Why there aren’t any disc golf courses open in Kelowna

Disc golf is a low budget, easily accessible activity that many communities in the Okanagan have embraced, except for Kelowna.

Kelowna has one public disc golf course on Knox Mountain, but it’s currently closed for a water main renovation.

Even though setting up a public disc golf course would cost just a few thousand dollars, Central Okanagan Disc Golf Association board member Charlie Picken said there aren’t any left in Kelowna.

“We haven’t had much luck in Kelowna,” Picken told iNFOnews.ca. “We’ve had a few opportunities that were brought to us by the city but then last minute was like, ‘oh we can’t do this.’”

He said when the association has tried to get more disc golf courses the city has cited environmental reasons and other use cases for the land like soccer fields or pickleball courts.

“The main thing is land in Kelowna, to the City of Kelowna, is really valuable as it should be. Parks are important, but I don’t think they get the real picture on how disc golf could be great for anyone,” he said.

Picken and the association recently built a course in West Kelowna, Wild-Horse Disc Golf Course, and he said installation only cost $800. The typical cost for a disc golf course is less than $10,000 total and they can fit within general park space.

With the Knox Mountain course closed and the only other one on private land, Picken said people have to travel to nearby communities to find disc golf courses.

There are five courses in the South Okanagan, one in West Kelowna, one in Lake Country, six in the North Okanagan and three in Kamloops. Big White Ski Resort also has a disc golf course that’s free to use in the summer.

Knox Mountain’s course is set to open later this year after the water main is repaired, but Picken said there’s an optimistic effort to open up more courses to help grow the sport.

“We put a petition out for anybody to fill out this petition, send it to the mayor, send it to the city, share it on social media, and the city has told us that they have heard the call for more courses and are going to help us out,” he said.

Disc golf saw a huge spike in popularity in Kelowna during the pandemic.

Udisc is an app that helps disc golfers track their games and find courses.

According to the app, in 2019 there were 1,000 people who played at Knox Mountain, in 2020 that number was up to 2,500, and in 2021 it went up to 5,000.

Picken said it doesn’t have the most accurate numbers since not everyone uses the app, but Udisc is a good way to see trends in demand for courses.

The sport’s growth has levelled off since lockdown ended, but Wild-Horse in West Kelowna has already had 1,850 rounds played this year so far.

Picken said it’s definitely worth the investment to set up some baskets and make it easy, accessible recreation.

“Anyone can play it, all you need is to get to the course and buy a $10 to $20 disc,” he said.