The joy of disc golf is evident in Cambodia. Photo: Greg James
A year ago, when the PDGA unveiled its new logo, the organization was left with a stockpile of former logo discs at our fulfillment house in Georgia, USA.
Our Memberships Manager Vic Allen came up with the cool idea of distributing most of this plastic to our overseas partner countries, across the developing world and elsewhere. In short, this would be another means of PDGA delivering on its mission “to develop disc golf into a globally-recognized competitive sport and recreational activity.”
Disc Golf Uganda, in conjunction with Ndejje University, recently hosted the Greenzone Disc Golf Championship in March. Ndejje is located just outside Kampala, offering a central location for travel and accommodation within the country. This prime location was one of the key factors in the collaboration between the Paul McBeth Foundation, Ledgestone, and the PDGA to install the first-ever 18 hole course in Uganda on the university's property.
Project Olangama, one of Paul McBeth Foundation’s newest course announcements, was just installed this past week.
Olangama is a general name denoting the work being done amongst a particularly underserved people group in Uganda, the Batwa Pygmy people. This community is over 12 hours from the nearest disc golf course and is cut off from many of the luxuries of the developed world. The PMF introduced the sport for the first time to this entirely new audience, in collaboration with former UFC fighter and current Bellator MMA fighter, Justin Wren.
Recently, Joe Feidt, PDGA #362, and a team traveled to Cuba to meet with PDGA Latin America Coordinator Luis Rodriguez as a part of a PDGA Marco Polo project. Check out the video and a brief rundown of the trip.
Bogota is one of the cities in Colombia that, despite its structural limitations, has bet on positioning Disc Golf as a competitive sport and a recreational activity among its inhabitants.
Thanks to PDGA members Nicolas Restrepo and Julio Castro and other players, the sport has grown considerably in our city.
Twenty miles outside of Nairobi, near the Ngong Hills where Karen Blixen’s famous book 'Out of Africa' was set, a unique and paradisiacal disc golf course is nearing completion.
Here, transplanted American Kevin Becker #190646, and his Masai wife, Rarin Ole Sein, reside on 2,000 acres of land which were returned by the British when Kenya gained its independence in 1964, and assigned by local elders to her family.
PDGA Latin America coordinator Luis Rodríguez throws at Parque Simón Bolívar in Bogota, Colombia.
Luis Rodríguez has extensive experience in the field of flying disc sports, developing competitive structures and community building platforms.
As disc golf continues its rapid growth around the world, Rodríguez has been hired as the PDGA Latin America Coordinator under PDGA International Director Brian Hoeniger to expand the presence of disc golf in Latin America countries and to promote the growth of PDGA activities in the region.
Disc golf was recently installed at Heritage Golf Club in Mauritius. Photo: Tamarin Eagles DGC
Tropical temperatures, ocean breezes, deep sea fishing, waterfalls, beaches, whale watching, and now, disc golf.
Sounds like a nice vacation.
With an assist from the PDGA’s Marco Polo Program, the island nation of Mauritius, located in the Indian Ocean off the southeast coast of Africa, disc golf is taking off.
I don’t think that many people wake up one day and think to themselves: “I’m going to build a disc golf course in the jungles of Honduras!”
This project was a great example of perfection arising from chaos. As cliché as this sounds, I believe that since birth everything had fallen into place for me to take on this incredible venture.
My good friend Ken Jarvis #14118, and I, David Moore #24306, are an American living in Ireland and Irishman living in America, respectively. We have a shared dream of introducing disc golf into Ireland. We joined forces after I stumbled across Ken's Facebook page, Disc Golf Ireland, and together we started to actively look for ways of promoting the sport and ultimately raise enough money to build the first course in the Republic of Ireland.
The Marco Polo Program was conceived and approved by the PDGA Board of Directors in 2011, with an official start date of January 1, 2012. The goals of this program are to support the introduction of Disc Golf into new countries and to strengthen its development in other countries around the world. The program provides funding for innovative international projects that promote the growth of Disc Golf, and that create links between PDGA, the countries, and the local Disc Golf communities.
