A whole new world has been opened up to me.

Disc golf.

It wasn’t just the Professional Disc Golf Association World Championships that were contested in Butler County last month. I was on to this game long before that.

While at Moraine State Park a couple of years ago, I noticed a few guys flipping frisbees into a basket attached to a pole.

Upon further investigation, I discovered these weren’t frisbees at all.

They were “discs.”

And they were different types of discs. One was a “driver,” meant for long distances. Another was a mid-range disc, still another a fairway disc. Finally, there was a putting disc.

Being a life-long frisbee tosser, this seemed silly to me. These things all looked like the same size. A frisbee is a frisbee, a disc is a disc. You toss one and it sails. What’s the difference?

Once I saw these guys play the first hole of Moraine’s disc golf course, I saw there was a difference. Don’t ask me to explain it, but just like one uses a different club depending on the golf shot he’s facing, one uses a different disc.

This game intrigued me. I had to give it a shot.

My family celebrates our respective birthdays and I put in my gift request when my birthday came around in September. After explaining exactly what a disc golf set was and how the game is played, my mother bought me a set of four discs and I was good to go.

I just wasn’t good.

The first couple of times I tried this sport — and I do consider it a sport — my discs either sailed into the woods or tried digging up worms as they dove into the ground.

Parring a hole didn’t seem possible. Keeping score seemed like a waste of time.

The first time I played, my elbow got sore about six holes into the course. Clearly, I wasn’t throwing these things right. So I started practicing.

Ever so gradually, I started figuring this game out.

My discs still clang off trees here and there — they can be hard to avoid as most of the disc golf course at Moraine travels through wooded areas — but I’ve actually got my discs going in the direction I want most of the time. And I’m using the proper disc for each toss.

Two weeks ago, I scored an 86 at Moraine. That was 20 over par. But there was noticeable improvement in my previously non-existent game.

Tuesday, a co-worker friend (who asked to be nameless) played another round with me and my score dropped to 71. My fairway disc hooked around a tree and landed into the basket from about 40 yards out on one hole.

That generated a gleeful shout of joy from me that shocked myself as much as anybody.

A couple of long putts found their mark and my playing partner informed me I was 1 over par for the back nine, including a birdie on the course’s signature No. 16 hole.

Have I arrived as a disc golfer? Hardly.

But the game is free and it’s fun.

That’s good enough.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle