Volunteer Spotlight: The Hands That Shape Our Courses, and Our Community

There’s something grounding about walking onto a disc golf course in early spring. The air is cool, but the sun is making its return. The fairways are alive again, and the baskets glint in the light like old friends waiting patiently for your return.

What’s easy to forget in moments like these is that this beauty—this space we step into so freely—doesn’t just appear. It’s shaped. Maintained. Repaired. It’s the result of hands that work quietly behind the scenes. People who trade their weekends, their mornings, and their energy for something bigger than themselves.

In Shreveport, Louisiana, the Shreveport-Bossier Disc Golf Union (SBDGU) understands this. They aren’t just disc golfers. They are caretakers.

The Sacred Act of Stewardship

At its best, disc golf is a dance between the natural world and human creativity. We shape courses, but we’re also shaped by them. The volunteers who clear fairways and repair baskets know this balance well. It’s not just about trimming a branch or pouring concrete; it’s about honoring the space where we gather, compete, and find a little peace.

SBDGU hosts regular work days—especially in the spring—when the courses are waking up from winter’s rest. Ford Park, Clyde Fant, Lake Bistineau… these courses don’t maintain themselves. Each time you set your bag down on a clean tee pad or follow a newly mulched trail, you’re experiencing the result of someone’s decision to give their time, their effort, their care.

Tee Signs: Symbols of Thoughtfulness

Even something as simple as a tee sign carries deeper meaning. It’s a guide, yes—but it’s also a signal that someone thought about you. Someone took the time to make sure you would know where to go, how far you had to throw, and what lay ahead. In Shreveport, those tee signs are often cleaned, repaired, or replaced by SBDGU volunteers who understand that clarity on the course mirrors clarity in life. When the path is clear, the game feels just a little lighter.

Why We Give Back

You don’t have to be part of a club to understand the urge to give back. There’s a quiet satisfaction in knowing you left a place better than you found it. Volunteering at a work day, even for an hour, becomes a small act of gratitude—for the sport, for the people, for the places that give us so much.

The SBDGU crew understands this. Their workdays aren’t about recognition. They’re about stewardship. About the belief that when we care for something together, it becomes more than just a course—it becomes part of who we are.

A Quiet Thank You

So, the next time you step up to a tee pad and study a crisp, legible tee sign in the morning light, think of the hands that placed it there. Think of the mowed fairways, the trimmed trees, and the clean trails that lead you through the course.

And if you’re in Shreveport, maybe say thanks to SBDGU—not just with words, but by picking up a stick, grabbing a rake, or joining the next work day. Because when we give back, we become part of something bigger. Something lasting.