Disc golf (also known as frisbee golf or ‘frolf’) is exploding across the state of Utah, with more than 10,000 disc golfers in the state. More and more people every day try this not-so-new sport for the first time, and fall in love with it. Several years ago, a city study at Creekside Park (a local disc-golf park) estimated that over 3,000 Utahns played disc golf there during an average summer week, and this number is rapidly increasing. Disc golf provides a low-impact, safe means of outdoor exercise, an opportunity for social interaction in groups of friends or in families, and increases players’ mental ability as they improve in the game—negotiating difficult shots and playing in competitive tournaments. For these reasons and many others, disc golf attracts people young and old.
There are presently only a few disc golf courses in the state of Utah. Salty Dawgs Disc Golf is a locally-owned company that organizes local disc golf activities, tournaments, and leagues at disc-golf courses across the state. We also intend to take this sport to parks that do not yet have disc golf courses installed. By taking this sport to parks visited by non-disc golfers, we hope to promote, educate, and involve people and their families in this wonderful sport. Our aim is to promote the sport of Disc Golf across Utah while preserving and improving the homegrown character of individual communities.
Involving more of the community in playing disc golf creates a need for more courses, encouraging local Parks and Recreation officials to build new courses at local parks and other land that may currently be deemed “problem areas” in the urban landscape. By drawing more people to come play at these courses, we help preserve local parks from vandalism and possible crime, providing safer outdoor recreation venues for more local families.
To bring the sport of disc golf to young people and old, we incorporate any media strategy available. We work diligently to organize and gain the help of local television in spurring more players and fans to turn out at the tournaments. For example, we hope to spend a morning on local television with “Big Budah” from Fox’s Good Day Utah, teaching him to play disc golf and promoting our league. We are also working with local radio station 1320 KFAN to incorporate a disc golf time slot into their sports radio program, to introduce disc golf into the local sports scene.
In the near future, we hope to be active in the local school systems, educating our youth about disc golf and its benefits. We will teach them the basics of the game and form a junior community league.
The local competitive circuit in disc golf is thriving. Locally-organized disc golf tournaments usually have an average of 60–100 participants who play. We believe that providing a structured and professionally organized league will dramatically increase the number of playing participants in each tournament.
We have formulated a business plan to provide each Salty Dawgs member a great value: organized events that give them the ability to learn how to play the game better, the opportunity to compete for prizes and money, and a new outlet for spending quality time with friends and family.
Salty Dawgs Disc Golf will hold 9 seasonal monthly tournaments in various parks throughout the valley. These events will be heavily advertised throughout the local disc-golf community, promoted through Sandy City’s Parks and Recreation Schedule, and other outlets as appropriate.
