{"id":33250,"date":"2024-06-02T05:47:34","date_gmt":"2024-06-02T05:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/?p=33250"},"modified":"2024-06-02T05:47:34","modified_gmt":"2024-06-02T05:47:34","slug":"disc-golf-makes-its-way-to-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/?p=33250","title":{"rendered":"Disc Golf Makes its Way to Summit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While his day job is a dream job for anyone who loves sports, working as a TV Host for CBS Sports, Resident Adam Zucker finds his additional sports passion through a fast-growing game across America &#8212; Disc Golf.<\/p>\n<p>Also known as \u201cfrisbee golf,\u201d Zucker has been \u201chooked\u201d on the game for quite some time, and nowadays finds himself playing Disc Golf in Summit, having just participated in \u201cGlow Night\u201d at the Muni. He recently spent time with the publisher to chat about the sport.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Tell us about Disc Golf. What is it and how did you get involved with it?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Disc golf is a great way to spend an hour or two walking around, no matter how good you are.\u00a0 As a sport, it is very much like golf, with a tee pad and a target (a basket with chains to help catch the disc), and you\u2019re trying to complete each hole in the fewest strokes (throws) possible, but disc golf is objectively easier, quicker, and cheaper overall. You can play a round with just one disc, but as you get better, you start filling up a bag with discs ranging from putters to mid-ranges to fairway drivers and distance drivers for advanced players.\u00a0 On glow night, we focused on fun with shorter holes, and gave out putters and mid-ranges.<\/p>\n<p>I got into it when I was casually playing Ultimate (frisbee) while living in Wilkes-Barre PA and was invited to try disc golf at a nearby park that had permanent baskets in the ground.\u00a0 That was nearly 25 years ago, and I\u2019ve been hooked ever since.\u00a0 Shortly before COVID, I teamed up with Gretchen, Mark and the amazing crew at Summit DCP to run what became an annual event at \u201cthe Muni,\u201d starting with borrowed baskets and a disc vendor, followed by a great event sponsored by the Junior League of Summit where over 200 people showed up and I ran out of discs!\u00a0 At that point, I had become sponsored by Dynamic Discs and we have since ordered discs that have the Muni logo on them.\u00a0 So it\u2019s been very grassroots, which is consistent with the sport\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-33211\" src=\"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/IMG_2259-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/IMG_2259-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/IMG_2259.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Has it been growing across the county?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Like crazy.\u00a0\u00a0 Oak Ridge Park in Clark is home to Union County\u2019s first 18-hole disc golf course.\u00a0 It is free to play and takes about 90 minutes to two hours to complete depending on your group size and pace.\u00a0 The county has been a great partner, helping us get concrete tee pads and we are in constant communication about maintenance or any issues.\u00a0 No tee times are required, which is the case for almost any standalone disc golf course.\u00a0 We have several gatherings per week and a couple PDGA-sanctioned tournaments a year as well.\u00a0 While that is an \u201copen course\u201d like the Muni because of the original golf footprint, Greystone Woods in Morris County is one of the top five courses in the state, out of approximately 60.\u00a0 That is where you can really learn how to craft your shots because of all the trees and, thus, directions in which you need to be able to steer the disc.\u00a0 I would recommend starting from the red tee pads but keep an eye on your disc!!<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>How did the event go at Summit Golf?\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Very well!\u00a0 We had about 50 players tee off in the hour following dusk, including some young volunteers who had helped the DCP staffers make the place glow, and players ranging from local first timers and families to regional regulars and pros (yes, pros) who love glow events and are great ambassadors from the area disc golf community.\u00a0 We got great feedback from both ends of the spectrum and look forward to the next one.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>How can the neighbors participate or get more information?\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Simply go to the Muni!\u00a0\u00a0 We throw from the golf tee pads, either the turf, cobblestone or grass just in front, and there are baskets set up on every hole, away from the green.\u00a0 For an added challenge, I\u2019ve encouraged experienced players to take a penalty stroke for any disc that ends up in the golf bunkers or on the \u201cball-golf\u201d greens.\u00a0\u00a0 Anyone disc golfing should follow normal golf etiquette.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>What did we miss?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Brayton Elementary has been running a very successful after-school disc golf program, and I\u2019ve been working with Washington Elementary to bring disc golf to gym classes and other events as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While his day job is a dream job for anyone who loves sports, working as a TV Host for CBS Sports, Resident Adam Zucker finds his additional sports passion through a fast-growing game across America &#8212; Disc Golf. Also known as \u201cfrisbee golf,\u201d Zucker has been \u201chooked\u201d on the game for quite some time, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[135],"tags":[],"post_flags":[],"class_list":["post-33250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-summitchatham-local"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33251,"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33250\/revisions\/33251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33250"},{"taxonomy":"post_flag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpost_flags&post=33250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}