Hurling your driver a great distance is generally frowned upon in the golf community, but in disc golf, it’s a valuable skill. Not to mention a lot of fun — the kind you used to have flinging a Frisbee® on the beach, only way more satisfying. It’s a path toward par, not your Lab’s drooling maw.

If you’re a head-down dedicated ball golfer (yes, that’s how you’re known in the disc world), you may be unaware of the popularity of disc golf. According to UDisc — an authoritative disc golf resource and course directory — the U.S. has about 10,000 disc golf courses, compared to 14,000 to 15,000 ball golf courses. Ball golf has far more actual participants, but disc golf is growing fast as more and more active folks discover the pleasure of playing golf without those pesky, maddening clubs and too-small balls.

Discs are engineered in three basic guises — driver, midrange and putter — all designed to fly down a fairway toward an aboveground basket (aka target or, yes, hole) 26 inches in diameter. Within those forms are infinite variations. Need to slice right around a tree? Choose a disc designed for a backhand “anhyzer” toss, as opposed to a “hyzer” toss that more conventionally swings left. For that anhyzer toss, you want an understable disc engineered to drift right toward the end of its flight. Almost needless to say, you can buy premium plastic discs that are more durable and resilient — and expensive — than a duffer’s cheapo starter set (circa $25).

That’s just scratching the surface of discography. Suffice it to say that an avid disc golfer can routinely drive 300 to 400 feet off the tee pad and stows 30 or 40 discs in their rolling cart. A casual player might tote a dozen or so in a backpack.

WHY IT’S SO POPULAR

Frustration with ball golf aside, most disc golfers will cite two clear disc advantages: speed and cost. You might be able to rip around a nine-hole course in 45 minutes, and it’s free to play on the majority of courses, which are laid out in public parks. Disc courses that are integrated with ball courses, such as David L. Baker GC in Fountain Valley, naturally charge a fee.

Disc golfers also just plain love their game. Chris Brophy, a former casual ball golfer, is zealous about his sport of choice, and not only because he does marketing for Innova, a Rancho Cucamonga-based disc manufacturer. The disc learning curve is much quicker, for one thing. “I’m not trying to disparage golf at all,” he says, “but getting and staying proficient at disc golf is just a little easier.”

Brophy also relishes the creativity in disc golf — the way arm motion combines with disc design to accomplish the seemingly impossible. “We have discs designed to turn right so hard that they land on the ground like a wheel after a hundred-yard throw in the air, then roll another hundred yards. You can control that roller left or right and it’ll go up over a hill and then under a row of trees and then turn over to the right and curl under the basket. I know this is going to sound like blasphemy to a golfer, but it’s infinitely more creative than golf.”

Not all disc golfers have forsaken ball golf. Tyler Annear of Huntington Beach is skilled at both. Says the one-time 2-handicapper: “I pretty much maxed out my potential. I work full time and pay bills. I can still break par, but I’m a dad now. I can’t spend six hours on the course every Sunday.”

When Annear discovered disc golf in Huntington Beach’s Central Park, he was drawn to its simple pleasures. “It’s just very satisfying to throw a Frisbee® and watch it fly. And when you get control of it, then you can start shaping it around objects, landing it softly in different ways and skipping it and bringing it in. It’s such a simple game. Get it in there as quick as you can and don’t throw it where you’re not supposed to.”

WHERE TO PLAY

SoCal has about 150 disc golf courses. Some of the most popular public-park courses are Central Park in Huntington Beach, La Mirada Community Regional Park in La Mirada, Oak Grove in Pasadena — the first dedicated disc-only course in the country — and Morley Field in San Diego. Ball golf courses that welcome disc golf include Reidy Creek GC in Escondido, DeBell GC in Burbank, David L. Baker GC in Fountain Valley and Colina Park GC in San Diego. Visit UDisc.com for course info, the Southern California Disc Golf Club (socaldiscgolfclub.com) for tournament info and the Professional Disc Golf Association (pdga.com) for details on the pro scene (top throwers earn six figures in prize money) and the official rules of the game.