Walker DiscGolfPark is a wooded, well-appointed jewel located just outside Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that welcomed its first players in May 2025.
By the end of the year, it was the second most popular disc golf course in the Pelican State, racking up nearly 6,400 rounds played on UDisc. It was, far and away, the most popular course to open in Louisiana last year.
While the casual observer might attribute this success to stellar design or its proximity to the state's capital city – and, to be sure, those factors are at play – the real story behind Walker's emergence as a community hotbed traces its roots back 10 years. That's when longtime disc golf media producer Jamie Thomas and 2009 pro disc golf world champion and elite course designer Avery Jenkins teamed up for their first course in the area.
Now that they've run it back – and taken it up a notch – with Walker DiscGolfPark, we caught up with the duo behind the course to learn how they laid the foundation, helped build up the community, and are working on a master plan to continue growing Baton Rouge into a disc golf juggernaut.
Taking Advantage of an Opportunity
After more than a decade in disc golf media, Thomas found himself at a crossroads. In early 2023, he and his young family decamped from the San Francisco Bay Area, where he'd built connections and community in the San Francisco Disc Golf Club, in favor of the familiar confines of his hometown, Baton Rouge. About nine months later, budget cuts at the Disc Golf Pro Tour in 2023 claimed him as a victim, and he was left trying to figure out where the game fit into his next chapter.
Thomas had hoped Baton Rouge's disc golf scene would offer the same connection and community he'd come to know and love during 13 years on the west coast, but he instead discovered that it wasn't thriving in the same way as at his former home course, Golden Gate Park. There were courses, sure, but the level of activity in the area just wasn't the same.
"We were five, seven years behind, at least, where the rest of the country was in terms of the post-pandemic growth," Thomas said.
So, Thomas did what organizers do: He brought together the most active members of the local disc golf scene and proposed a charter to reboot the long defunct Baton Rouge Disc Golf Association (BRDGA). Instead of just being a social outlet, though, BRDGA's mission would be to represent the collective disc golf interests in the area, especially those related to infrastructure.
The BRDGA was official by late 2023, and in early 2024 an opportunity fell into its lap.
Thomas recalled perusing Facebook and taking note of a post from a member of the Livingston Parish Chamber of Commerce. The business association was looking for sponsors for an upcoming disc golf course, and a site had already been chosen: 18 acres/7.2 hectares in Walker, a town of about 6,400 people, roughly 20 miles/32 kilometers east of Baton Rouge. Looking to learn more, Thomas reached out and was surprised at how quickly the project was moving.
"[They said,] 'We're going to open it in 90 days.' I was like, 'Oh, OK,'" Thomas recalled. "'So you probably know your designer, who's building it,' all that stuff. 'I probably know them. It's a small industry.'"
Thomas, though, didn't know the designer – because there wasn't one. As it turns out, the chamber had the land and the money for a disc golf course, but not much else that indicated it would meet its ambitious opening date.
"I was like, 'Do you want some help?'" Thomas said. "'Because BRDGA can help you with a plan.'"
That plan involved turning to longtime friend and top-notch designer Jenkins, who has put his stamp on 64 courses in 28 states and eight countries throughout his career. The pair worked together for several years at Discmania and previously teamed up for LHC DiscGolfPark at Scotlandville, a 2015 install in Baton Rouge that marked the first DiscGolfPark-branded course in Louisiana.
When the two started working on Walker, there was still only a smattering of other courses in the Baton Rouge area – some accessible 9-holers at churches, as well as Highland Road Park, which was considered the most active local haunt. Walker presented a huge opportunity to liven up the scene given that it had much more financial backing than any previous local disc golf project. Jenkins and Thomas put the "back of the napkin" math on the build at around $250,000, and they made the most of it by integrating stone masonry and augmenting the landscaping with natural berms and fresh greenery.
These weren't just aesthetic flourishes, though. The extra construction was necessary to fit a cohesive, safe, and, most importantly, fun 18-hole layout into a relatively compact footprint.
"It's separated and buffered off and spaced out correctly to make sure it all works and does not conflict with itself," Jenkins said. "And just the infrastructure, everything built up…as far as the native plants and the additions of retaining walls and all the things you think of as beautifying or aesthetically pleasing features on a golf course – that's kind of what they were thinking of when they built Walker.
"I think it's got to be the most I've ever had to work with and spent," Jenkins continued. "But again, we're moving earth and planting trees. And it's all the right things that you need to do to have a high-end disc golf course or a golf course to build out these venues."
The result is a moderately difficult, 5,500-foot/1,676 meter course that Jenkins said serves the everyday disc golfer but can provide enough challenge for skilled amateurs or low-level pro players. It has garnered a 4.7-rating (out of 5) on UDisc in its short life so far, with players praising not only the shot variety but also amenities like water fill stations and an on-site pro shop.
'Building A System, Not Just A Course'
Walker made an immediate impact on disc golf activity in the Baton Rouge area.
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Total rounds played within a 50-kilometer/32-mile radius of Walker were up 46% from 2024.
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The number of unique players to record a round in the region jumped by 31%.
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The number of players recording their first round on UDisc increased by 63%.
Thomas has noticed the growth when he looks at local UDisc leaderboards, too. Where he used to recognize the same players in the top 10 at multiple courses, he's now seeing new names take over at the top – a clear sign that there's new blood coming in.
"I'm starting to see different names at every course – people who are from Walker are becoming the highest names here instead of those who play three times a day for a month straight and they're on the leaderboard of every course," Thomas said. "You're still seeing a high number of rounds played, but more distinct, hyper-local sets of people."
But a single new course does not a catch-up make, and so Thomas and his BRDGA compatriots have set out on a mission to build a disc golf master plan for the region. That has included pitching a five-year plan to BREC, the recreation and park commission that serves more than 880,000 people in East Baton Rouge Parish.
The master plan starts with updates to the parish's existing four courses to address the accompanying infrastructure that would make them suited to holding events. From there, Thomas is looking at BRGDA serving as consultants, more or less, to municipalities that have seen the data on Walker and are eager to build their own courses. The club wants to ensure that new installs serve the community for both the short and long term, so they'll look at when and where they'll be built to make the most impact.
"And then past that, how do we expand to those practice facilities, nine-hole courses, school courses?" Thomas said.
Indeed, building a "funnel up" for the area by focusing on building shorter courses and practice areas is top of mind for BRDGA. These feeder courses are vital for attracting more new players to disc golf, he said, and he drew on inspiration from his own home to make the growth pitch: Thomas' wife picked up tennis less than six months ago, and there was a clear, low-barrier path for her to start playing.
"We have a little neighborhood park, you know, probably six to eight acres [2.4 to 3.2 hectares] in all – a little primitive baseball field, one tennis court, a little playground," Thomas said. "She learned to play on that single tennis court, getting lessons from somebody in the community, and met a neighbor who also practices there. Now, both are playing leagues two miles [3.2 kilometers] down the road at Highland Road Park, the same park that has Baton Rouge’s oldest disc golf course.
"And I basically was saying in our pitch, 'We are not treating disc golf like that,'" Thomas continued. "We treat Little League baseball, we treat football, we treat tennis – every other sport, we give people an ability to engage with it without having to commit to the top floor of it. You don't have to get into a league to try tennis, but you have to commit to 18 holes at sometimes a bigger, more daunting disc golf course to even dip your foot into the water.
"Why aren't we thinking about six-hole courses, nine-hole courses?" Thomas asked. "Places that you're taking your kids to after work when you only have 45 minutes till the sun goes down. A practice facility that could just basically be an area 100 feet [30.5 meters] in radius with a basket and an information board with some games you can play, maybe little stones in the ground at different distances. I’m challenging them to think about how we're introducing this game locally and whether we are building a funnel up toward these bigger facilities that cost more to maintain, are more publicly visible, draw tourism dollars, all of that."
This approach – Thomas referred to it as "building a system, not just a course" – tracks with recent trends in disc golf: Courses with nine holes and fewer have been built at twice the rate of their longer counterparts every year since 2020.
And as Thomas and the BRDGA seek to gain traction with BREC, they'll do it with an advantage most clubs don't have: a man on the inside. During the Walker install, Thomas gained the trust of local leaders, who suggested he apply for a long-vacant position in the town's administration.
Long story short, he is now Walker's Director of Parks and Recreation.
'The Last Mile of Connection'
It isn't enough to just put baskets in the ground and call it a day, though. If Thomas and Jenkins learned anything from their first Louisiana project more than a decade ago, it's that you have to build a community around disc golf to maintain a healthy scene.
"Ultimately, I want there to be a Walker disc golf club, you know? I want them to be a separate club from the Baton Rouge Disc Golf Association one day," Thomas said. "And that's a lesson – we actually learned this lesson the hard way with Avery's Scotlandville course because we didn't do that last mile of connection with the local community."
In Walker, that connection started with the design. Instead of building in a separate parking lot, for example, the course shares one with the recently revamped city hall building that serves as Walker's focal point. Though their initial motivation behind that move was to preserve budget, the decision provided much-needed visibility for disc golf.
"I routinely hear from co-workers, 'Oh my gosh, the parking lot at City Hall is full on the weekends!'" Thomas said. "So, a clever little way that we can always keep it on their radar because you're parking right next to where the mayor parks."
When you generate that awareness, though, you need an outlet for it. And that's where programming comes in. As parks and recreation director, Thomas has a direct hand in scheduling and is using that influence to cater not to existing disc golfers, but rather to prospective ones.
"You have to go that extra mile, and it might look a little bit different in every situation," Thomas continued. "But it's not enough to just say, 'If you build it, they will come.' The planning has to include building awareness of the opportunity to play a great course that’s 10-15 minutes from home, and making sure that the facility serves the needs of that community.
From Jenkins' perspective as a designer who travels around the world, that community is especially critical. He said he usually encourages clients to either identify local players who will start a club or, ideally, work with one that already exists to help make sure there are stewards once he's gone.
And it's worked: Of all his designs, there is only a single course that is no longer in the ground.
"You can build all the courses you want, but who's going to be there to take care of them when they go into disrepair?" Jenkins said. "Who's going to run the league? Who's going to run the club? Having something there to back it up…Disc golfers are so much more tied to and feel responsible for the property and to the land to make sure it's taken care of and properly maintained."
The Future of Disc Golf in Baton Rouge
Buoyed by Walker's success, Thomas has ambitious goals for the region. His hope is that within five years they will have doubled the number of available courses since the BRDGA’s reformation and to have a thriving disc golf ecosystem built around access and economics.
"I would like any level of player – no matter what their skill, no matter what their time commitment is for the day – to be able to find something within 25 minutes of where they are," Thomas said. "Whether you've got 15 minutes to putt or four hours to challenge yourself.
"I would like to see multiple people, multiple groups running tournaments," he continued. "I would like to grow participation to the level that people can pursue their entrepreneurial dreams within disc golf...And I would like to further connect the dots between disc golf and tourism. Not just, 'Does a disc golf course get played?' but, 'What else does a disc golfer do when they're in town?'"
And while he'll be working hard in Baton Rouge over the next five to 10 years, Thomas offered a helpful suggestion to disc golfers looking to boost growth in their local area. Indeed, the industry veteran and 17-year disc golfer himself made it clear: Break out of your own bubble.
"The best piece of advice I feel like I could give is play with a new player," he said. "Play with someone who sees the game completely differently than you. If you know all of the stats – if you know Gannon Buhr's putting stats, and you know how Silva [Saarinen] plays on this course versus that course – go play with three people who would look at you like you have three heads when you even bring those names up.
"Understand disc golf from their point of view, and I think you start to see their needs more."
