Back in 1978, about 40 people got together on the old Libbey Owens glass property in Kanawha City to play frisbee golf.
Johnny Sias, of Wayne County, knew frisbees were to be thrown. Sign me up, he said. He loved frisbees. He ended up winning the thing. And he’s been throwing what he still calls frisbees at baskets in the woods ever since.
He is undoubtedly West Virginia’s crown prince of disc golf, though he still uses the word “frisbee” as often as “discs.”
“A lot of disc golfers get aggravated if you call it frisbee golf, but I was playing before they were even born, so they can get over it,” jokes the good-natured Sias, 70, who in addition to winning five world titles has designed oodles of disc golf courses throughout West Virginia.
Sias is the only member of the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) to win both an Open title (under 40) and four other age group titles, most recently in July when he captured the Pro Masters 70+ PDGA championship in Peoria, Illinois.
He has been hooked ever since that fateful day in Kanawha City, in a career spanning 26 years. Asked why the sport enraptures him so, Sias says, “I just love watching the frisbees fly and float through the air. In 1987, on vacation, I flew 25 brand new discs into the Grand Canyon just to watch them fly. Those discs are worth at least $50 each now. … I do feel bad about littering. I don’t litter anymore.”
What is disc golf?
As its name implies, the sport owes half its origins to traditional “ball golf.” As in the traditional sport, a player “tees off” at a specified point. Instead of drawing a club over his or her head, the disc golfer takes a few steps and flings a plastic disc.
The target is a basket on a pole, with a circular rim on top and chains draped from it. Bars block the top of the structure. The basket is on the bottom and catches discs that make it through the chains, the equivalent of putting a golf ball into a cup.
Disc golf courses can be as topographically and length-varied as their ball golf brethren. Because only Thor could fling a plastic disc hundreds of yards, disc golf courses are measured in feet.
Top-flight pros can be expected to “drive” a disc anywhere from 400 feet to 600 feet. A drive in disc golf is the initial throw from the tee, just as a golf drive is the initial contact. Trees and hilly terrain are not uncommon. It’s just as easy to fling a disc into the weeds as it is to smack a golf ball there. The player must play the throw from the brush.
Players use discs much smaller in diameter than the old-school frisbee, with varying thicknesses and design. To draw further equivalency to regular golf, each disc contains four numbers on the front signifying speed, glide, turn and fade. The player chooses a specific disc based on the numbers and circumstances, just as a golfer would grab a 9-iron for a short- to medium range shot requiring loft.
Heavier discs with sharp, beveled edges cut through the air easier. Numbers run from 1 to 13. Glide is just what it suggests, with numbers closer to six having the most. Turn is a disc’s propensity to turn, or bank right, if one is right-handed. A disc with a +1 rating is most resistant to turning over, while a –5 rating will bank the most. Last is fade, which refers to a disc’s tendency to fade, or hook, to the left near the end of flight. A “0” rating will fade little, while a 5 will hook sharply.
Anyone living in Charleston curious about the ways of the golf disc number world need look no farther than Steve Koepsel’s Disc Golf Sports Center. Located next to Redeemer Park, a 27-hole layout on Corridor G, Koepsel has the discs — about 7,000.
His Redeemer Park course is smack dab next to Redeemer Lutheran Church, where Koepsel is a member. The church owns the land, though Koepsel has labored mightily to keep it as scenic and pretty as it is. Disc golfers are big on scenery, Koepsel said.
Its yellow course, at 4,182 feet, is the second-best in West Virginia. That’s according to UDisc, a scoring app. Koepsel can’t tell you exactly how many visitors he gets because 90% of disc golf courses in the U.S. are free to play.
“It’s the fun of being outside,” Sias says. “Getting some exercise. Not just laying on the couch. It helps people with their weight. Kind of like hiking only you’re walking to get your disc, your frisbee.”
COVID to the rescue
Sias happily sees little resemblance between the sport he entered in the last millennium and the COVID-fueled beast it has become.
“It was the only good thing about COVID,” Sias says. “Disc golf just completely exploded.”
Both disc golf and ball golf were two activities least affected by the pandemic, because of the natural distance between competitors and their outside setting.
Ben Parker, 19, and girlfriend Ava Huffman, 17, made a recent trip from Huntington to play Koepsel’s course. What got Parker interested?
“COVID,” he immediately said. “I used to run a lot. When I was running through Barboursville City Park, I saw people playing and just fell in love with it.”
As for Koepsel’s hillside course, Parker is a fan. “Steve always has the best selection [of discs] around here. You’ve got to land soft or you’re going to have a lot of rollaways.”
According to the PDGA, the first member registered in 1976. By 2017, that figure shot to 100,000, and hit 200,000 by the end of 2021.
“At this point, one would be hard-pressed to find a podcast, article or interview that doesn’t bring up the growth of the game,” a PDGA report reads. “It certainly is impossible to understate or ignore.”
According to UDisc, five courses a day were built in 2021, a 50% increase from 2020. Worldwide course construction is up 15%, with 71% of courses built in the past decade. A UDisc chart shows a steady rise in courses since the turn of the century, with huge gains leading up to 2020.
Discs, discs, discs
Most disc golf courses are free to play, so the only real money is in the sale of discs and merchandise.
Koepsel makes a decent profit on each disc, he acknowledges, but is adamant that selling plastic round things is not the way to get rich. Koepsel is also head of LifeTite, which makes metal roofing and metal siding, and enjoyed a 20-year career in the Marine Corps. He is also on the Coonskin Park board.
Sias is the best player the state has produced and a prolific course designer. In the latter category, Koepsel has done his own bit for the good of the cause.
He has designed, for free, courses at Dunbar’s Wine Cellar Park and City Park, City Park in St. Albans and Coonskin Park. He is also working with city of South Charleston officials to expand an existing course at Little Creek Park.
“I was a baseball guy,” recalls Koepsel. “Both my sons played baseball in high school and for [the late] Cal Bailey at [West Virginia] State. When they got through with baseball, I needed something else.”
A eureka moment happened when he made a trip to Charlotte, North Carolina, a disc golf mecca where people wait in line to play. He came back here and got busy.
Redeemer is rated second in the state by UDisc only to Valley Park’s course just outside Hurricane. Charleston-Huntington residents have two good options to pick if they’re interested in the sport.
Some courses broaden their appeal by selling other things. Hazy Shade near Dayton, Ohio, sells discs and CBD products. Another Round Disc Golf in Charlotte sells … you guessed it, alcohol.
Carter Patton stopped in Koepsel’s place the other day. He did not plan on playing a whole round; he only wanted to throw a few. Patton is one of the better players in the valley. His rating of 942 places him in the PDGA’s advanced category. Tour players typically hover in the 1,020 to 1,060 range, he said.
The 33-year-old Patton, solidly built but not huge, reeled off a 380-foot throw that faded left as it neared the basket. He started his approach straight on, then pivoted to a sideways stance. He used his hips as torque as he twisted through the movement.
Patton is much better than average, but it’s the intangibles that keep bringing him back to disc golf.
“It’s like ball golf,” he said. “If you have thoughts on your mind, or you’ve had a bad day, you can come out here and decide whether you want the rest of your day to be bad or not.”
Patton is also president of the Kanawha Valley Disc Golf Club, which claims about 30 members.