An article from udisc.com. Read their full article here.
All the world's best disc golf courses in 2024
We reveal and count down the top 10 disc golf courses of 2024 one per weekday from February 12, 2024 to February 23, 2024.
See all the courses revealed so far in our main post: World's best disc golf courses in 2024. It is the same post where the full top 100 courses of 2024 will be published on Monday, February 26, 2024.
Ale Disc Golf Center - White Course: Basic information
Ranking of the world's best disc golf courses in 2024: 3
Ranking of the world's best disc golf courses in 2023: Not qualified in 2023 due to the course being closed in 2022
Year opened: 2017
Designers: Camilla Grundén, Jonas Grundén, Dan Johansson
Availability: Spring to fall. Exact dates vary depending on conditions.
Cost: 105-125 Swedish Krona (approximately $10-$12 USD or €9.30-€11) per round per person. The price goes up during times and days with typically higher demand (e.g. weekday daytime is cheaper than a weekend afternoon).
Ale Disc Golf Center - White Course: Tour and tourism statistics
All Totals Refer to 2023 Stats Recorded by Disc Golfers With UDisc
Registered rounds: 5,515
Unique disc golfers: 2,501
First-time visitors: 1,799
Disc golfers came from so many countries: 18
History of Ale Disc Golf Center - White Cours
Welcome back, Ale Disc Golf Center!
After finishing seventh in the 2020 World's Best Disc Golf Courses, Ale's several courses did not qualify for the list for the following three years due to the previous owner closing down operations in early 2021. But in late 2022, the property was sold, and the buyer - local entrepreneur Vincent Schaffler - wanted Ale to become a disc golf paradise again. Thanks to Schaffler's investment, the hard work of Erik Mellgren and Simon Terbrant Säfström who now run Ale's day-to-day operations, and a successful Kickstarter campaign, the Center's courses reopened for business in spring 2023.
The origins of the Ale Disc Golf Center go back to the early 2000s. That's when former husband-and-wife team Camilla Jernberg and Jonas Grundén grew tired of several projects to build disc golf courses on public land around Gothenburg - Sweden's second largest city with a population of around 580,000 - that stalled after promising beginnings. There was only one way to be sure it wouldn't happen again: buy land where they could decide the priorities themselves.
Their thorough search for the right property near Gothenburg eventually led them to a location 30 minutes north of the city.
"It was close to Gothenburg and big enough, which is not easy to find," Jernberg said. "It was an old farm that had been abandoned for 15 years, so there was junk and debris everywhere, really dilapidated. But the area and the forests were beautiful."
Part of what created that beauty was the variety the property offered: dense woodlands, fields, large elevation changes, and a meandering creek. The Grundéns couldn't imagine the work that would be required, but they succumbed to the lure of a site with everything they needed to create a great place for disc golf despite the clutter and dilapidated buildings on the verge of collapse. The land became theirs in 2013.
"After we bought the land, we didn't have a lot of money left for other things, so we did an insane amount of work by hand - like, way too much," Jernberg said.
And even after doing "too much" work by hand, there were still some things that the couple simply could not do themselves. For example, they had to pay a company to remove about 20 tons of scrap metal from an area where they wanted to build a fairway. Fortunately, the sale of the metal covered the cost of having it removed.
Another thing they needed help with was cutting paths through tree walls to create the wooded parts of Ales's courses.
"We decided how we wanted some of the holes to be designed and then we stretched long plastic straps through the trees to mark where they would be cut to make the fairways," Jernberg said. "We were a little lucky because the guy driving the tree cutter was a disc golfer, so he understood why we wanted the trees cut into these strange shapes. In fact, that's why we chose that company because cutting disc golf fairways is not the most efficient way to cut trees."
The hard and financially demanding efforts of Jernberg and Grundén - as well as a third partner, Dan Johansson, who joined them after they bought the property - resulted in the completion of Ale Disc Golf Center's Yellow Course in 2016 and White Course in 2017. The courses were instant successes, and it didn't take long for Ale to become known throughout Scandinavia and Europe in general as a must-play destination.
Despite Ale's growing reputation, the relationship between Jernberg and Grundén deteriorated, and the two separated. The center continued to operate for a while, but in late November 2020, Grundén announced that Ale would close in March 2021 and be put up for sale. It seems likely that an attempt by Ale to host the Professional Disc Golf World Championships, which was not accepted by the Professional Disc Golf Association, accelerated Grundén's decision.
Notably, after Ale's closure, Jernberg opened another course nearby called Uspatorp DiscGolfPark which has become one of the world's top 100 courses.
After being closed for nearly two years, the Swedish disc golf community was thrilled to have the Ale Disc Golf Center back in 2023 thanks to Schaffler's purchase of the land for approximately 12 million Swedish kronor, which is a little under $1.2 million, in October 2022.
"We know the courses are special to a lot of people, but we had no idea how much it was missing from the whole disc golf community that had grown over the two years while the course was closed," said Mellgren, CEO of Alegruppen and Ale Disc Golf Center.
Given that Ale was relatively new when it closed, it didn't take long for nature to take over its fairways and destroy the infrastructure. Mellgren said it took a lot of time and effort to restore and improve the Center's courses over the past year, but the arduous work has been worth it.
"There was a 'hallelujah' moment this summer when we took a moment to stop, raise our heads and actually be proud of what we had achieved!" Mellgren told us. "As well as renovating most of the existing handcrafted woodwork, tees, bridges and stonework that make this course so unique, we planned and implemented many course improvements and hosted the 2023 Swedish Championships. We have already been asked to host again in 2024, which feels fantastic."
How difficult is the Ale Disc Golf Center - White Course and what is the par on it?
Ale Disc Golf Center's White Course is as difficult as it gets in all of UDisc's disc golf course difficulty categories, and its par rating is one of the highest of any layout on any of this year's Top 100 World's Best Disc Golf Courses.
| Layout Name | White |
|---|---|
| By | 63 |
| Pair Round rating | 237 |
| Difficulty level | Very challenging |
| Length | Very long |
| Technology | Highly technical |
What is it like to play at Ale Disc Golf Center - White Course?
Ale Disc Golf Center is home to the Blue, Yellow and White Courses. These courses are all separate entities spread across the property and do not share baskets or fairways.
"What makes the White Course great is that it tests everything in your game - distance, accuracy, feel and makes you think about how you need to play to score. It gives you the option of hitting far off the tee or playing safer to make the long one on your second shot in a perfect balance. Both methods can result in birdie, but you need to execute the shots well.
The White Course also forces you to shape shots in a way that's not common on longer courses, and you'll need to think about how you land your disc near the naturally raised baskets and on the sloping fairways. You will need to have a well-rounded game, and when the wind picks up, you will need to pick your spots to be aggressive because leaving the fairway or the occasional OB line will cost you dearly.
What I like about the White Course is that it is disc golf. You'll see players on a card play holes in different ways but still finish with the same score. And there are many types of players who can perform well because of the mix of challenges. All of this is created in a beautiful Swedish forest with stunning, handmade tees and benches around the course. That makes this a place for every disc golfer's bucket list."
Ale Disc Golf Center - White Course's signature hole
It's hard to forget a hole where you tee off from a cliff and aim for a basket over 500 feet/152 meters away in a field below, and when a course has a hole like that, it's hard for it not to become the course's signature.
That's the case for Ale White, which offers this exact scene on an epic par 3 that used to be the course's 12th hole but will soon be its third due to a change in the order of the holes come 2024. Take a look at it in the coverage of the Flip Up Collective from the 2023 Swedish Nationals:
Recent and planned developments at Ale Disc Golf Center
A tremendous amount of work has gone into restoring the Ale Disc Golf Center to its former glory, and there is still much more the new team wants to do to make it better than ever before. Here are the highlights of what has been done and what is on the to-do list:
- In 2024, the front and back nine of the White Course will be swapped (hole 10 will become hole 1, hole 11 will become hole 2, etc.). This change is expected to make tournament finishes more dramatic and create a better player and spectator experience
- The old hole 1, future hole 10, will have an extra OB line on its right side.
- The old hole 2, future hole 11, will see a minor change in the position of the basket.
- The old hole 9, future hole 18, will have a hazard area that will turn its green into an island.
- The old holes 4, 8 and 16, future 12, 17 and 7, have been given new, more challenging tees.
- Extensive work has been carried out on the pitch's drainage system to ensure rapid playability after snow melt and heavy rainfall.
- Fairways ravaged by wild boar over the last two years have been restored.
Facilities at Ale Disc Golf Center
In addition to well-manicured courses, you can expect the following extra amenities at Ale Disc Golf Center:
- The world-class Yellow Course which is still a great experience for skilled players but slightly less challenging than the White Course
- The short Blue Course, designed for beginners and for warm-up/cool-down strokes with putter for experienced players
- A pro shop with a wide selection of dishes as well as light meals, snacks and refreshments
- Toilets
Three real five-star reviews of Ale Disc Golf Center: White Course
Three real reviews of Ale Disc Golf Center: White Course from disc golfers on UDisc:
A course that challenges the best players! Fantastically nice and complete! Excellent tees, the signage is in place. Fantastic details with pallets, bridges, stairs, markings, etc. Simply an experience. Challenging fairways with clear lines. Challenging and varied in many ways. Beautiful iconic holes and tees! A little power comes in handy on this course! Will definitely come back!
- pernillebure
Playing here is like playing in a work of art in the middle of the forests of Western Sweden. Fantastic facility with three different courses.
- Nenjarickard
Wow, wow, WOW!!! Disc golf heaven!
- joakimpekkari