County’s disc golf courses on display for world travelers
MUDDY CREEK TWP — After 14 years of touring the nation’s disc golf courses, Andy Martin, of northeast Ohio, found one that stands above the rest with its wide fairways through the tree cover of the woods and well-defined course shots.
That course is on Lakeview Beach at Moraine State Park, where Martin was stationed through the week of July 6 to help facilitate the Professional Disc Golf Association’s 2026 Junior Disc Golf World Championships. The tournament invited children ages 8 to 18 to Western Pennsylvania to take on four courses July 7 through 11, two of which are in Butler County — Moraine State Park’s, and North Boundary Park’s course in Cranberry Township.
According to Martin, Lakeview Beach’s course and the others that played host to the tournament this year were made even better thanks to the preparations made ahead of time to welcome the young disc golfers.
“It's very scenic, it's got a little bit of everything that you want,” Martin said of Moraine State Park’s 18-hole course. “For all these courses, all the best courses, it's because they have a dedicated team of individuals constantly putting in the work. Can't stress it enough how much the Pittsburgh crew really knocked it out of the park on these courses.”
More than 433 children and 18-year-olds were signed up to participate in the Junior Disc Golf World Championships, which is the top competition in the disc golf world. Martin said people attended the tournament from 13 countries, and a majority of the U.S. states.
The tournament director, Mark Fedorenko, said Monday, July 6, that the adult disc golf world championships took place in Pittsburgh in 2015. Experience Butler County said the courses for the tournament this year were chosen to provide “a challenging and diverse experience for competitors,” with the course at North Boundary Park being the longest in the state.
The players noticed the unique attributes of the Moraine course on Tuesday, July 7. Kiva Sheehan, 15, of North Carolina, said the woods added a unique look to the fairways between the starting pad and the goal basket.
“Before this, I hadn’t been places with woods in the course,” Kiva said. “I just like the technical pars because they’re somewhat more challenging.”
The disc golf course at Cranberry Township’s North Boundary Park opened in 2019, after planning and construction began in 2017.
Since then, the course has been logged by 4,342 unique players who played 21,237 rounds on the course. People from all 50 states have visited the course. Visitors have come from 13 countries to play on it, according to UDisc, an online disc golf resource that tracks players and courses throughout the world. The application also says that there have been 143,241,222 steps tracked at the course lifetime. However, that was before the junior world championships came to the course.
Kyle Kenia, Cranberry Township Parks and Recreation manager, said the course ranks in the top 10 disc golf courses in Pennsylvania and in the top 300 in the world.
Kenia cited the course’s elevation changes and its scenic wooded surroundings with making it popular with disc golfers, especially the ones who want a challenge in taking on holes that cover different levels of elevation.
“There aren’t many courses that are 10,000 feet long,” Kenia said, “and over a 300 feet of elevation change both up and down the course, which is the equivalent of over 60 floors of gain.”
Cranberry Township partners with Pittsburgh Flying Disc to organize events and promote the North Boundary Park course to disc golfers. Kenia said Pittsburgh Flying Disc puts in over 1,000 volunteer hours a year to keep up with maintenance of the course. The township’s public works department also helps maintain the course and the park.
The township went through a bid process alongside Pittsburgh Flying Disc for consideration as one of the courses for the junior world tournament.
Players from around the nation said the Pennsylvania courses had a different feel than what they were used to. Several of the players at the tournament had previously faced off at last year’s junior world championships, in Emporia, Kan., where the courses were considerably different compared to the eastern offerings.
“I went here yesterday, I like it,” Zachary O’Byrne, 14, of Balacynwyd, said of Moraine’s course. “I never play against a bunch of kids.”
Zachary said his goal for the tournament was to make the top cut, which would be the highest placement he would achieve yet in his short professional disc golf career.
Several of the young disc golfers said they wanted to make a career best placement at the tournament.
One player had bigger dreams, aiming for the best of the best at the tournament.
“Top 5 is the goal,” Kiva said. “I got 32nd last year; I’ve been on a winning streak this year.”
Kiva and his father explained that Kiva earned a scholarship for his disc golf playing, which helped cover the travel and overnight costs to attend the Pennsylvania tournament. He said he was feeling good about his chances at this tournament.
Martin said that even though the tournament was for young disc golfers, he and the disc golf association staff had taken notice of the growing skill among youth players. Zachary said he normally plays against adults back home, and Martin added that some of the players could likely keep up with the adults who were managing the tournament.
“We're seeing future world champions among this bunch,” Martin said. “It's special to watch kids do these things.”
While some of the young players were looking to make top cut at the tournament, Pedro Velazquez, 14, of Puerto Rico, said his mission was to “not come in dead last.” He has been disc golfing for two-and-a-half years, and also competed in the world tournament in Kansas last year.
Pedro was tossing a disc back and forth with his dad Tuesday morning on Lakeview Beach, in preparation for the imminent tee off. He said his love for the sport comes from the satisfaction of making a disc soar through the air.
“How satisfying it is to see the disc fly in the air and think ‘I did that,’” Pedro said, and added his personal goal for the tournament was to “improve my overall rating.”
