With summer approaching, those looking for fun in the sun and a way to get some exercise at the same time need look no further than disc golf.

Disc golf is a sport rising in popularity and a good way to get some exercise.

Walking from hole to hole at an easy pace and throwing a Frisbee might not seem like much, but it can be helpful in burning calories and losing weight.

Many disc golf courses have 18 holes, which can be between one and two miles walking distance from hole to hole.

“A person with a healthy lifestyle takes somewhere around 10,000 steps a day, and that can easily happen in a game of disc golf,” said Bruce Mauer, associate director of Outdoor and Satellite Facilities.

Chris Clark, manager of a disc golf course in Southern Ohio, also said there is a good amount of exercise involved in disc golf.

“As far as compared to golf it’s definitely more strenuous physically, because there is a good amount of walking involved since there aren’t golf carts,” Clark said.

Disc golf is a simple game that attracts many different kinds of people, as it does not require the same amount of physical fitness as fast-paced sports such as basketball or tennis.

“There are a good spectrum of players from the highly competitive to those just out to have a good time,” Mauer said. “It also gives you a good opportunity to socialize.”

Jeff Fee has been playing for 10 years and said disc golf can be especially strenuous when looking for a Frisbee thrown into the woods or weeds.

“Frisbee golfers go and get their Frisbees, unlike golfers who can just throw down a new ball,” he said.

Disc golf is a game combining the skill and complexity of golf with the grace and simplicity of a Frisbee flying through the air.

Players throw discs from a tee, often a concrete slab, to the hole – a wire metal basket 150 to 300 feet away. Each throw is counted as a stroke, and players advance to the hole by throwing their discs and then again from where their previous throw landed until throwing the disc into the hole.

“Steady” Ed Headrick is credited with being the “father” of disc golf and standardizing the game in the 1970s. He was a driving force behind the establishment of the Professional Disc Golf Association and organizing the first disc golf tournaments.

Paul Jay, president of the Columbus Flyers Disc Golf Club, has been playing since the late 1980s and has noticed the rise in the popularity.

“There has been a sharp increase in the number of players, especially within the last five years it’s exploded,” he said. “The PDGA had an 18 percent increase in members last year and recently reached 10,000 members.”

According to PDGA’s Web site, there are 2,302 disc golf courses located throughout the world in countries such as Italy, Germany and Saudi Arabia. A majority of these courses are located in the United States.

There are four disc golf courses in the Columbus Area: Blendon Woods Metro Park, Griggs Reservoir Park, the Brent Hambrick Memorial Disc Golf Course at Hoover Dam and a new course at Glacier Ridge.

While there are currently no intramural teams or clubs at Ohio State, this will soon change. There are plans to construct a disc golf course on West Campus. He said the course should be completed by the fall.

Mauer said it would be more of a recreational course rather than a championship style course.

Besides providing a source of exercise and being simple to play, disc golf is also inexpensive. Most disc golf courses are located in public parks. The only expense involved is the purchase of a special disc for disc golf, which is harder and flies farther than a regular disc. Some common brands of discs include Innova and Discraft and can range in price from $8 to $20.

Dave Rochus, who manages the disc golf course at Blendon Woods Metro Park, summed up the best reason to play disc golf: for fun.

“If you can’t have fun playing disc golf, then there’s really no point in playing,” he said.

Fun in the sun, exercise and good times with friends – what more is there to ask for?

For information about local courses, columbusdiscgolf.com.

David McNeely can be reached at [email protected].