Disc Golf began at Mars Hill College back in the late seventies when the sport was just beginning to spread around the country. Scott Pearson, an alumni and MHC Biology professor, remembers slinging Frisbees across campus at designated objects that were at one point marked with a yellow paw print and an encircled blue “T”. The current course overlaps some of these old holes and the markings can be seen on the fairway of hole number one, between the basket on five and the tee pad for six, and on the lamp post on the left side of signature hole number eighteen.

In the fall of 2001 Ryan Pickens, a MHC Business Instructor and nationally ranked disc golfer, was introduced to the evolved object course at MHC by students Mark Guthrie and David Georges. The holes had deviated from the old marked object course and moved to include shots from the top of Marshbanks to the flagpole in the central quad and a narrow shot between the Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre and Spilman to a fire hydrant located across Bailey Street. After seeing numerous Frisbees flying across the quad and running into students at the disc golf course in Richmond Hill park in Asheville, Pickens decided to help the students get a professional disc golf course installed on the campus.

In the Winter of 2003 the administration, committed to enhancing student life and residential living, approved a formal proposal by Pickens and gave him permission to move forward with installing a course. The proposal included a petition generated by Gray Spainhour, a MHC student, which had been endorsed by the Student Government Association and the Campus Activities Board to bring a professional disc golf course to Mars Hill College. The administration also approved the creation of the Mars Hill Disc Golf Club and Team, plus gave Pickens permission to teach PE 327 The Disc Golf Experience in the Fall of 2004. This class will be made available to the general public through the MHC Adult ACCESS program. The evolution of disc golf will allow students and the greater community to carry on the tradition of slinging Frisbees on the beautiful hillsides of Mars Hill College for years to come. For more information about our college or disc golf at MHC please contact Ryan Pickens at 689-1179.

THE MARS HILL COLLEGE DISC GOLF SANCTUARY

We decided to call our course a sanctuary because Mars Hill College is a Christian community and we believe that the land here is sacred, as are all things that are a part of the natural universe. We hope that you will enjoy the natural beauty that our campus has to offer and give it your utmost respect while you are here. Currently the course is open to the public and with your help we can ensure that it stays that way.

The course features a variety of indigenous plants and trees of Western North Carolina, while at the same time offering picturesque views of rolling green fairways surrounded by steep mountain slopes. Please do not disturb any of the foliage, unless it is poison ivy and in that case please feel free to pull it up! The holes are laid out in a complete circle around the back side of our campus, utilizing approximately 30 acres of land. The course entails 43 different tee pads and 34 different basket placements, with extremely quick greens and lots of out of bounds. The steep slopes and layout of the course include approximately a mile and a half hike that challenges the player’s endurance and disc golf skills.

With the help of students and volunteers from the Western North Carolina Disc Golf Club, Ryan Pickens designed and installed our course. Almost all of the holes have multiple tee pads and basket placements; this way the player can decide the difficulty of play and choose to throw from the red, white, or blue tee pads. The tee pads are marked with colored tiles embedded in the grass or small wood tee signs placed next to the concrete launching pads. The course map reflects these different tee pads and illustrates where the player is supposed to tee off. Please be aware that some tee pads, like hole number 7, 9, and 12, are all in the same place. We will soon have distance and elevation change for each tee position posted on the tee sign for the blue pads, as well as a marker signifying the basket placement.

Professional score cards and disc golf merchandise are available at the MHC bookstore on Main Street. Different pars are listed for our course with other relevant information. These pars are for players who choose to throw from the blue tee pads. The par from the red and white tee pad is always 54 regardless of your level of play. All cement is considered out of bounds and there is an orange out of bounds line embedded on the left side of fairway number 18. You must stay left of the line to be in bounds. For safety reasons, holes number 1, 2, 4, and 7 all have mandatory trees that are marked with blue arrows that a player must go through or around - please use them. The hazards above all result in the player taking a one stroke penalty and throwing from the place the disc went out of bounds or from the red tee pad if the player missed a mandatory tree. For official disc golf rules please go to www.pdga.com.

Please yield to all walkers and cars while playing and pack out whatever you pack in. A donation box is located at the kiosk and we encourage the general public to contribute to the ongoing development of our sanctuary. All donations, regardless of size, are greatly appreciated and go directly to the MHC disc golf club and the beautification of this course. There is also a waiver in our guest book that every player must sign at least once in order to play our course. We are thankful of your presence and hope that you have a wonderful experience playing the challenging course here in Mars Hill.