Bringing Disc Golf to 10,000 Scouts at the 2026 National Jamboree
What Happens When You Hand a Scout Their First Disc
It started with a conversation at the 2022 Pro Tour Championship in Charlotte. Scouting America asked if disc golf could have a place at their National Jamboree. We said yes, and in 2026 we came back for our second one.
The Jamboree is held every four years at the Summit Bechtel Reserve in Glen Jean, West Virginia, and it draws thousands of Scouts, leaders, and staff from every state and territory. Our team, alongside the PDGA, arrived two days ahead of the participants to build a course on the side of a mountain. Staff and volunteers pitched in before we even asked.
The Fit Is Obvious Once You See It
Scouting is built around the outdoors, hiking, camping, and personal challenge. Disc golf is an individual sport played in the woods where these kids are already spending their week. Put those two things next to each other and they come together naturally.
The proof was in the reactions. Most of the Scouts who came through had never thrown a disc. A few of them ripped one clean on the first try, and you could watch it happen in real time and they get hooked. The rest threw something ugly, laughed, and immediately said some version of "let me try that again." Both reactions lead to the same place.
Merit Badges, Patches, and a Lot of Loops
Disc golf was recently added as an option under the Golf merit badge, which means a Scout can now earn credit for learning the sport. Several kids who came through the course had already earned it.
Patches did a lot of the recruiting for us. The first hundred participants earned a limited patch, and the next group earned a Challenge Base Camp patch. Those first couple of days our crew ran loop after loop, teaching grips, teaching putting, and walking new players around the course until the line finally thinned out.
Even a lightning delay could not slow it down. Programming shut down, we waited out the thirty minutes on top of a mountain, and the second the all clear came through, the kids were back on the course.
Why We Keep Showing Up
Most events we attend are full of disc golfers. We speak the same language, we know how a tournament runs, and we know what to expect. The Jamboree is the opposite of that, and that is exactly the point. Introducing the sport to Scouts, scoutmasters, staff, and executives who have never touched a disc is a different kind of experience, and it is hard to describe to anyone who has not stood there watching it.
The Scouts go home now. They go back to troops, clubs, churches, schools, and neighborhoods all over the country and internationally. Some of them will find a course near them. Some will drag a friend or a parent out for a round. That is how the sport actually grows, one person handing a disc to someone else.
Thank you to the Professional Disc Golf Association, to the Jamboree staff and volunteers, and to every Scout who gave it a shot. Hope to see you at the next one.