New disc golf shop already receiving customers from all over the region – Albert Lea Tribune

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Co-owners Colt Amos and Stephen Navarro opened Demon Discs in December. Alex Guerrero/Albert Lea Tribune

In addition to carrying discs, the store carries frisbees and discs used for ultimate frisbee. Alex Guerrero/Albert Lea Tribune

Demon Discs, which has been open since December, is located at 2343 Leland Drive. Alex Guerrero/Albert Lea Tribune

Albert Lea has a toy store, several cafes, manufacturing companies and several senior citizen facilities, just to name a few businesses in the town. It now has a new disc golf store after Demon Discs opened in December at 2343 Leland Drive next to Walmart.

“It’s a sports store that specializes in disc golf discs and disc golf accessories, primarily,” said Colt Amos, one of the co-owners of Demon Discs.

For anyone unfamiliar with disc golf, Amos said the game was similar to regular golf, except discs replace golf balls.

“You have different drives doing different things, like different speed drives,” he said. “You have drivers and mid-range, and you have putters, just like regular golf.”

The difference is that players try to get the disc into a basket instead of a hole.

Amos and co-owner Stephen Navarro decided to open after noticing that there were no disc golf stores nearby.

“You have to go two hours north or two hours south to Des Moines, and there are tons of great golf courses in this area,” Amos said.

They also liked the building’s location, next to Walmart and off the highways.

“It seems everyone likes it,” he said.

“Everyone who comes in wants to support us and be there for us,” Navarro said.

Since opening, they have seen visitors from Austin and Iowa.

And the location was ideal for the couple.

“The disc golf area is just down the road on Hammer Road, so it’s not far either,” said Navarro.

Amos said his interest in the sport started when he was younger and lived in Rochester before getting away from the game.

“I moved here a few years ago,” he says. “Since I moved here, everyone in this town loves it, so I’ve come back to it pretty heavily over the past few years.”

Navarro started playing in high school.

“[The school district] took you on an adventure here to Bancroft Bay,’ he said.

He also saw that he was good at it, so he decided to keep it up.

And while disc golf isn’t as mainstream as football or basketball, the duo believed it could become one.

“We think it’s growing pretty fast,” Amos said, as Navarro noted that the sport was starting to pop up on ESPN.

Amos also argued that the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns helped boost the sport’s popularity.

“It was one of the few sports you could actually play and still maintain social distancing,” he said.

For Navarro, disc golf enabled him to get outside and exercise. The game also served as a stress reliever.

“Take a walk in a nice park, might as well take a disc and throw it as you walk, that’s all it really is,” Amos said.

For anyone interested in playing, there are two courses at Bancroft Bay Park, and Amos said they plan to hold doubles there from May through September via the UDisc Disc Golf app. Browse the events and search for Demon Doubles hosted by Demon Discs.

“It’ll be every Sunday, we’re thinking about an $8 buy-in,” said Amos. “Then it’s random doubles that we pick before we start.”

“It’s just a big group of people meeting at an agreed time,” Navarro said.

Everyone is invited to play the 18-hole course.

The store also has regular frisbees for the ultimate frisbee. Meanwhile, the duo is working on their website: demondiscs.com.

“Once our website is online…we might want to see if we can also sponsor some kind of team through high school or some kind of ultimate Frisbee team,” Amos said.

Amos and Navarro also consider opening jobs of their own.

Demon Discs is open Monday through Saturday from 10am to 7pm.