How Huntsville became a disc golf destination
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Huntsville has two of the world's first 10 disc golf courses. Photo: Derek Lacey/Axios
As Huntsville continues to invest big in bolstering sports tourism efforts, the city has been a mainstay for one sport since before it was cool: disc golf.
Why it matters: Huntsville's disc golf roots go all the way back, and it's due in large part to two Rocket City natives: Tom Monroe and Lavone Wolfe.
- Wolfe, a Butler High School alum, met Huntsville High grad Monroe, known as the "Johnny Appleseed of Disc Golf," at the University of North Alabama (then Florence State) in the early 70s.
Flashback: "Every day just about, I walked across from the dorm to Flowers Hall to play basketball," Wolfe said. "One night I saw Tom and another guy from Toronto throwing Frisbee — doing things I never saw before."
- They saw Wolfe watching and invited him to join, then asked if he'd help lay out a course on campus the next morning.
- Wolfe, now a successful course designer working on his 79th course, did help with that course, which hosted Alabama's first state tournament in 1974.
Zoom out: In 1975, disc golf legend "Steady" Ed Headrick — known as the Father of Disc Golf — helped design and install the course at Brahan Spring Park. His son later worked on installing a nine-hole course on the arsenal, which Wolfe helped expand into the current 18-hole layout.
- From there, disc golf in Huntsville took off. But Wolfe never dreamed it would reach the level it enjoys today.
- The 1983 and 1993 World Championships were held at the University of Alabama in Huntsville's course, which Monroe and Wolfe initially built out of whatever they could find.
- "Huntsville's been supportive of us," Wolfe said, noting that he won an award after the 1983 championship for booking more than 8,000 hotel rooms for the event. It was Huntsville's fifth-largest convention that year.
State of play: Wolfe believes Huntsville is making progress, but says the city could elevate its courses to a professional level by investing in infrastructure — like restrooms, improved parking, and better landscaping — with the kind of commitment seen in places like Emporia, Kansas.
- Huntsville is set to host the 2027 PDGA Amateur World Championships, and courses like John Hunt Park and Madison County's Sharon Johnston Park are helping elevate the region's disc golf scene.
Context: Disc golf has skyrocketed in popularity in recent years, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic, when people were looking for new ways to do something fun outdoors where it was easy to social distance.
- As disc golf manufacturer Innova Discs notes: It took 41 years for the Professional Disc Golf Association to log its first 100,000 members in 2017, but just a tenth of that time to reach 200,000, in 2021.
- Thousands of new courses have opened in recent years, per PDGA, and while the COVID "boom" has ebbed, Alabama alone has more than 2,100 members and almost 150 courses.
- Around 60 of those, Wolfe notes, are within an hour's drive of Huntsville.
Want to try it out? Here are some local courses to put at the top of your list:
Tom Monroe Disc Golf Course at Brahan Spring Park is a technical, wooded 18-hole close to downtown, at 3010 1st St. SW.
The University of Alabama at Huntsville Disc Golf Course is not an easy course, either, at UAH: 301 Sparkman Drive NW.
John Hunt Park's disc golf course opened in 2023 and offers a short and long layout to let you decide how hard you want to make it. It's in South Huntsville, 2411 9th Ave. SW.
Sharon Johnston Park, a Wolfe-designed and Wolfe-recommended course, should be a priority: 783 Coleman Road, New Market.
Sunshine Oaks Disc Golf Course is another he recommends in Madison, at 228 Mose Chapel Road, Madison.