Planet Earth Disc Golf

It’s always fun when UDisc releases their top 100 to see if Little Mulberry is still in the top 100. Still holding strong at #80! And Bud Kelley making a strong push in its first 5 months in existence for #6 in GA, with LMP and JP Moseley(responsible for West 9 addition) also making the top 10 in GA.

It always feels good to know players appreciate the efforts we put forward when planning for and designing courses!

Consult and feasibility study for a new course cranked out this week. Could be a really nice, mostly wooded course. Will post updates if the project moves along

Bud Kelley Disc Golf, wow what a project! I wanted to do a wrap-up post with some finished pics and design notes and to also give due credit to Austin Lytle for his help designing the course. He was not mentioned in the grand opening or on some of the media posts about the opening, but was crucial on most of the trips noodling out design. Below are full design notes if you want to know some history of the property and backstory for the course design. Huge thanks to everyone who assisted on the project and who came out during grand opening weekend to make it a memorable one!

Bud Kelley Disc Golf Course
Design and Development Notes
12/30/25
History, From Henry County website:
Bud Kelley Park (124 ac.) was named in memory of Edwin Bud Kelley, a lifelong resident of Henry County whose family was instrumental in establishing the Kelleytown Community in McDonough. Mr. Kelley served as a Henry County Commissioner from 1969 to 1976 and was nicknamed the “Mayor of Kelleytown”. Mr. Kelley thrived on serving people and never waved in his desire to help others, making great strides for the betterment of Henry County. He was influential in the idea to establish Henry Medical Center in Stockbridge
Timeline
After the opening of the West 9 at JP Moseley in Spring of ’23, PED (Planet Earth Designs) was contracted for course design for the new course at Bud Kelley Park in McDonough (Kelleytown), GA in May of ’23.
Course design/ marking for clearing timeline was appx. 1 year with 11 site visits. Many visits walked with Mike Haney, who provided great feedback and insight of what was desired from the Henry Co. Disc Golf Club. Majority of design was done with Austin Lytle and Ryan Harris from PED. Other club members walked the preliminary layout in March ’24 and provided excellent feedback. Course design was completed April ’24, and construction documents completed June ’24.
The County put the project out to bid for construction in Spring 2025 and the project was awarded to the contractor in June ’25. The contractor’s timeline for clearing, tee pads, signs, baskets, new pavilion and bridges/ culverts was 6 months. Impressive! The course grand opening will be on Friday 12/19/25 at 9:00 am. Timeline for the project from first property walk to completion 2 years, 8 months.
Design Notes
The directive from Henry County and the HCDGClub was to utilize the unused portions of the park to create an 18-hole championship level course. 2 tee pads and 2 permanent baskets would be used on each hole to create 4 unique layout possibilities (Red, White, Blue, Gold). The desire for 2 unique tee areas or “lines” to the baskets, as well as two unique green areas was prioritized during the design.
The park property borders neighboring residential properties on the two sides, with a shared community lake on the back side, and multiple paved walking trails throughout the course area. Major buffers were kept along the shared property lines to minimize the impact to these neighbors, and buffers along the walking paths were kept to minimize the overlap of the course on the existing uses of the park. The course loops around the main body of the property with 1-5 playing out to the lake, then 6-10 playing back towards the parking lot, then a smaller 6-hole loop on 11-16 on the Western part of the property, then 17-18 playing back to parking lot.
The property character is beautiful GA Piedmont, with rolling meadows, mature hardwoods (in the old homestead area close to the lake), pine stands around the old lake/ wetland area, with a creek/ natural springs feeding into the old lake/ wetland, and eventually the larger lake. There are farming relics still in the woods near #6 tee. Piles of trash from the old homestead were removed from hole 6-7 during course construction. There is some sort of cattle loading ramp that remains by the green of hole 7. Pretty cool to play through re-claimed and re-activated homestead areas from a previous generation.
Course par is 62 with Par 4’s on holes 2, 4, 9 and 16. Par 5’s on holes 5 and 13. Three holes play in the central meadows, with the rest of the holes routing through pine and hardwood forests around the property. Wide fairways and landing zones were designed and cleared to create a forgiving learning space from the short tees, but also be able to fairly challenge the advanced players from the long tees. Attention was paid towards the balance of the lefty/ righty/ straight throws on the course, with a net +1 for RHBH for all drives and approaches. We think the front 9 will play harder than the back 9, as some of the Par 3 holes on the back were limited in space with property lines and sensitive creek and wetland areas.
The course does not play over any existing paved walking paths, along/ close to pathways, or near any property lines. No holes throw directly over any creeks (hole 17 plays along a creek). For erosion prevention, soil compaction prevention and preservation of tree roots, all vegetation was mulched on site and used to cover the soil in wooded areas. Check-dams were placed in existing natural drainages to capture sediment and slow drainage flow. Bridges were installed over creek crossings and a new culvert was installed at the creek crossing by hole 10. Most medium and ALL large Hardwood trees were preserved and designed around with a focus on clearing less desirable species like Privet, Sweetgums, Pears and Pines. Undisturbed buffers were maintained between holes, along property lines, along existing walking paths, and along the lake. We took these steps to set and support a standard for course design that minimizes conflict/ overlap with other existing park users and neighboring property owners, and helps preserve sensitive areas of the property.
I hope that the disc golfers will be respectful to the existing users of this park, as it is a quiet place once you get away from hole 1 and parking areas. The walkers have been using the trails for many years (the park originally opened in 1969). I would imagine the Kelley family (the namesake of the park) is still in the area and likely uses the park. Keeping music, yelling, smoking, etc to a minimum would be great, as the other park users adapt to a new activity in the park. Pack it in and pack it out. Say hello to other park users, let them hold a disc, explain the rules, invite them out for weekly action. Help be a positive face of disc golf for those who have never seen the sport being played.
We are confident that this new course will serve the local community for decades to come, effectively introducing new players to disc golf, while providing progressively more challenging layouts as player skills increase, and ultimately providing a top-level challenge for more advanced and professional level players.
PED would like to thank Henry County Parks staff and Commissioners for their support of disc golf within the County, and for allocating SPLOST funds to help create top-notch facilities. Big thanks to Mike Haney and the HCDGClub that has pushed the County officials for many years to recognize the local disc golf user group, and help provide quality facilities for them. We are thankful to the players and club members that provided feedback and guidance along the way during the planning and design phase.

BK getting really close. Grand opening details coming soon!

Pic of #9, par 4, looking back towards LZ.

Steady Ed, the visionary responsible for conceiving disc golf

“Steady” Ed Headrick — Father of Disc Golf Interview from 1993 #discgolf #discgolflife #gottagogottathrow #discgolfeveryday #discgolfdaily #discgolfislife #minnesotadiscgolf #mndiscgolf #innovadiscs #discgolfhistory #history #frisbee #frisbeegolf #frolf

From field measurements, to scaled drawing in AutoCAD, to color rendered signs in Photoshop. Accurate signage takes some time…

We’re pumped for this epic Par 5, hole #5 at Bud Kelley park in Henry Co, GA. Coming soon!

Yesterday we walked the freshly cleared holes at Bud Kelley park. It is so much fun seeing these wooded holes come to life! We spent the day finalizing the tee pad locations, updating basket locations and marking final clearing limits. Great progress on what is sure to be a beautiful course

On Tuesday, Henry County awarded the construction bid for the new disc golf course at Bud Kelley park. The winning contractor, JR Bowman, also constructed the West 9 addition to the disc golf course at JP Moseley back in 2023. This marks a crucial step forward on the two-year long Bud Kelley project.
The course at Bud Kelley will be mostly wooded, with 15 holes playing through varied wooded terrain, and 3 holes playing into a central meadow. We are looking at Par 62 currently with two big Par 5’s, and a few Par 4’s mixed in with the 3’s. There will be two concrete tees and two permanent sets of baskets installed, allowing 4 unique layouts possible (similar to Oregon Park). The course design maintains buffers along the property lines and does not throw over or along any of the existing pathways, roads or parking lots. We feel strongly that this is a necessity for any disc golf course designs in public spaces moving forward.
But we are not only getting an epic new course, the County also approved all 4 of the Add Alternates (additional amenities) for the project! There will be a new covered pavilion at the first hole area (similar to the entry plaza at Little Mulberry, but with a roof!), a concrete slab and seat walls will be under the pavilion, and there will be commercial grade BENCHES AT ALL 36 TEE PADS. There will be some erosion control measures installed and some shade tree plantings at the first hole.
This project signals a significant investment from Henry County towards the future of disc golf in the county. The county commissioners and leadership in the parks department have shown that they believe in disc golf being substantial part of the recreational offerings that they provide to their citizens. We hope that the local players and club can continue to be good stewards of the land and help the County maintain where possible.
Mike Haney and the Henry Co. Disc Golf Club have been instrumental in the initial push for disc golf out at Bud Kelley, and the continued conversations with them about the project to push it forward. I have walked and talked with Mike and others for the past two years, coming up with the best strategy for the course design, and the best ways to get the project to push forward. We walked some of the club members around the proposed design last year and the crew seemed very excited about the new course! We valued and incorporated their input into the final design.
This will be a landmark project for Planet Earth Designs, pushing the development of disc golf courses forward in the Atlanta-metro area. We continue to strive to provide top-level design, development, and consultation for new disc golf courses, not only in GA, but throughout the country. PED will provide Construction Administration services throughout the construction of the Bud Kelley project and will post pictures and updates on the PEDG page in the coming months. Please message us with any future project leads where we could be of assistance. Get excited folks!

Big announcement for ATL disc golf coming tomorrow!