Story

The idea for UFOGOLF came about in the fall of 2009, when two friends during a brainstorming session decided they wanted to start something new and unprecedented. Agnis, one of the founders of UFOGOLF, was passionate about golf and wanted to be able to play it all year round. Then, searching the Internet for an alternative to golf, he found information about disc golf on a U.S. website. Golf only with flying saucers! The idea captivated right away and he had to tell a friend about it – they were both excited and started looking for the nearest place to try this sport and found Jolumae Park in Estonia with an impressive disc golf course. Unable to fully understand, but very much in love with this game, they both decided to try a disc golf event and went to Estonia to participate in the competition in the same winter. Fortunately (or unfortunately), the first competition was the Estonian Winter Championship at Jolumae Disc Golf Park (players will understand what both friends, without knowing it, signed). This event did not frighten them – on the contrary – it lit a spark in their eyes.

Burned by the idea, friends organized the next brainstorm – this time about the name! If you ask why UFOGOLF – then looking at the meaning of “Unknown flying object” you can understand that it’s something you never know, and ufogolf players like to say that this is the little secret that everyone can discover for themselves!

Further, searching for information about what is happening with disc golf in Latvia, friends realized that nothing… Niche is free for new entrants. Although Jānis Lūsis started this sport in Latvia it seems that the time was not right for that.

Returning to the heroes of our story – Agnis and Jānis started planning where the new disc golf course will be. The first city that came to mind was Sigulda. Two sites were found, two squares were planned – one in the ancient walking park of Sigulda Castle and the other in the ancient valley of the Gauja, in the old vicinity of the balloon meadow. After presenting their idea to Sigulda City Council, friends received an answer – if you can create a disc golf course, then you can also create a golf course! Sigulda dreamed of a golf course. Friends did not give up and did not lose their passion, they were looking for new cities, new places and new opportunities. Both traveled around Latvia and searched…

In 2012, working in the LGK attractions in Mežaparks, Agnis discovered an unprecedented water attraction “Plunkšķis”. That summer, the idea of a disc golf course in Mežaparks and surveying its territory and finding the right place arose. After several meetings with the management of Mežaparks, the friends came to the green light – in the spring of 2013, the construction of the square began, so that on September 1, UFOGOLF would land in Mežaparks with its first 9-basket square. The following events are more or less known and can be found on the Internet. Avery Jenkins, the world champion in disc golf, also visited the small course – thanks to Discsport.lv and Gatis for this opportunity. Many thanks to Jānis Zosārs, who gave UFOGOLF a new start. In connection with the renovation of the Mežaparks stage, UFOGOLF was asked to look for a new place in the park. We planned, searched and moved to where we now have the large DiscGolfPark with 19 baskets and the small Ufogolf course with 10 baskets.

What have we achieved !? More than we could have wished for at the beginning – there was a full field in the Latvian Cup stage, or 95 players, 100 baskets were played for “Latvia 100” and 118 baskets for Mežaparks  118 years, the Latvian Championship was experienced, Innova Baltic Tour, Latvia – Lithuania, as well The world champions and disc golf stars – Avery Jenkins, Gregg Barsby, Philo Brathwait, Eagle Mcmahon, Will Schusterick and Simon Lizotte – set the course record with Anna Riekstina. We don’t stop at all this – we continue and ignite the spark of disc golf in new eyes!