Backyard Disc Golf: Which Starter Set and What Else You Need

Q: What discs come in a starter set?

Innova publishes a DX Leopard driver, a DX Shark mid-range and a DX Aviar putter, all in DX plastic and all approved by the Professional Disc Golf Association.

Q: Do you need three different discs?

Yes — a driver travels, a mid-range places accurately at medium distance, and a putter stops where it lands. One disc removes most of what makes it a game.

Q: How much does disc golf weigh to carry?

Less than anything else here. Innova publishes no set weight; three discs go in a pocket. It is the only game you can take somewhere on foot without planning around it.

The specs

What Innova publishes

Innova disc golf starter set, published contents.
Element	Specification
Discs	3 — DX Leopard driver, DX Shark mid-range, DX Aviar Putt & Approach putter
Plastic	DX, described as grippy and beginner-friendly
Certification	All discs approved by the Professional Disc Golf Association
Disc weights	Not published on the maker's set page
Basket or target	Not included
Case	Not published
Players	Not published
Footprint	Not published

Naming the three models rather than shipping an unspecified assortment is the reason to prefer this set: a Leopard, a Shark and an Aviar are individually documented discs whose flight characteristics you can look up, so you learn what you are throwing rather than guessing.

What is not published is the one spec experienced players care about most: weight. Disc weight changes how a disc flies more than almost anything else, and Innova's own set page does not state it — so that field stays blank on our product page rather than being filled in from a retailer.

Using them

What the three discs are actually for

The driver — Leopard

Built to travel. This is the disc that needs a park, an open field or a genuine course, and the one that should never come out in a suburban garden with windows in it.

The mid-range — Shark

The most useful disc for anyone learning, and the one a large lawn actually supports. A mid-range is thrown to be placed rather than to go as far as possible, which is a completely different skill and the one that transfers.

The putter — Aviar

Designed to stop where it lands rather than skip on. This is the disc a backyard is for. Putting practice at 10, 20 and 30 feet is the part of disc golf that most improves a score, it needs almost no space, and it can be done alone.

How to set that up without buying a basket, and the etiquette of playing a park course, is in disc golf basics for a backyard.

Decision

Who this is for

Buy it if you have a park nearby. Disc golf is a park game with a backyard practice component, not the other way round.
Buy it if you want the cheapest real sport on the site. PDGA-approved equipment for the price of a few coffees is not a claim any other category here can make.
Buy it for a teenager. It has a governing body, a genuine skill ceiling and a competitive scene, which is the filter that matters for that age band.
Do not buy it as your only game for a party. It is individual, it is sequential, and a group of eight will not all be doing it at once. For that, flag football is the field game that takes a crowd.

Go deeper

The discs, and the target

Two pages pick up where this one stops. Best frisbee golf discs explains what a driver, a mid-range and a putter each do and why buying one disc makes the game incoherent. And best disc golf basket deals with the purchase this page keeps calling the real one — including the chain count that decides whether a basket catches a putt or spits it out.

Go deeper

How to check a target before you buy it

The PDGA fixes a basket at 82 cm to the rim with a 66 cm opening, and publishes the measured figures for every approved target. What those numbers mean, and which portable baskets are actually on the list, are in disc golf basket dimensions.

Go deeper

If you wanted a disc to throw to someone

A golf disc is small, thick-rimmed and built to cut toward a target, which makes it a poor thing to throw at a friend. The wide, floaty kind — and what USA Ultimate approves at each level — is covered in best flying disc.

The picks in full

Every pick, with its published specs

Best first set of discs

Innova Disc Golf Starter Set (3 Disc)

Innova

Our spec score

6.8/10

Spec completeness: 5/10
Footprint clarity: 2/10
Durability: 8/10
Pack-down: 10/10

Scored on published specifications only. We have not played this set.

The three discs a course actually asks for — a DX Leopard driver, a DX Shark mid-range and a DX Aviar putter — all PDGA approved, in the grippy beginner plastic Innova names for the purpose.

Skip this if

Skip this if you were expecting somewhere to throw at. A disc set is not a course: Innova publishes no basket with it, and a backyard game needs a target you buy or improvise separately.

What works

PDGA approval is published for every disc, which is rare at the starter end
Three named models rather than an unspecified assortment, so you can look up each flight
DX plastic is the one Innova itself recommends for a first set
Packs into a pocket — comfortably the smallest game on the whole site

What does not

No published disc weights on the maker's set page, and weight is the spec that most changes how a disc flies
No basket, so the set on its own is a throwing activity rather than a game
Nothing published about footprint, which for disc golf is the whole planning question

Published specifications

Discs: 3 — DX Leopard driver, DX Shark mid-range, DX Aviar Putt & Approach putter
Plastic: DX, described as grippy and beginner-friendly
Certification: All discs approved by the Professional Disc Golf Association
Disc weights: —
Basket or target: Not included
Case: —
Players: —
Footprint: —
Surface: —

Manufacturer listing: Innova published set specification

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Price as of October 22, 2026. #ad How we make money

FAQ

Questions people actually ask

What discs come in a starter set?

Innova publishes three: a DX Leopard driver, a DX Shark mid-range and a DX Aviar Putt & Approach putter. All three are stated to be approved by the Professional Disc Golf Association, and all three are in DX plastic, which Innova describes as grippy and beginner-friendly.

Do you need three different discs?

To play the game properly, yes — they are three different tools. A driver is built to travel, a mid-range to be placed accurately at medium distance, and a putter to stop where it lands rather than skip past. Starting with one disc is possible and it removes most of what makes disc golf a game.

Can you play disc golf in a backyard?

In a small yard, only as putting practice — a driver in a suburban garden is a broken window. What a backyard genuinely supports is the short game, which happens to be the part that most improves your score. Full holes need a park.

How much does disc golf weigh to carry?

Less than anything else on this site. Innova does not publish a set weight, and does not need to: three discs go in a bag, a coat pocket or a bicycle pannier. It is the only game here you can genuinely take somewhere on foot without planning around it.

Why you can check our work

We have not played these. Every figure above is copied from a manufacturer's published listing or a governing body's published rules, and named so you can verify it. Where a maker publishes nothing, the field is blank rather than filled in. How we pick explains the whole method, including what would change a recommendation.

Every figure on this page is copied from one of these sources. If you find one that is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will fix it.

Backyard disc golf

What Innova publishes