Spinners on the Green is home for Valley disc golfers

Golfers and Frisbee enthusiasts may appear to be on the opposite ends of the sporting spectrum. But to Dan Ginnelly, owner of Spinners on the Green disc golf pro shop in Scottsdale, the mash-up of playing golf with a flying disc is like playing two great sports at the same time.

"Basically the game started by just some folks hanging out in the park having a good time and they'd say, 'Hey Joe, take this Frisbee and let's see who can hit that trash can in the least amount of throws,' " explains Ginnelly, a professional disc golfer for more than 20 years. "The game started evolving and a Wham-O gentleman, Ed Hedrick, invented the pole hole (in the '70s)."

Ginnelly, who grew up in Cairo, Egypt (his father is a retired fisheries scientist) and used to throw glow-in-the-dark Frisbees off the pyramids, got into the sport in the mid-'80s, a scant few years after the pole hole was invented.

"I was always fascinated with the flight of discs, but in 1984 I'm doing drywall in some apartments in Mesa and it was right up against a park," Ginnelly says of the first time he became aware of the new sport. "I saw people throwing these Frisbees in the park and I walk down there and I'm like, 'What are you guys doing?' and they were playing disc golf.

"I started playing and within two years I won my first pro event," continues Ginnelly. "I spent four years touring on the road - I was a good player and I just wanted to compete with other people."

Ginnelly and his wife opened Spinners on the Green three years ago, and the shop, which Ginnelly says is one of only "maybe three" in the country, is lined with discs of all makes and sizes, from drivers to putting discs, clothing, disc golf bags and even specially designed disc golf shoes.

There is plenty to like about disc golf in comparison with ball golf - no greens fees or tee times are required, as the disc golfer can walk up to hole one any time of day, throw his driver and begin playing - but the main perk is that disc golf is cheap.

"I can get you playing for $18," says Spinners on the Green co-owner Keith Murray, a former employee of Discraft, a leading disc golf manufacturer in Michigan, who bought into the shop last year. "Two $9 discs will do it - a putter and a driver."

An afternoon spent hanging out in the shop, which is next to the disc golf course at Vista del Camino Park in Scottsdale, will see disc golfers of all ages dropping in to purchase discs (the lakes on the course are notoriously full of errant drives), look for their lost discs (the shop has a catalog of returned discs - "The first thing I tell people to do when they buy a disc is write their name on it," says Murray) or just talk shop with other disc golfers.

The very existence of Spinners on the Green is proof that the sport has grown exponentially since the '70s - it has its own organization, the Professional Disc Golf Association - and Ginnelly runs the third-biggest annual association event, The Memorial, every spring in Scottsdale.

"Ball golf has been around for 500 years, and it took 250 years for it to grow - I don't think it's gonna take 250 years for us," says Ginnelly. "We're in the 30th year, and since I started playing, it's taken a huge leap."

Spinners on the Green

Where: 7607 E. McDowell Road, Scottsdale

Hours: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday

Information: (480) 941-2513 or spinnersdiscgolf.com

Where to play disc golf in the East Valley

Mesquite Grove Disc Golf Course (5700 S. Val Vista Drive, Chandler)

Fountain Hills Park (12925 N. Saguaro Blvd., Chandler)

Emerald Park (1455 S. Harris, Mesa)

Vista del Camino Park (7700 E. Roosevelt St., Scottsdale)

Moeur Park (715 N. Mill Ave., Tempe)