Northern Ontario golf course expands to include disc golf as well

Golfers at a course in Greater Sudbury, will now be sharing the space with people who play a similar sport that is growing in popularity: disc golf.

Sometimes called Frisbee golf, the goal in disc golf is to throw a disc at a target in as few throws as possible.

As in golf, courses consist of nine to 18 holes that can range from par three to five. 

The Twin Stacks golf course in the Sudbury community of Coniston, now includes an 18-hole disc golf course that runs parallel to the regular golf course. The new course winds its way through the forests and fields next to the fairways and greens that the regular golf course uses. 

Thomas Hums, co-president of the Nickel City Disc Golf Club, helped make the new course a reality.

"In the United States and Europe disc golf is massive," he said.

"It's everywhere and it's growing up here in Canada for sure. We're actually attending a tournament this weekend near Kitchener and there's going to be over 230 people competing for some big prize money and it's a qualifier for a massive event in the United States later in the year."

Sudbury has a six-hole beginner disc golf course at Kivi Park and a 22-hole course run by the Lions Club of Sudbury in the Donovan neighbourhood.

But Hums says the new course meets the standards to host high-level disc golf tournaments.

Thomas Gilbert, a two-time Canadian disc golf champion, currently studies at Laurentian University and provided feedback when the club was building the new Coniston course.

"I think this one's going to stack up really well. It's a championship-level course, which is something that's kind of rare here in Ontario," he said.

Gilbert says Sudbury's disc golf community will benefit from having that kind of course within the city limits.

Disc golfer Jean-François Ménard says it will be interesting to share the space with traditional golfers.

"We always have to be courteous of golfers since they were here first and we want to make sure that we're not impeding on their sport," he said.

"So we have to stay away from golf greens and stuff like that."

Ménard says having the two courses next to each other will also help bring more attention to disc golf in the community.

"A lot of golfers like to ask us questions about the sport and what it is because disc golf… not a lot of people know about it," he said.