New disc golf course created in Portland's Payson Park

Portland recently installed a nine-hole disc golf course at Payson Park thanks to the efforts of a local group that volunteered its time to clean up the course and add physical features.

Adam and Mae McHugh, of Scarborough, and Matt Carroll, of Portland, run Joyswich, a group for disc golf enthusiasts. They had sought to build a permanent course in Portland and initially looked at trying to create one in Deering Oaks.

The Portland Department of Parks, Recreation, & Facilities, however, suggested Payson Park as a more logical choice.

“It wound up being a really good use of that chunk of the park,” Adam McHugh said.

To find the course, visitors should enter Payson Park via the Arboretum Road entrance off Ocean Avenue and look for the baskets on the left. If entering from Baxter Boulevard onto Inlet Road, the course will be on the left.

The metal baskets used in the game came free after Joyswich won a contest by manufacturer Dynamic Discs. The baskets would have otherwise cost roughly $4,000. Several discs have been donated and eventually will be available for public use after a kiosk is installed. The rest of the course building materials were supplied by the city, although McHugh said he’s chipped in some of his own funds as well. The total cost for the entire project came in at about $2,000.

The McHughs, Carroll and others volunteered their time to build three bridges and two staircases and spread about 5 cubic yards of stone. McHugh said using volunteer labor saved several hundred dollars. Plans for another bridge are in the works.

A map of the Payson Park course can be found on the UDisc app, which also serves as a score-keeping tool.

Joyswich, an acronym for “joy and solitude within camping and hiking,” was created in 2021.

“We had an ethos around it, and we wanted to open a location in Westbrook or Gorham,” said Adam McHugh. That idea proved to be cost prohibitive, so instead, Joyswich has been running disc golf putting leagues at local breweries and venues like Bayside Bowl. The group also hosts pop-up disc golf events and has assisted with women’s clinics and disc golf modules at Gorham Middle School.

Since 2022, the group has hosted 32 pop-up 18-hole disc golf tournaments for free on the weekends in Deering Oaks and at Payson Park. McHugh said that three or four will be scheduled for Deering Oaks Park this year.

Instructional clinics are being planned for this summer at the Payson Park course. Singles night is every Tuesday at 5 p.m., and McHugh expects some sporadic doubles events should be starting soon, also on Tuesdays.

Disc golf has been popular in Maine for several years, with more than a dozen courses in southern and central Maine.