World’s best winery disc golf course is in SLO County. See the popular spot
Ever faced the dilemma of deciding between a round of disc golf or a wine tasting? Thanks to Castoro Cellars, you don’t have to — you can have both.
Named the top winery disc golf course in the world in 2024 by UDisc, which annually ranks the world’s disc golf courses, the Whale Rock Disc Golf Course offers an 18-hole, 2-mile-long disc golf course that winds throughout the Templeton estate at 1315 N. Bethel Road.
The course has also ranked in the top four disc golf courses throughout the state.
Why SLO County winery added popular disc golf course
The Whale Rock Disc Golf Course is a part of Castoro Cellars, the winery established by the Udsen family in 1983. The name “whale rock” is inspired by the multi-million years old petrified whale bones scattered throughout the area.
The winery gained national recognition after being toasted at the 2019 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction.
Castoro Cellars management’s Luke Udsen said the disc golf course itself was built about 10 years ago by his brother Max, a disc golf enthusiast, and throughout the years, the course has become more popular.
“There are a lot of disc golfers in our San Luis community. There’s really good courses here,” Udsen said, referring to other local courses like at Sinsheimer Park and Laguna Lake Municipal Golf Course in San Luis Obispo, or Rock Harbor in Morro Bay.
But of all the 501 disc golf courses throughout the state, it’s Whale Rock that stands apart, he said.
“It’s a growing sport and people are really dedicated to it, and as the (Whale Rock) course grew more notoriety, now we have people traveling from all over the country to play the course,” he said. “We have on a daily basis people showing up that are doing nationwide disc golf tours, and they’re driving across the country playing disc golf courses, or they’re driving up California playing every course. So, over time, we’ve become one of the highest ranked courses in the state.”
How does it work?
For those looking for a good glass of wine and a nice round of disc golf, Udsen said check in is at the Castoro Cellars tasting room where guests can decide to play a round before or after a glass or two.
Course access costs $5 and a tasting costs $20.
“Sometimes, you’ll get a group people that come in and half the group wants to go play disc golf, the other half wants to hang out and do wine tasting,” Udsen said. “Or you’ll get people who go play the course and then come do some wine tasting after, or people will learn about the course while they are wine tasting, so we have loaner bags that have discs in them that they can take down for no additional cost.”
The course’s landscaping even changes every week or so to keep things fresh, Udsen said.
“We’re constantly planting trees and different shrubs and things on the course to create more obstacles, and sometimes if we have an oak tree that loses some big limbs, we’ll place those limbs in kind of precarious spots on the course to add challenge,” he said. “We have some disc golf baskets that hang some trees, just a bunch of different ways to kind of make it fun and interesting and challenging.”
In addition to the course and tastings, the Whale Rock Vineyard also hosts the annual Whale Rock Music and Arts Festival, running Sept. 19-20 this year, as well as e-bike tours throughout the estate.
For more information visit castorocellars.com.
