Disc golf is coming to Southaven County Park

Maybe you don't want to lug a bagful of drivers, putters and irons around for a couple of hours. Or maybe you agree with Mark Twain's observation that golf is “a good walk spoiled.”

For anyone with an aversion to sand traps and water hazards, the emerging sport of disc golf — played with flying saucers rather than clubs and balls — is coming to Southaven County Park in Brookhaven later this year, Suffolk County officials said.

Southaven will be Long Island's fourth disc golf course, said Kyle Ebinger, of Huntington Station, treasurer of the Long Island Disc Golf Club. The others are in Heckscher State Park in East Islip, Cedar Beach town golf course in Babylon and Buckskill Meadow Preserve, an East Hampton Town park, he said.

“We consider ourselves a disc golf desert," Ebinger said. "It’s really been a tough road to find new courses here.”

The game, which has been on Long Island since at least 2012, when it arrived at Cedar Beach, challenges players to toss a disc into a basket held aloft by a pole. The Southaven course will have 18 holes, like a typical golf course, Ebinger said.

Also like the more familiar version of golf, disc golf is won by the player who gets the disc in the bucket with the fewest throws.

Construction of the Southaven course, which is minimal, will cost the county about $30,000, Legis. James Mazzarella (R-Moriches) said in a telephone interview. Construction could start later this spring and the course may be open this summer, he said.

Mazzarella learned about the sport during a chance encounter when he was traveling with his family in Kentucky.

“We were walking in this park and I didn’t realize we were walking on this [disc golf] course,” he said. “I texted pictures back to my office and said, ‘Is this disc golf?’”

There'll be no additional cost to play at Southaven — only the cost of parking, which is $7 on weekends between Memorial Day and Labor Day, Mazzarella said. Players will be expected to supply their own discs, he added.

“The real benefit here is it’s fairly inexpensive to [construct the course] and really, aside from needing some discs … it’s basically free,” Mazzarella said. “More and more families are looking for ways to have entertainment at a reasonable cost.”

The Long Island Disc Golf Club counts 150 to 200 members, said Ebinger, 33. Players run the gamut agewise from early 20s to 70s, he said.

There are regular gatherings on Thursday afternoons and Saturdays and Sundays at Heckscher — rain or shine, he said. The club runs an annual tournament at Heckscher in September.

One advantage of the game is its casual approach to rules and traditions, Ebinger said. 

“Unlike ball golf, you don’t really have to make a tee time. There’s no attire requirement,” Ebinger said. “You can play as much or as little as you want.” 

By Carl MacGowan

carl.macgowan@newsday.comCarlMacGowan

Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.