A history of
Disc Golf
in New York City
DISC GOLF HAS A RICH HISTORY IN NEW YORK CITY. TAKE A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME TO SEE HOW THE FOUNDATION WAS LAID FOR WHERE WE ARE TODAY!
1990's
During the 1990’s, the legendary Brad Keller created two different disc golf courses in New York City. One was an 18-hole course on Randall’s Island, which is part of the borough of Manhattan. Brad designed, installed, and paid for the course himself, and with the help of Innova cofounder Harold Duvall, and also Gerry Lynas, New York City saw its first official disc golf course come to life. The facilities consisted of 18 baskets secured in the ground, concrete t-markers, and an official course map. He called it the “Randall’s Island Disc Sports Center”, which was home to the course, as well as a large freestyle/ultimate field. It was a disc lovers paradise and a pioneering endeavor. Unfortunately, it was ahead of its time, as many have said, and was sadly underutilized. So after six years, the baskets were removed. These baskets live on today, and are now part of the FDR State Park disc golf course in upstate New York.
Brad also set up a one-day, pop-up course in Central Park as part of famed course designer John Houck’s “World’s Biggest Disc Golf Tournament”. The Central Park course consisted of nine baskets that were on movable base plates. This event was officially recognized by NYC Parks.
Brad has dedicated his life to disc sports. He helped lay the groundwork for where our beloved sport is today, and we can’t thank him enough for his efforts. We truly stand on the shoulders of giants.
2000's
Unwilling to let the sport fizzle out in the Big Apple, passionate disc golfers next set their sites on Prospect Park in Brooklyn. In 2001, Dave “Mel” Meltzer and Big Dave Grossman designed an object course that was situated in the Nethermead Field and surrounding area of the park. No permanent baskets were in place, but nonetheless, the course was enjoyed by hundreds, and introduced the sport to many more.
2010's
New York City is a transient place and as players left the city the object course fell out of use. In 2014, Josh Isaac revived the course, breathing life back into the NYC disc golf scene. After making some much-needed updates to the design to account for changes in the park and the natural growth of the pastoral vegetation, he dubbed the it the “Nethermead Redux Course.”
Having founded Long Island Disc Golf and returned to the NYC, Seth Pokrass created NYC Disc Golf Rogue & Rideshare to foster a community of disc golfers in the 5 boroughs that could play rogue golf together in city parks and share rides to and from the area courses and events.
In 2019, due to safety and liability concerns, Seth and his group of “NYC Rogue Disc Golfers” made the tough but responsible decision to stop encouraging use of the layout at Prospect Park.
2020's
As disc golf continued to blossom and gain prominence, there were many efforts to bring disc golf to the city from dozens of impassioned disc golfers. In the summer of 2022, NYC DGA cofounder Alex Hoyle began his own journey to achieve that goal. He started a weekly meetup in Prospect Park, and unbeknownst to him, was following in the footsteps of those who had come before. He first called his group Double Bogey Disc Golf, and the first event had four people in attendance, himself included. Word quickly spread, and more and more people started showing up to weekly events, playing pop-up holes all over the park, hungry for a disc golf experience within the city limits. The group evolved into the Brooklyn Disc Golf Club, continuing to serve those looking for an outlet that wasn’t a 2 ½ hour journey away. On one fateful day at Prospect Park, NYC DGA cofounder Alex Bender stumbled upon the BDGC. He hopped off his bike, abandoning his riding buddies, too excited to ignore what was happening. He had been working on his own efforts to build disc golf in NYC, fostering relationships with the NYC Parks Department and Paul McBeth Foundation. Hoyle and Bender decided to combine forces, realizing they shared a similar vision, and thus the New York City Disc Golf Association was born.
They began running events all over the city, from Central Park in Manhattan to Highland Park in Brooklyn/Queens, where the only permanent disc golf course in New York City lives today. They actively engaged with the community, hosting all kinds of opportunities for people to enjoy and learn about disc golf, from putting leagues and glow rounds to park cleanups and disc dyeing days. They even hosted an sprawling 18-hole tournament at Prospect Park using a new design that prioritized safety, which was coined the Camperdown Open. It was a resounding success, with 32 disc golfers in attendance, a record for the club at the time.
Simultaneously, they were fastidiously working with the city, determined to build the first disc golf course NYC had seen since Brad Keller had achieved that some 30 years prior. The momentum they had gained reached an inflection point, and through passion, persistence, and positivity, disc golf again has a home in the Big Apple. The rest, as they say, is history.