A Brief History of Disc Golf In Atlantic Canada
Even though disc golf is new to Wentworth there is a very interesting story of the history of disc golf on Canada’s east coast.
There are all kinds of great stories about who exactly was the first person to ‘play’ disc golf was. We know the game has formally been around since the 1970’s with ‘Steady Eddy’ and the Wham-o company in the United States. We are fairly certain that for as long as there have been objects which you could throw across the room to hit a target the concept of disc golf has been enjoyed by quite a few people. (fun fact - The original name ‘frisbee’ was used for a pie plate. People kept throwing it around long after the pie was gone and eventually the Wham-o company patented that and made it into the toy we all think of playing catch at the beach with.)
In 1987 a group of disc golfers had built a small course on the Avalon Peninsula, near St Johns in Newfoundland. They entered a contest and came second in North America for participants that year. Had they won they would have received 9 brand new baskets, which would have made them one of the first 3 permanent courses in all of Canada, but alas they came in second to some folks in the city of Toronto. Not much formal disc golf really existed in the area during this time, even though there was a tone pole course in PEI that was used infrequently. It still existed but it didn’t really show the story of what disc golf could be.
After that disc golf kind of withered away in eastern Canada for another 20 years until some folks moved back from BC and decided to build a private course outside of Amherst, Nova Scotia that would be open to the public. That course started to bring together a small group of very dedicated players. For the next decade a few interesting projects popped up more or less all on private land or in really simple forms for a few select municipalities. However, around 2014 things here took a huge jump forward with the creation and grand opening of the Hillcrest Farm Disc Golf Course in Bonshaw, Prince Edward Island. For close to a decade this course was considered to be in the top 10 in the world. It was beautiful, challenging, and quite frankly not like anything else in the country. Eventually a group of organized players decided the best thing they could do was to invite the world to play this gem and after a while Hillcrest Farms hosted the Canadian National Disc Golf Championship in 2018. The first event broke records for attendance in Canada and it went so well that for the next 4 years straight the Professional Disc Golf Association of Canada used Hillcrest and PEI as their location of choice for this prestigious event. After 2 more record setting events in 2019 and 2022 the world's biggest tour, the Disc Golf Pro Tour took notice and made a stop on the island in 2023 making history as the first ever Pro Tour event on Canadian soil. All the time the game was growing in every corner of Atlantic Canada.
By the start of 2026 there were 100 courses listed in the region with over 7,500 unique players. Disc golf has been a school sport in all 4 Atlantic Provinces in the last 3 years. There are over 75 events listed for the region in this calendar year alone. Several players from the region have gone on to compete in National and World Championship events. In 2027 the city of Moncton / Dieppe will host their first ever Canadian National Disc Golf Championship and the Ski Wentworth courses will be a feature course for early in the week.
All projections point to the fact that disc golf will double again in the next 10 years. Worldwide there are over 17,000 courses, in Canada there are close to 600. There has never been a better time to try the game. There are free courses all across the region and they can all be found on the easy to use and wonderfully free app called Udisc. Almost every course in the world is listed there, including ours!
The vast majority of players (85%) only play casually but for a small group of people playing events is what drives them. This Sunday Bike Wentworth will be hosting our first PDGA event of the season. Players of all skill levels are encouraged to join us for a great afternoon of disc golf. If you don’t want to play come and spectate on some of our incredible holes or join us in the barn afterwards for a beverage and a story!
This is just the history so far, imagine what the next decade of disc golf will look like. We can hardly wait.