Disc golf is a sporting phenomenon that has swept the nation, and its creator lives right here in the Yadkin Valley.

“Its just one of those things that you just think, gosh, to be the creator of it is really mind boggling,” said Dr. George Sappenfield, who stumbled upon the recreational event that has become an international sporting sensation.

Sappenfield, a vice president of Corporate and Continuing Education at Surry Community College, came up with the idea of disc golf back in 1965 while in college.

During his college years, Sappenfield was a part-time recreational leader in Fresno, Calif. “I was always encouraged by my higher ups to make use of all the land and equipment at my disposal,” Sappenfield said. And he did just that.

“At the park where I worked, there was this area of picnic tables that wasn’t used very often, and we also had a bunch of hula hoops and Frisbees™ that were never used. One day, while golfing, I was thinking to myself of how to use the extra equipment and it just hit me,” Sappenfield said.

The next day, Sappenfield set up 3-4 holes using the hula hoops and Frisbees™. “I got some of the kids to make some course decorations during arts and crafts kind of using miniature golf as an inspiration, and they came up with some very creative themes. One hole had a cardboard cut out of King Kong you had to throw the Frisbee™ through,” Sappenfield said.

After graduating from college, Sappenfield became a recreational supervisor at Thousand Oaks, Calif., where he hosted the first “Frisbee™ golf” tournament. “I wrote to Wham-O, the maker of Frisbees™, and asked if they would supply the hula hoops and discs during the tournament.”

After the tournament, Wham-O asked Sappenfield to set up two or three disc golf holes at a major Frisbee™ competition taking place near the Rose Bowl to see if the game would attract any attention from the serious Frisbee™ enthusiasts.

With over 40,000 members in the Professional Disc Golf Association, its a safe bet to say it caught the attention of avid sports fans.

“It’s been exciting. It’s kind of neat to see people playing at courses knowing I had the original idea of the game,” Sappenfield said. “It’s really neat to think that there are players out there making money playing the game, and companies who only sell disc golf products.”

According to Sappenfield, there is a course on every continent, including Antarctica, as of 2008.

“The neatest and most ironic story about disc golf happened while I was on vacation in Scotland playing real golf at St. Andrews. I was joking around with some of the locals, saying I was only there to play disc golf, and they pointed me to the University of St. Andrews that had a disc golf course,” Sappenfield said.

“I don’t get to play as often as I used to, but I will occasionally play at the courses in Mt. Airy and in Raleigh,” Sappenfield said.