Many Consider This Disc Golf Course To Be the Best in Maryland (32 Acres and 27 holes)

MCS Staff December 23, 2023 at 2:09pm

The Clopper Day-Use Area in Seneca Creek State Park in Gaithersburg, MD is home to one of the best disc golf courses in the Mid-Atlantic, according to many who play the game. With 32 acres and 27 holes (three nine-hole circuits) the Seneca course provides a popular pastime for families and groups.

Each circuit spans a range of forested and open land. The three courses start from a central location close to parking. Dual tees and multiple pin placements encourage new players to join more experienced friends and family. Plenty of benches around the course invite breaks to share tips. Per Montgomery Parks, who plans on bringing its first disc golf course to Montgomery Parks land at Northwest Branch Recreational Park, “Disc golf is played much like “traditional” golf except, instead of a ball and clubs, players use a flying disc. The sport was formalized in the 1970s and shares with “traditional” golf the object of completing each hole in the fewest strokes (or, in the case of disc golf, the fewest throws). A disc golf course is laid out like a “traditional” golf course with tees and fairways, but instead of a putting green with a hole/cup, there is a basket into which the disc is thrown to complete each hole.

Disc golf courses are “designed with nature”, which is to say they do not require much land development. Each hole has two 12’x6′ tee boxes for different skill levels, a 50′ mowed or cleared fairway, and a basket (with options for multiple placements). Natural surface pathways guide players from hole to hole. Aside from tee boxes, fairways, and areas near each basket, the rest of the park will be natural and lightly maintained.”

About the Seneca Creek State Park Course, per the Maryland Department of Natural Resources: When you visit Seneca Creek State Park, do you ever wonder about what’s on that part on the other side of Great Seneca Highway – well, it’s a world class disc golf course. Now you’re wondering what disc golf is. It’s a lot of things. It’s a way to spend time enjoying the outdoors. It’s a way of getting some exercise. It is an inexpensive cousin to ball golf. All it requires to play is a disc and a course and the course is already provided. While starting with the Frisbee you are used to throwing is great, as you play more, you will appreciate that discs that are custom designed for the sport make it easier. Such discs are for sale right in the park office. There are also used discs for sale even cheaper. Disc Golf is a fast growing sport that even has a professional tour and a professional organization, PDGA, which is a great place to get more information about the sport. The play is very much like ball golf except for throwing a disc instead of hitting a ball with a club. There are cement tee pads to throw from at the start of each hole and a basket to throw the disc into rather than a small hole in the ground. If you can throw a Frisbee, you can play disc golf.

The course at Seneca Creek State Park was installed by volunteers on a part of the park set aside for it. Some say it is the best of the more than 30& disc golf courses in Maryland. No one would deny it is one of the top few. It consists of three nine-hole loops to make it easy to play more or less as you are interested. There are short and long tee pads and even novice tee pads, so you can adjust the difficulty of your round. Each hole has multiple basket locations that get changed every few weeks to increase the novelty.

The course is maintained in conjunction with the park by the Cedar Farm Disc Golf Club a volunteer organization that works as a liaison between the park and the disc golf community. The club also runs a number of tournaments starting in January with an Ice Bowl, a fundraiser for the Capital Area Food Bank, and including the longest running professional tournament in the state, the Seneca Creek Soiree, which attracts the premier disc golfers in the mid-Atlantic region.