Tyler Disc Golf Courses

Tyler Courses

Disc Golf has grown considerably in East Texas in the last 15 years. In Tyler there are now at least 5 active courses, not counting a number of private courses. Lindsey Park is now home to three courses with varying levels or difficulty. Prior to Lindsey, there was an object course at Noble E. Young. That course was later revived and designed with homemade baskets briefly. There is also a course at the University of Texas at Tyler, as well as one at the ROC (Recreational Outreach Center of Green Acres Baptist Church). I've also been informed that there is also now a 9 hole course back at Noble Young Park which is where I started playing disc golf in 1995. There was also a course designed on a nearby 9-hole golf course, Bellwood, along side the ball golf course. Another course may still exist at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, although it is probably not being maintained.

Noble E. Young

Philip Wheeless created the first object course in Tyler at Noble E Young park . It was an 18 hole course in a park that had a playground and a paved running trail that surrounded the course. That course was probably around for 5-7 years, which is a guess. It was frequented mostly by members of Westwood Baptist Church where Wheeless was the youth pastor. We were asked to leave Noble Young to make way for the development of a skate park. Now I hear that a 9-hole course is back in there, and is being used by Boy Scouts and others.

Lindsey Park

When we were notified that we would have to leave Noble E Young park; they put in a skateboard park, we were given space in Lindsey. Lindsey Park contained several baseball fields and soccer fields. It now has disc golf.

One of the milestones was the establishment of the first full metal basket course at Lindsey in the late 90's. In the minds of some, it's not a disc golf course without baskets. Since then, the Lindsey course was expanded to include three separate 18-hole courses, with a mixture of Mach5 and DisCatcher baskets, and multiple tees and/or pin placements on each course.

Presently they are named Cedar, Hickory, and Dogwood with the colors Red, Blue, and White. Some refer to the Blue course as the North course, and some refer to the White course as the Gold course. Using the mostly shaded parts of Cedar and Hickory, we have also played a different course that we referred to as the Gold course. I suspect you could use the open areas of Cedar and Hickory and have yet another layout which might be called the Silver course.

University of Texas at Tyler

A more recent addition to Tyler disc golf was at The University of Texas at Tyler. Designed and installed in 2006, the 18-hole course was designed by Lawrence Nance and other members of the disc golf community. It is located on grounds near the athletic facilities along Spur 248 with the back 9 through the pines south of the lake.

UT Health Center

The course at UT Health Science Center was actually the first basket course, although those baskets were homemade hybrid wood/metal baskets. The Bell-Wright course is not officially maintained and was primarily used by employees or graduate students of UTHSCT. It was located directly behind the research building and into the woods nearby.

ROC

The ROC is the course at Green Acres Baptist Church's Recreational Outreach Center, next to Green Acres South. It is deep South Broadway just past Loop 49 and it is fairly popular. It is an 18-hole course with dual tees on most of the holes. Good mixture of hills, woods, with some deceptive distances. It winds through a recreational facility, and during some events a few holes may not be playable.