For College Park resident Jerry O’Neil, disc golf is more than just a game. It’s a passion of nearly 50 years.
“I just like chucking Frisbees,” O’Neil said. “That’s my big thing. I chuck Frisbees everywhere I go.”
O’Neil, 77, has been playing disc golf since the ’70s, soon after the sport was invented.
In disc golf, players aim to get a disc to hit a target in as few throws as possible. Disc golf targets are metal baskets with chains that hang down from the top. The chains catch discs and slow them down, preventing them from hitting the target and bouncing off.
Players use several kinds of discs, which are slightly smaller than Frisbees and are designed to fly in different ways—some for long distances and others on a curve, for example. Some have thicker rims, like a traditional Frisbee, and are made to fly steadily but not very fast. Others have thinner, more pointed rims and can fly 50 miles per hour or faster.
O’Neil said to “watch out” for those on the course.
“You can’t catch a pointed Frisbee,” said O’Neil, who refers to the discs as Frisbees even though most discs aren’t Frisbee brand. “It’ll kill you. I mean, you’ll break your nose.”
Disc golf players toss their discs into multiple baskets as they make their way around a course. Like traditional golf, the fewer strokes it takes to land a disc in a basket, the better the player’s score. The player with the fewest strokes—or throws—at the end of the round or tournament wins.
O’Neil is a Boston native who has lived in College Park for most of his life. He began tossing Frisbees soon after he moved to Maryland in the 1970s.
“When I got down here to Maryland, everybody was throwing Frisbees,” O’Neil said. “At the beach, wherever. And I couldn’t throw them, you know? And I said, ‘I’m going to teach myself how to fricking throw a Frisbee.’”
O’Neil began to practice during his lunch breaks at the U.S. Naval Observatory, where he worked as a planner and estimator. In his spare time, he threw Frisbees around with his friends on the University of Maryland campus.
While O’Neil was busy learning to toss a Frisbee, disc golf was starting to grow in popularity.
Small groups of Frisbee enthusiasts began playing disc golf competitively in the late ’60s, but the sport didn’t take off until Ed Headrick, executive vice president of the toy company Wham-O, the parent of the Frisbee brand, began promoting it in the mid-1970s.
Headrick founded the Professional Disc Golf Association, which O’Neil joined in 1976, becoming the association’s 117th member. The organization now has more than 108,000 active members worldwide, according to its website.
Now that he is retired, O’Neil plays disc golf less than he used to. He goes to local parks once or twice a week to practice “because I don’t want to throw my arm out,” he said. He goes to disc golf courses about once a month to play a full game, which can take several hours.
He usually plays at the Calvert Road Park disc golf course near the College Park Airport. He has been playing there since the course—the first in Maryland—was established in 1980. Today, there are around 100 courses throughout the state.
O’Neil hasn’t played in tournaments since the ’80s. He said tournaments can be competitive, with talented players traveling from out of state for the chance to win prize money.
“I do it for fun,” O’Neil said, laughing. “These people do it for blood.”
Instead, O’Neil likes to play on his own or with family members when he gets the chance. He introduced a few of his brothers to the sport and sends discs and targets to his extended family as Christmas gifts.
O’Neil has simple advice for anyone who wants to try disc golf.
“Just go around and have a good time, because that’s what I do,” O’Neil said. “I’m not going to go spend $1,000 practicing like these pro kids do, but it’s just so much fun to get out and walk around.”