Photo courtesy of Colby Jones
The March issue of The Advocate Lake Highlands features a story about disc-golf hotspot B.B. Owen.
Reader Colby Jones responded with some history of the sport in our neighborhood, which dates back to the 1980s.
Here is his commentary, only slightly edited:
I really enjoyed the article by Simon Pruitt on the disk golf course at B. B. Owen Park. It brought back a lot of memories, starting with the images of horses grazing there.
Back in the early ’80s, Wham-o wanted to donate a pole-hole course to the Dallas Park and Recreation Department. Before then, “Frisbee” courses were object oriented; aim for that tree or whatever. My rec leader, Tom Sheely, created a course with a wooden dowel (flag) stuck in the ground in the center of a prone hula hoop. It could be set up and taken down quickly and easily changed. It was popular.
Wham-o first chose Ridgewood Park because they had worked closely with its director Pam Osborn on the Frisbee dog contests. When that was determined to be too confining, they moved it to Skyline Park, now named Lake Highlands North, and the first pole-hole disc golf course in this part of the world came into being. We hosted a professional tournament, and I got to throw out the first ceremonial disc. When that hit the tree I was standing under, I got to throw the SECOND ceremonial disc.
We started selling discs at cost as a convenience to players. Retailers complained we were undercutting them, so we raised the price to the going rate, $8 at that time.
Eventually, the park outgrew the disc golf course with the addition of a pre-school playground and other amenities. For safety reasons and general peace of mind, the course was moved to B. B. Owen. Everybody won.
