DeLaveaga Disc Golf Course

DeLaveaga sits in the wooded hills of DeLaveaga Park above Santa Cruz. Tom Schot — a PDGA Hall of Famer and founder of the World Disc Games — got permission to build it in 1984 as part of that year's World Disc Championships. The original 18 holes used 4x4 wooden posts as targets, replaced by pole holes a few years later, and volunteers from the DeLaveaga Disc Golf Club cleared tons of garbage, debris, dense underbrush, poison oak and abandoned cars out of the land to make it playable. It has since grown to 27 numbered holes plus alternates at 8a and 26a.

The layout mixes mostly wooded holes with open meadows, cliffs and ravines, running through large redwoods, eucalyptus and oaks with uphill, downhill, flat, tight and open tee shots. The ground is steep and hard enough that 'getting DeLa'd' is local shorthand for watching your disc roll away. The finisher is hole 27, 'Top of the World,' where the tee sits nearly 600 feet from the pin and about 100 feet above it, on a ridge the military used as a lookout post during World War II. The course hosts the Santa Cruz Masters Cup each May — the 2026 pro event is a featured stop on the DGPT Q-Series — plus the FaultLine Classic, run here since 1991. Park hours are sunrise to sunset, and the city charges $2 a day for the parking lot, payable at the iron ranger.