Murrysville turns steep hillside into new disc golf course

Murrysville took a piece of land that looked unusable and turned it into the backbone of a new disc golf course. The steep hillside behind Murrysville Community Park, between Scouting Knob on Bollinger Road and the municipal dog park on Wiestertown Road, became the kind of layout that can give a park an identity, not just another amenity. Dan Flannigan, who also designed Oak Hollow in North Huntingdon, saw playable ground where borough recreation officials saw a slope too awkward for much of anything.

The finished plan is an 18-hole wooded course that runs through a largely unused parcel behind the park, between Farm and Bollinger roads. UDisc lists it at about 2.5 miles with an estimated playing time of 2 hours and 17 minutes, a hard difficulty rating and dirt tees, which tells you this is not a casual pitch-and-putt squeezed into a corner of a field. It is a full course, designed to make use of elevation, awkward angles and the kind of terrain most towns would leave idle.

That design choice matters because the course is built to serve two different players at once. The baskets are yellow for beginner-friendly shots and black for more challenging play, a simple setup that lets Murrysville offer a welcoming entry point without sanding off the bite for experienced players. Flannigan was on the course with his daughters, Sadie and Eloise, on June 5, a scene that fit the project’s tone: family-friendly, but clearly shaped by someone who understands how disc golf should actually play.

The project moved from idea to approval fast. Borough officials first discussed the proposal in July 2025, then council approved it at its Aug. 6, 2025 meeting. Michael Nestico, Murrysville’s chief administrator, projected the cost at $50,000 to $70,000, but the Murrysville Parks and Recreation Foundation now says the course will be funded solely through foundation support. Construction is set to begin in spring 2026, with play available in summer 2026, and sponsorship materials are already being pushed for tees, baskets and course signage.

That funding model matches the sport itself. The Professional Disc Golf Association has long pointed to disc golf’s high benefit-to-cost ratio, with low capital and maintenance costs and minimal liability issues. UDisc’s 2026 Growth Report says the sport now has more than 17,000 courses worldwide, 89% of them free to play, with 21.2 million rounds played in 2025. Murrysville is betting that a steep hillside can become a destination when the design is right, and the first real test of that bet is coming soon.