Sedgley Woods Disc Golf Course

Sedgley Woods is one of the oldest permanent disc golf courses anywhere. The Philadelphia Frisbee Club — Jim Powers, Joe D'Annunzio and Rick Vlam — started clearing fairways in West Fairmount Park in early 1977 before the park commission sent them across the river to Sedgley, in East Fairmount Park. Ed Headrick of the Disc Golf Association supplied the initial design, built around short holes that each demand a different shot rather than distance, and the DGA Pole Hole baskets that arrived in summer 1978 made it what the club calls the first permanent Pole Hole course on the East Coast. It has grown to 27 holes since, with three tee placements per hole: blue from 1977, yellow from 1984, red from 1991.

The ground is wooded — small oaks and maples, denser stands, ravines with dry streambeds and gentle slopes — on the site of Joshua Fisher's 18th-century estate, The Cliffs. The Friends of Sedgley Woods, a nonprofit formed in 1990 after the original baskets were stolen, runs maintenance and daily operations, sells discs on most Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, and keeps scorecards at the information board. It is free to play and open sunup to sundown year-round, closing only for the Philly Open and Puppy Preview tournaments.