SABATTUS — Local disc golf is going big time.

One of the fastest-growing recreational sports in the country has chosen Maine for the site of one of its most prestigious events.

The Professional Disc Golf Association, in conjunction with the Maine Sports Commission, announced Thursday that it would hold the 2016 Women’s Disc Golf Championship at Sabattus Disc Golf.

“This is really big,” said Peter Ruby, owner of the Sabattus course. “It’s never been held in Maine. It takes a lot of planning and preparation.”

Fortunately, they’ve got a little time to tweak — the dates for the tourney are Sept. 23-25, 2016, giving the area and the local disc golf community a little more than a year to prepare for the event.

“If this goes well, we’ll do it on an annual basis,” Ruby said. “That will be our goal.”

The Northeast has yet to host a major disc golf event. The PDGA sanctions more than 2,000 events in 49 states and 27 countries each year, for both professional and amateur disc golfers.

“The PDGA is very pleased to come to the Sabattus area for the 2016 (championship),” PDGA Executive Director Brian Graham said in a news release. “The crew at Sabattus has been working very hard to embody the principles employed by the PDGA, and we are excited and confident in their ability to host an outstanding major event.”

According to Ruby, the disc golf demographics have been slowly changing. It used to be a sport that drew mainly young men in their 20s or 30s. In recent years, more families have gotten into the swing of disc golf, with couples and their children hitting the courses for fun and for the health benefits.

“That’s been a part of our whole strategy,” Ruby said. “We’ve really focused on the families.”

It’s kind of a wonder that the PDGA took so long to come to Maine — it’s one of the only states, after all, that offers disc golf as a pay-to-play pastime. In most parts of the country, disc golf is part of parks and recreation departments or of college campuses.

“Maine is unique that way,” Ruby said.

With volunteers, staff and help from the Maine Sports Commission, Ruby and his crews will be mainly doing hardscaping to prepare for the 2016 event. He promised that the Sabattus facility will not become snooty or exclusive because of the prestige and visibility of the championship.

“Nothing will change,” Ruby said. “We’re just going to continue to improve our facility for the families.”

Disc golf is one of the fastest-growing recreational sports in the U.S. The sport is played using the same rules as traditional golf, but players use a high-tech flying disc as the golf ball and a standardized target as the hole. Higher-level disc golfers carry a bag of 10 to 15 discs, each with their own flight characteristics, and they can be thrown as far as 500 feet with solid accuracy.

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