikers dismantling disc golf courses. Last year there was a concerted effort by disc golfers to rebuild the courses. Not so much this year. At least two of the renegade courses are unplayable at the moment due to missing targets.

One big difference in central Oregon disc golf is the fairways. In Santa Cruz (and most other places) the fairways are cleared. If you keep your disc in the fairway, you are pretty assured of an unobstructed stance. In Central Oregon, many of the courses are covered in sage brush, even the fairways are covered. Often a drive will go right down the middle of the fairway and still land in sagebrush.

It's kind of strange, when I was in Santa Cruz I never got tired of playing the same course over and over again for a decade. In Bend, I sometimes get tired of playing the same dozen or so renegade courses. Not sure why this happens?

Hmm, I was planning to end on the last paragraph, but I think I figured out the answer. In Santa Cruz, many of the holes are very challenging. They are even challenging for top pro golfers. On the other hand, many of the holes in Central Oregon are easy pars for me. Plus, in Santa Cruz, the course punishes errant throws, if you go off of the fairway, you can go down a canyon, making par very difficult. In central Oregon, it is not too hard to recover from an errant drive with a par. Anyway, the Santa Cruz course was still very challenging after 10 years of play. The central Oregon courses are less challenging after a few years of play.