Zilker Park Disc Golf Course

The disc golf course sits at the west end of Zilker Metropolitan Park, between MoPac and Barton Springs Road and a short walk from Barton Springs Pool. Austin Parks and Recreation lists it as 18 holes opened in 1987 — the second-oldest course on the city's list, behind Bartholomew. Wikipedia's catalogue of John Houck's original designs includes three Zilker entries (Zilker Park Original, Zilker Park South and Zilker Championship), with the standing caveat that layouts on that list have often been reworked by others since. The park around it runs to more than 350 acres, on land Andrew Jackson Zilker gave the city between 1918 and 1931, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

The course closed for nearly a year and reopened in July 2015 after a renovation of more than $300,000 — a joint project of Austin Parks and Recreation, the Watershed Protection Department and the Waterloo Disc Golf Club — that brought new baskets and tees, rebuilt trails, and drainage and vegetation work after years of heavy use and drought. The ground is mixed: roughly two-thirds open, with big scattered oaks through the middle and denser woods along the southern and western edges, over gently rolling terrain about 500 feet above sea level. Play is free, but Zilker charges $3 an hour for parking on weekends and holidays in peak season. One thing worth knowing: the course's future came up repeatedly during the Zilker Park Vision Plan process, when commenters told the Parks Board they expected the layout to lose holes; Council shelved that plan in August 2023.