BY Charles Ames

Ah, the carefree summers of one’s youth. Lazy days, screen gaze. Sticks become toy guns, and pie tins became Frisbees. Fast-forward, and in the blink of an eye, those Frisbees have become the central object in the competitive sport of disc golf.

Of course, the next logical step is to lay out a course comprising eighteen “baskets” to serve as disc golf holes. Lucky for us, Pierce County has at least seven such disc golf courses.

Metro Parks Tacoma has a disc golf course at Roosevelt Park in Northeast Tacoma with four baskets for nine holes. This is considered a practice course, nothing more. There’s also an eighteen-hole course in Sumner called Riverside Disc Golf Course, recently rescued by members of the Pierce County Disc Golf Association. A nine-hole practice course is in the works out on Lidford Playfield, a couple miles from Roosevelt.

McChord Field has nine holes laid out on an acre of flat grassy ground. It features a tree. One tree. In the middle. Kind of.

What used to be Fort Lewis had a brutal disc golf course. Nobody knows how many holes it had. Players never returned. They say you can still hear the screams after “Taps.” Please don’t make me go back to Fort Lewis. Please.

Pacific Lutheran University’s Meadows Disc Golf Course has nine well-kept holes.

Fircrest Recreation Center has nine holes that consist of “pins” which are slats that stand upright. It holds the distinction of being the first disc golf course built in the Tacoma area back in 1977, when Wham-O discs held domination.

But the jewel in the crown is the Fort Steilacoom Disc Golf Course. The FSDG includes the Rhododendron Course, with eighteen holes among tall scattered trees and flat grassy plain, along with the eighteen-hole Northwest Course, which is hillier and more densely wooded. (This is all nestled behind what remains of Western State Hospital. You don’t have to be crazy to play this course but…) There is a small usage fee. It even has a pro shop offering drivers, putters and midrange discs from $12 to $30. Used discs sell for as little as $4, along with accessories and refreshments.