Throwing their games

AMESBURY -- Growing up in Amesbury, Dan Ouellet walked down Highland Street countless times and admired the majesty of the towering pine trees in the park adjacent to the high school.

So, seven years ago, his interest was piqued when he noticed a group of men throwing Frisbees amid the pines.

''I had no idea what I was walking into," said Ouellet. ''Those guys in the trees were essentially the pioneers of disc golf in this area. From then on, I was hooked."

Whether you call it disc golf, Frisbee golf, or ''Frolf," as George Costanza dubbed it in a classic ''Seinfeld" episode, it's a sport with a growing fan base in Boston's northern suburbs.

When Ouellet first stumbled upon the sport, the competitors would simply hurl Frisbees at trees marked with target lines. With the support of local schools and businesses, Ouellet molded the pines into a standard course, complete with tee-off areas and metal baskets -- embedded in the ground -- that serve as holes.

The pines are now officially home to the 18-hole Amesbury Pines Disc Golf Course. Free to the public, more and more locals are stopping by to check out the action.

''The coolest thing for me is to drive by and see all the people out here playing," said Ouellet, 32, who still lives in Amesbury with his wife, Amanda. ''We've grown by leaps and bounds over the past seven years. I can't help but smile when I see the kids and their parents, or even this senior couple that has to be about 65 years old, and they're all out here running through the woods playing the sport."

It doesn't take much to get hooked. Just ask fellow Amesbury native Matt Thomas.

''I can remember driving by the park on the bus in high school and making fun of those guys out in the woods," said Thomas, 24, a recent graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he was a distance runner for the track and field squad. ''I came back from college and my dad had started playing. I went out with him and the next thing you know, I'm buying my own discs."

Family members have a way of luring each other to the course. Twelve-year-old Nick Predki of Amesbury got involved with the sport last year and soon began badgering his older brother, Branden, to give disc golf a shot.

''At first . . . I thought it was dumb," said Branden Predki, 14. ''I tried it out and it's so addicting. Now we just practice and keep trying to get better."

The Predki brothers were part of the inaugural youth program that Ouellet and Thomas ran this past summer. The siblings continue to play at least one round per day and participate in the Amesbury Pines Tuesday night league with a handful of other juniors.

As the members of the youth league start entering high school, some of them have begun writing their respective athletic directors in hopes of making the sport an intramural activity. For now, they settle for the competitive Tuesday league.

One of those juniors is 10-year-old Willie Stewart, whose father, Bill, founded the Pye Brook Park Disc Golf Course in the family's hometown of Topsfield. Bill Stewart successfully lobbied the town to turn a portion of an old landfill into the picturesque course.

''Back in the old days you'd say, 'OK, let's hit that tree in three shots,' " said Bill Stewart. ''We came here, thought it was a cool setup, and three years ago we started the Topsfield course."

As any disc golf player can attest, it's a rather simple game, and that's a large part of its appeal.

''Essentially it's golf, but you substitute [discs for] the clubs and balls," said Thomas, opening his bag to display an array of multicolored and tattered discs that each have a special purpose (driving, midrange, putting) based on weight. ''A lot of the time we're giving first-time golfers a disc and just telling them to keep it and hopefully they keep coming back."

The number of holes vary by course, but in Amesbury there are 18, at an average distance of 315 feet from tee to basket. Every hole in Amesbury is a par 3, with each fling of the Frisbee counting as a ''stroke."

Ouellet said his course would have never come together without the support of the community. Port Sheet Metal in Newburyport donated nearly all of the metal, while the students at Greater Lawrence Technical School in Andover donated an entire semester to make the baskets.

In that spirit, Ouellet is looking to give back. Next weekend, Amesbury Pines will host its first breast cancer fund-raiser tournament. The two-day event will feature an amateur championship Saturday and a pro tournament Sunday.

A portion of the entry fees will be donated to the Massachusetts affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, while Ouellet hopes to further raise funds through donations that have already started rolling in from as far away as Texas.

''This is our first fund-raiser, so we're a little nervous, but it feels great to be able to give back," said Ouellet, whose mother-in-law, Marcia Gilkey, provided the inspiration for the tournament after recently completing treatment for breast cancer. Ouellet also had two aunts who overcame their battles with the disease.

''It doesn't sound like much, but I think a nice goal for our first year would be $3,000. The community support has been great and hopefully that will help raise even more money," Ouellet said.

According to Ouellet, the Barn Pub & Grille in downtown Amesbury will donate 25 percent of its weekend food sales to the fund for those who stop by the disc golf event and pick up a special ticket before dining. Meanwhile, Dave Balkema of Shadow and Lights plans to illuminate the pines at nightfall Saturday, and Ouellet is hopeful that the display will lure more spectators. ''The pines are beautiful enough, but then you light them up and it looks unbelievable," said Ouellet. ''Hopefully, it makes people come take a look at what's going on."

And as Ouellet knows, even if you're just walking by, it's easy to get hooked.

Chris Forsberg can be reached at cforsberg@globe.com.