Here you can learn about Järva Disc Golf Park in Stockholm, Sweden. Previously an almost indsputable top 10 disc golf course in the world (winning the #1 spot in 2020), it lost 14 of its original 27 holes in 2021 after the Stockholm city government took back land they'd allowed Järva's founders to tend and landscape for a quarter century. After long negotiations, the course was allowed to live on but not in its original condition. Today, the Järva team is hard at work bringing the track back up to their lofty standards.
Järva is ranked #43 in the most recent World's Best Disc Golf Courses top 100 released annually by us here at UDisc. The rankings are based on millions of player ratings of over 16,000 disc golf courses worldwide on UDisc Courses, which is the most complete and regularly updated disc golf course directory in existence.
Read the whole post to get a full overview of Järva or jump to a section that interests you most in the navigation below.
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- Basics: Times in top 100, year established, designers, cost to play, & availability
- History of Järva Disc Golf Park
- How hard is it?
- What's it like to play?
- Three real five-star reviews
Järva Disc Golf Park: Basic Info
- When did Järva Disc Golf Park open?
1995 - How many times has Järva Disc Golf Park made the annual World's Best Disc Golf Courses top 100 since the rankings were first released in 2020?
Years when the course wasn't eligible to make the top 100 rankings are crossed out. Learn why Järva wasn't eligible in 2021 in the history section of this post.Year 2020 20212022 2023 2024 2025 Top 100? - Who designed Järva Disc Golf Park?
Mats and Jonas Löf - Is Järva Disc Golf Park free or pay-to-play?
Pay-to-play. See its UDisc Courses entry for pricing. - When is Järva Disc Golf Park available for public play?
Year-round
History of Järva Disc Golf Park
Järva is a legendary course that went through a dramatic change in 2021 when it lost over half of its holes to a long-dreaded city construction project. We've broken up its history into subsections so it's easier for readers to identify the imprtant eras in its timeline.
Beginnings to World's Top Course
Järva Disc Golf Park was built on public land that was a literal dump. The hills in the park aren't natural to the region; the city of Stockholm created them by covering up things like large concrete slabs from torn-down buildings with soil. Though the city tried to make the area into a usable green space at one point, it ran out of money and abandoned the project.
When brothers Mats and Jonas Löf first examined the land for its potential as a disc golf course in the early 90s, they found an overgrown mess that had been untouched for fifteen years. However, it wasn't just the abundant nettles and thorns that were a problem. The land was in a troubled area of Stockholm, and people commonly used it for illegal dumping as well as far more serious illicit activities.
But luckily for us all, fears of what the area was didn't stick with the Löfs. What did was a clear vision of what the property could become and how to get it there.
Their ideas for the land went far beyond just taming it enough to make disc golf possible. They wanted to create an epic work of art that would be as pleasing to look at as it was to play. What's more, they planned to do it in a way that was as environmentally friendly as possible. Large machines and pesticides were out of the question, and instead of planting anything new, they would only use the existing flora on site, choosing what to cull and what to nurture with eyes equally focused on biodiversity and aesthetics.
Since the Löfs had trained in landscape design and architecture, these plans weren't just the musings of two idealists. And that's likely something the city of Stockholm took note of when they granted the brothers permission to carry out their project on the land in 1994.
The park opened for play in 1995, but given the Löfs' preferred methods of landscaping, the full metamorphosis was far from complete by then. Still, slowly but surely, the area transformed from forgotten dumping site to a manicured English-style park implausibly situated in urban Stockholm. When we interviewed former pro disc golfer and Stockholm native Ragna Bygde Lewis for our article naming Stockholm the third-best disc golf city outside the United States, she recalled watching parts of this change first-hand.
"When I was a kid, it was an 18-hole course with a café and shop in a little shipping container," she said. "It turned into this magnificent 27-hole course with lots of elevation and beautiful trimmed grass fairways with cleaned-up rough. Mats and his brother Jonas, along with some helping hands, turned this course into one of the best in the world."
Järva's Losses in 2021
The first time UDisc ever released a list of the world's best disc golf courses, Järva took the #1 spot. Every hole was a special work of landscape art with many hours of labor behind it, and the vegetation had had years to mature and fulfill the Löfs' long-term vision. But that changed when the city of Stockholm finally made good on its plans to create a graveyard at Järva in 2021.
The city and course reached a deal that spared some of the course. Still, Järva lost 14 holes and 24 acres/10 hectares of property. Due to uncertainty about the course's future, we reluctantly omitted if from the World's Best Disc Golf Courses in 2021.
Järva's Comeback
But the Järva crew is diligently working to bring back all the former glory and then some. They've created a new 18-hole layout and extended a former six-hole beginner course into nine holes. Järva's former Pro Shop Manager Simon Lindgren told us that some of the new holes need a few years to grow in to be ''Järva standard,'' but the layout is still a joy to play – as evidenced by its continued presence in World's Best Disc Golf Courses top 100 since 2022.
How Hard Is Järva Disc Golf Park?
Järva has an 18-hole layout, with the back nine offering pro and amateur tees. Here's how those two layouts stack up in terms of distance, technicality, and overall difficulty:
| Layout Name | Distance |
Technicality | Overall Difficulty | Par Rating* | Scoring Average* |
| Main 1-18 Amateur Tees | Mid-Length | Technical | Moderate | 198 | +7 |
| Main 1-18 Pro Tees | Long | Technical | Challenging | 211 | +10 |
*Scoring average and par rating constantly adjust as more people score rounds with UDisc. These numbers reflect stats from the time of publication and may have changed slightly since then.
To see hole distances and more for these layouts, visit Järva Disc Golf Park's page in the UDisc Courses directory. Järva also has a set of nine holes that are rated Very Short on our distance scale – ideal for beginner players and warm-up/cool-down rounds.
What's It Like to Play at Järva Disc Golf Park?
A few years ago when we spoke with Jeff Spring about designing perennial top ten course Brewster Ridge, the current director of the Disc Golf Pro Tour brought up Järva as an inspiration for his ethos of course design.
"I think my favorite course I've ever played is Järva," Spring said. "It's beautiful and it's very clear. It's all about placement. You can look at a hole and see if you're short left you'll pinch yourself off; if you're short right, it's great; if you're long left, it's not good. If you want to throw a certain type of upshot on your second shot, you know exactly where you should place your drive."
Spring was speaking there specifically about par 4 design, but the same ethic is apparent everywhere at Järva. Players are never at a loss for how a hole should be played, and the question is always simply whether they can execute each of the variety of shots Järva asks of them.
For those who do find themselves off the fairway a time or two, it's worth noticing just how smooth most of the "rough" at Järva is. Whereas many of us are used to having our errant shots punished not just with awkward positioning but with having to endure thorns and plants that sting or leave rashes, Järva's rough is often simply tightly-packed trees with nothing but green grass between them. They certainly make recovery shots difficult, but they don't make you bushwhack to get in and out of them.
Elevation is another prominent feature utilized on the course. Expect to have the chance to throw quite a few shots from up high over valleys, but also be prepared to throw up inclines ranging from slight to dramatic. Additionally, baskets are often placed on hillsides that make roll-aways likely, forcing players to make risk-reward decisions on longer-range putting efforts.
There are also multiple tee positions so players of varying skill levels can have an enjoyable round based on how much challenge they're up for.
Finally, it's not just flowery language to say that the Löfs see this property as a piece of living artwork. If you think the way the light hits a group of trees at a certain time of day is magically beautiful, it's likely because the Löfs planned it that way. Those lucky enough to get to play Järva should make sure to consciously take some time to study their surroundings and admire the artistry.
Three Real Five Star Reviews of Järva Disc Golf Park
Three real reviews of Järva from disc golfers on UDisc:
Note that the publication date of this post reflects the last time we made minor updates to it so that its structure reflected other Highlights posts. Some information has not been changed since a major update made in 2023.
