Crossville is the undisputed Golf Capital of Tennessee, and it’s not limited to tiny plastic tees, clubs and little dimpled balls.
The city’s 18-hole disc golf course at Meadow Park Lake is drawing big attention from enthusiasts all across the Southeastern U.S., said Ethan Medley, Crossville’s Leisure Services director.
“It’s continued to grow,” he told Crossville officials during last week’s City Council retreat. “The tournament numbers and tourism numbers have looked really good.”
Disc golf is a relatively new concept in Crossville. City officials gave the OK in 2020 to develop the course which, with its two layouts, essentially offers two courses in one.
“I thought it would be a great park amenity, something for campers to do while they’re there,” Medley said. “It is absolutely massive out there.”
He credits disc golf enthusiast Ethan Hadley, Crossville-Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce president and CEO, for introducing the sport that’s attracting tournaments and a vast number of players to Crossville.
UDisc, an app disc golfers use to find courses and track scores and rounds, shows that 577 rounds of disc golf were tracked in July at Meadow Park.
“A hundred and forty of those were unique players, and 54 of those people had never been to that course before,” Medley said.
The app also reported 738 hours were spent on the Crossville course, with 35 players traveling from more than 150 miles away and 24 traveling from more than 300 miles away.
“These numbers are actually probably a little bit low,” Medley said. “There’s more.”
UDisc ranks the Meadow Park course at 4.5 on a 5.0 scale.
“We’re getting good reviews,” Hadley said. “I recall one of the Google reviews that we got or UDisc reviews that we got, the person had come from Idlewild, came here and played our course and said they liked it better.”
Idlewild, in Burlington, KY, is a premier disc golf course and host of the LWS Open Disc Golf Pro Tournament.
“I’ve always called it going on a hike, and while you’re at it, throw this disc,” said council member Scot Shanks. “When you play disc golf, you don’t realize how much you’re walking.”
Crossville’s prime location between Knoxville, Nashville and Chattanooga makes Crossville a popular draw for disc golfers looking for a new place to play, Medley said. A recent tournament attracted 89 players from all those areas and cities in between, as well as Kentucky, Virginia and Georgia.
“Everybody that was there ate locally, either at the food trucks we had on site or on their way in and out,” he said. I picked up lots of Buc’ees cups on my way out. Multiple hotel rooms were used. The campground was used.”
That’s why Medley and his staff are lobbying for the construction of a second larger, more difficult course on newly opened acreage across the lake.
Disc golf club members are willing to donate time and equipment for design and installation.
“In the first course, the city did not pay a dime to have it installed,” Medley said. “It was designed for free, it was all installed for free. We didn’t pay anything. This time, I think with a course this size and because it’s been so successful, I would like my department to actually put up the money for the equipment. We would still have the design, the prep and the install for free.”
He said the amount they’re looking at is an average of $1,000 per hole in the 2025 fiscal year budget.
“Disc golfers travel, they want to travel, and they want to go play difficult courses,” Medley said. “We will be one of the few that have three different layouts of varying difficulty at one site.”
The Claytons Disc Golf Course in Maryville is considered the most prestigious and manicured course in the area, he noted.
“This would put them to shame,” Medley said. “We’re already pretty close to them anyway. This would put us above them. … They do not have three different layouts. They have two at the most.”
It would also allow for 190 players in tournaments that last two to three days. That kind of tournament attracts professional disc golfers, bigger prizes and more extensive travel, he added.
It would also give Crossville an edge in offering campground lodging on site, something Medley said other courses do not have. It would also dovetail with trail and other amenities at Meadow Park Lake, with none of them interfering with each other.
“I think doing this is a no-brainer myself,” Shanks said. “This is something that needs to happen, I think.”
Added council member Rob Harrison, “I’d like to see a master plan.”