Järva DiscGolfPark – Challenge & Pleasure
Järva DGP is a world-class disc golf facility and also one of Stockholm’s largest and most attractive parks. All are welcome to use the park: Disc golfers of all skill levels and also other visitors. The park’s beautifully shaped landscapes are a perfect setting for a picnics, walks and recreational activities. Järva DGP is run by Mats Löf who has been an active disc golfer since 1979. Mats’s brother, landscape architect Jonas Löf, has also contributed greatly to park’s development.
The course itself is suitable for everyone; beginners, recreational players and touring pros alike. Järva DGP’s core is a 27 hole disc golf course with three varying pin positions on each hole. Six of the holes have long & short tees. These alternatives are designed to provide variety during season and to meet the requirements of players with different skill levels. There’s even a six hole short hole course.
Today the well-maintained park spans circa 30 hectares of diverse landscape. The maintenance is funded by course fees and sales. The grass on fairways is always cut 5 cm tall while roughs are 12 cm tall. All trees and bushes are groomed. Tree groves are culled but few pristine areas have been left to promote diversity in the landscape and as protected refuges for wildlife. This is where branches, bushes, and trees that are regularly grubbed out from course areas are taken, as both, ecological and economic park management. The 27 hole layout is formed of three 9 hole loops which meet in the center of the course. In the center lies Villa Albastro, where the reception, pro shop, kiosk and restaurant are located. The three loop layout also provides many options for players.
In 1994 Mats Löf got an idea to open and run a brand new kind of disc golf facility. A professionally run pay-to-play course with disc retail, café and a well-maintained course suitable for all players. The idea became real very soon, in May 1995, when the course was opened. At the time the course had 18 holes with two pin position per hole. The course was set on the grounds of an old dumpsite that had been restored. Due to it’s history, the place was littered and there had been no maintenance since the dumpsite had been restored in the 70’s. In the early years the trees on the course were young and small but the area had many advantages in form of hilly and varying terrain. The course’s characteristic hills presented the greatest advantage – to build on elevation differences. Discgolf café was the starting point of the course before Villa Albastro was built in 2005.
Järva DGP became quickly very popular among disc golfers and lead many beginners to the sport, thanks to it’s approachability. In 1996 Stockholm Discgolf Open was held in Järva and in 1998 first american professional player, Ron Russell, visited the course. Year after year the SDGO kept growing and during the last five years the event has attracted many professional players from different parts of the world, foremost from the USA. 2014 marks a new significant chapter in Järva’s history with European Masters held on the course. The event organized by Innova, along with other recently begun collaboration of Järva DGP and Innova, will improve Järva DGP’s development possibilities.
Since 2010 Järva DGP has been endangered with a shutdown by a cemetery that has been planned on the site. Despite the benefits provided by the many Swedish and international visitors that Järva DGP attracts to the area. We are now looking forward, being quite sure that the plans for the cemetery will change and disc golf will flourish in Järva.
-Mats Löf
