Riley’s Teebox: New England Team Challenge

No Offseason in New England

Four hour drive to play disc golf in a foot of snow? Count me in.

Team Challenge is the most anticipated, most fun disc golf in New England of the year—hands down. It’s a winter league that turns everyone else’s offseason into our prime time. It started in 2005 with just six teams. Today, it’s grown to 74 teams and over 1,500 players.

The Format

Throughout the winter, teams from courses across New England compete, all aiming for a spot in their pool’s finals. Each team has 20+ players, including at least two women, and plays a mix of home, away, and neutral-site matches.

Team captains draft singles matchups in the morning and doubles after lunch. Good captains do their homework—scouting ratings, past performance, and word on the street to get a leg up. Each player or doubles team has one job: beat the matchup in front of them. Singles is match play, worth 1 point per win; doubles is best-shot stroke play, worth 2. Most points at the end of the day wins and the top four teams in each pool at the end of the season advance to finals.

What makes Team Challenge special isn’t just the unique format—it’s the culture. This is disc golf at its best. Competitive but not cutthroat. Strategic but never over-serious. You show up to win, but you stay because it’s the most you’ve ever smiled playing disc golf—even when it’s 10 degrees and snowing.

The Real Battle Happens at Lunch

Team Challenge is also a food competition—unofficially, but seriously.

Every match, the home team puts out a lunch spread for both teams. We’re talking crock pots lined up with pulled pork, chili, mac and cheese, enchiladas, mashed potatoes, desserts, snacks, drinks—you name it. More demoralizing than losing a home match? Putting out a weak spread.

There’s a Facebook page called “Rate the Spread” where teams who bring the goods get praised and teams that don’t get put on blast. The profile pic for the page reads, “There are two reasons why we do Team Challenge—bragging rights and a massive spread. You can’t have one without the other.”

2025 Finals, New England Style

It’s already weeks into spring, but would sunshine and flowers really be in the Team Challenge spirit? Of course not. After a season spent throwing in sub-freezing temps, New England greeted last weekend’s Finals with what else but inches of heavy, wet snow. Perfect.

All in one day, each pool went from four teams who made finals to one winner. Some teams played three full rounds of disc golf. It was cold, it was soggy, it was exhausting—and it was exactly what we signed up for.

My team, Cranbury Unleashed, took third, meaning we hold our ground in F Pool for another season. Not the leap we hoped for, but still a big step forward from where we started in the Play-In Pool last year.

Big congrats to all the Pool Champs.

F Pool Finals, Mile Marker 63

Get Involved! (Even If You Don’t Live Here)

If you’re in New England and not playing Team Challenge—go find a team. Some clubs have two or three. Or start one. That’s how we got going. It introduces you to new friends, takes you to courses you otherwise wouldn’t have found, and keeps you playing in the off months.

And if you live outside the region? Build your own version. Midwest Team Challenge. SoCal. PNW. The format works, and disc golfers are wired for this kind of fun. Whether you copy New England’s playbook or dream up your own, the sport needs more creative, community-driven ways to compete.

When the pros pack away their discs for the winter, we’re just getting geared up in New England. You should be too.

-Riley O’Neill