If you have given up with golf, are bored with basketball or are fed-up with Frisbee, than a small bunch of enthusiasts have a new sport for you.
Fans of disc golf, a game of golf played with Frisbees with basketball hoop like holes, are hopeful that the first permanent course in Sussex will be in place within a year.
About 20 disc golfers are known to already play the sport in Sussex, setting up temporary courses in Wild Park in Brighton and Gildredge and Hampden parks in Eastbourne.
The players are now in talks with both Brighton and Hove City Council and Eastbourne Borough Council about the possibility of setting-up the county’s first permanent course.
Talks are currently in a more advanced state with Eastbourne, meaning that an 18-hole course in Hampden Park or a five hole course in Gildredge Park seem the most likely to take the title of the county’s first.
The modern game of disc golf is thought to have started in the US in the 1960s and first came to England 30 years ago.
There are a number of permanent courses elsewhere in the country, including Croydon, Colchester, Leamington Spa, Bristol and in Dorset.
PE classes
Teacher Neil Martin is one of the leading figures pushing the game in Sussex and has introduced disc golf into the PE curriculum at The Causeway School in Eastbourne. He is hopeful of getting other schools to compete against each other.
The 38-year-old has been on the British Disc Golf Association tour for the last two years competing in tournaments across the country.
He believes that a permanent course would cost an estimated £2,000, would be low maintenance and bring the sport to a whole new audience.
Driving discs
Players can carry up to 17 discs in their bag, including discus-like ‘drivers’ designed for distance but not accuracy, discs designed to fade and draw and ‘putters’, which are lighter, more accurate and resemble everyday Frisbees.
Top players can drive their disc more than 400ft.
Mr Martin said: “It’s been a real hit in school.
“You don’t have to be super fit to do it and children who don’t normally play sport will quite happily play disc golf.
“It’s really inclusive and children don’t come to it with a history of failure they might do with other sports.”
For more information visit www.bdga.org.uk.
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