PORTERSVILLE — The Pittsburgh Flying Disc Society isn’t about trying to find unidentified flying objects.

It’s about sending discs soaring into the air — with a purpose.

Winning.

The annual Scholl’s Bicycle Center-Pittsburgh Flying Disc Open took place over the weekend on three courses — Knob Hill, Deer Lakes and Moraine State Park — with 129 players registered, including 81 amateurs.

The sport combines golf and frisbee and requires plenty of accuracy.

“It’s a highly skilled game,” Open assistant tournament director Will Graves said. “But it’s a skill anyone can acquire and work on.

“Cost of equipment is minimal and you can play on most courses for free at anytime. This sport is booming right now.”

Flying disc golf consists of 18 holes — some out in the open, some through wooded areas — with a chain-link basket attached to a tree at the end of each hole. When one’s disc winds up in the basket, the number of throws it took to get it there is the player’s score for that hole.

The sport scores like golf — and is equally addicting.

“I used to play golf as my main sport and held off trying this one because I knew it would hook me,” Jeremy Dusheck, 37, of Butler said. “This is only my fourth year of disc golf, but I began playing ultimate frisbee when I was 15.

“I switched over to disc golf when I started getting a little older. I think a lot of people do.”

Dusheck played in the advanced division of the Pittsburgh tournament. Advanced division players toss from the middle tee box while the intermediate and recreational players toss from the nearest box, the pros from the farthest box.

“Practice, practice ... that’s how you move up in division,” Dusheck said. “I have a basket up in my backyard I can take practice shots on.

“You can enter a tournament in any division you want, but if you don’t play with your level of talent, you won’t do well.”

Dusheck said he plays in nine-to-12 flying disc tournaments per year. He only plays ball golf three or four times a year.

Age range for disc golf players runs from sixth-grade kids to players in their 80s.

“The PDGA (Professional Disc Golf Association) recently started a super advanced legend division for players in their 80s,” Graves said. “Advanced players are usually in their 20s or 30s, advanced masters are over 40. ... The sport has age-protective brackets.”

Disc golfers carry as many as 25 different discs in their bag. Steve Miller, 26, of Evans City plays with 12.

“Two putters, five mid-range, five drivers, but I’m probably on the low end of the scale,” Miller said of discs used.

Miller began playing after some friends told him about the sport.

“I tried it and I loved it,” he said. “I played ultimate for a while in college and this seemed like a natural transition.

“When you let loose with a really good drive and watch that disc sailing straight as an arrow toward the target ... you may not get that feeling often, but it’s the best.”

Cody Winget, 27, of Cranberry Township, said there are discs that will “sail straight, go left, go right, do all kinds of things.”

Winget has been playing for three years. He learned of the sport after accidentally breaking his girlfriend’s Frisbee. He was going to buy her a new one.

“When I walked into a place and asked if they had any Frisbees, the guy asked me if I wanted a regular disc or a golf disc. I had never heard of a golf disc.”

He knows them well now.

“I bought one, went out and played Knob Hill and I’ve been playing ever since,” he said.

The Lakeview Flying Disc Course at Moraine has existed since the spring of 2005. It hosts two major events a year — the Ironwood Open and Pittsburgh Flying Disc Open — and features local tournaments monthly.

There are roughly 2,000 disc golf courses in the United States and hundreds more in Sweden, Japan, Canada and other countries. The Deer Lakes course is ranked No. 5 nationally.

The PDGA reports that approximately 100 new courses are installed each year.

The Lakeview course at Moraine is 8,264 feet long and has a par of 66. The longest hole is No. 6, a 934-foot par 5. The shortest hole is the No. 3, 243-foot par-3.

“Most of the older courses are all par-3 holes,” Graves said. “The average hole is 300 feet on those courses.”

The Lakeview course has eight holes longer than 400 feet. It takes a little more than two hours to play a recreational two-person round, twice that long to play a competitive round with five players in a group.

Winget shot a 7-under-par 59 in the intermediate division Sunday at Moraine, two strokes off the course record of 57 from that length set by Brian Heider in 2008.

“That was one of my best rounds in a long time,” Winget, a former inline hockey player at Seneca Valley, said.

Dusheck shot a 5-under-par 61 from the advanced tees and was 1-under-par for the three-round tournament.

“Should be good enough for third place,” he said, smiling. “The competition can be pretty stiff out here.”