Murray Disk Golf Course Welcomes Hobbyist and Competitive Players Alike

By Jon Dunning

Hidden away in Murray, Kentucky’s Central Park is an expansive golf course that welcomes players of all skill levels to come and play a round. However, leave your clubs at home, because you will be playing with discs on this course. Disc golf is a sport that is played in a similar manner to golf and utilizes familiar elements such as trying to play under par and aiming for holes. However, players throw frisbee-like discs instead of putting balls with a club. Moreover, disc golf trades holes in the ground for metal baskets with chain nets. 

The course, which was developed in 2006, has 27 holes for players to test their skills against. The holes are divided in to two courses, yellow and red. The red course is a series of 18 holes and is set up for easy to medium difficulty. New players and hobbyists will find this course fun to play through. For professional players and disc golfers looking for more of a challenge, the yellow course will be more accommodating. The yellow course also consists of 18 holes, all of which increase the difficulty level of the game. 

“People have a lot of fun playing it,” Dan Thompson, one of Murray’s most active disc golf players and enthusiasts, said of the course. According to Thompson, one reason disc golfers are drawn to Murray’s course is because it is wooded. The trees and forestry provide obstacles that other courses don’t. 

Thompson led me on a tour of the course, and to describe it as wooded is not an exaggeration. Moving from hole to hole felt like a nature walk, leading me to think that anyone who enjoys being outdoors could find enjoyment in a game of disc golf. As my eyes searched for the chained baskets tucked almost 400 feet away between the park’s trees, I began to understand the challenge involved with playing this game and how people could grow to love it. When Thompson demonstrated how to throw a disc from a hole’s starting point, I felt a sense of awe watching the neon yellow disc he served sail through the air, far away from us, all while avoiding trees and curving to the right towards the goal. 

In 2017, Thompson sponsored a series of upgrades for the course, which added nine new holes and refurbished some of the original baskets. Additionally, Thompson plans more renovations for the course. “This fall, all 18 tee signs will have new signage and the frames re-painted with new plexiglass on them,” Thompson said. 

According to the Murray-Calloway County Parks and Recreation website, the Central Park disc golf course is becoming one of the community’s most used park facilities. Thompson said that people from Murray and Calloway County are the most frequent visitors to the course. However, disc golfers from other counties and states enjoy playing the course as well. 

Justin Taraba, an avid disc golfer from Paducah, Kentucky, enjoys visiting Murray’s course. “It’s always a nicely maintained course,” Taraba said, “I like the fact that it’s a wooded course and it’s challenging.” 

Murray also has a disc golf club, but Thompson claims this group has not been organized for some time now. However, that is no reason to fret, as players can be found at the course on weekends or evenings after work. When Murray State University is in session, college students make up most of the golfing community. Whether you are looking for an activity to partake in with family and friends, get more outdoors time, compete in a sport or learn a new game, disc golf has a lot to offer and Murray has the perfect place to play.