Tyler Disc Golf Clubs

The Beginning

The beginning of east Texas disc golf has its roots in Noble E Young park where Philip Wheeless created the first object course. It was an 18 hole course in a park that had a playground and a paved running trail that surrounded the course. When we were notified that we would have to leave Cain Park; they put in a skateboard park, we were given space in Lindsey.

There have been multiple organizations in East Texas, although there has only really been two or three names.

Rose City Disc Club

The first was Rose City Disc Club, put together first when Lindsey was an object course. RCDC was primarily responsible for getting baskets put in and later held Ice Bowl events. The Rose City Disc Club disbanded in 2000, but it the name has been revived several times for certain events. The Inaugural 54 in August 2001 and The Bellwood Open were two of the earliest events. Now they are back and even have a website at www.rosecitydiscclub.com. According to Jerry Power, RCDC Minis are Saturday at 10AM, Sunday at 2PM and Wednesday at 5PM when there is enough daylight. The latest major tourney was December 6-7, 2008. The tournament is the Piney Woods Pro-Am V a benefit to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. You can read a few things about it on their site.

East Texas Disc Golf Association

In addition, there was East Texas Disc Golf Association. That was what I was doing for east Texas disc golf. The goal of ETDGA was to grow beyond the Tyler courses and it was in part successful. Simply, I tryed to promote disc golf in East Texas, first by running local weekly tournaments, area special events and then with PDGA sanctioned tournaments, including the East Texas Open.

I also liked the course in Athens, but it wasn't very active as a course. I soon started having monthly tournaments there, and later the East Texas Open and Paul Giles Memorial. As interest grew, they established a club there and starting having weekly events, and then took over the Paul Giles Memorial.

I also tried to promote disc golf through news releases and the East Texas Disc Golf newsletter.