The Live United Disc Golf Outing is at 4 p.m. Sept. 21. It is a three-man, best-disc tournament. The entry fee is $10 per person or $30 per team. You can show up at Bancroft Bay Park as a team or as just yourself and get assigned to a team. Disc provided. The goals are to have fun and to raise money for the United Way of Freeborn County, but there are prizes, too.

It is a common conversation on any disc golf course: comparisons of disc golf to conventional golf.

First off, both are great sports for getting outdoors. Both are lifelong sports. You don’t see 50-year-old men playing football, but they do play golf. And, of course, disc golf wouldn’t exist without being inspired by ball golf.

Disc golfers are quick to note the expense difference. A player needs only a $15 disc for basic play. A person who finds a disc can play disc golf for free, pretty much. Occasionally, there is a course that has a fee. To play disc golf at Hyland Ski & Snowboard Area in Bloomington, it costs $3 a round or $5 a day.

As people get better and begin to love the game, they want to expand their disc collection. These aren’t beach Frisbees. There are distance drivers, mid-range drivers and putters, all with various traits. Most regular disc golfers have about 10 discs and a bag — an investment of about $180 over time. Of course, like I said, many of their discs are found on the course, so that decreases costs, too.

Some players carry just three or four discs. Some have big $70 bags that haul 25 discs. I have a $30 bag, and it holds 12 discs.

That said, in ball golf, you don’t throw your driver in the water. In disc golf, you sometimes do, and there goes $15 or $20.

Ball golf can be played cheaply, if a person wants. Because I grew up playing golf, I had a set of hand-me-down clubs that cost me nothing. I went with newspaper friends who had clubs from garage sales and from Play It Again Sports. In 2000, we would play in the off-season for $5 on a public course north of Ames. Fall, by the way, is the best time to play inexpensive golf with good weather.

But as players get better and start to love the game, they want to do more. I once bought a cheap set of clubs on sale for $120 in 2004. Some of the heads fell off after a few years.

A complete set can reach more than $1,000. Most seem to be in the $300 to $800 range. A single new club at your local pro shop is about $150. A box of balls costs $20.

Green fees run about $25 for an $18-hole course. Half that for a 9-hole. Membership to a 9-hole club is about $450 and an 18-hole club about $900. TPC Twin Cities, according to its listing at TheGolfMembershipSpot.com, has annual dues that range from $3,600 to $7,200 with an initiation fee that ranges from $10,000 to $30,000.

Don’t forget the golf cart. The average golf cart costs $5,000 to $7,000. A push cart is $150 to $200.

The lack of golf carts in disc golf is another difference. Disc golfers walk every game. Get this: The pro disc golfers have caddies available to them, but almost all choose to carry their own bag of discs. Some ball golfers get great exercise by walking and hauling their clubs, either on their back or in a push cart. But the majority — correct me if I am mistaken here — ride in carts.

Admittedly, the golf carts are good for helping seniors play a game they love. But they also are a toy that many players have but much of the time could go without. I admire how fans at PGA Tour events are following the players on foot. Can you think of another pro sport on TV that requires spectators to exercise?

Both sports relieve stress, but think about this:

In disc golf, no one cares if you play too slowly. No one from the parks department comes out and tells you to speed up your play. No one cares if you take your shirt off on the course. No one minds if you dress slovenly. No one cares if your dog comes along. No one minds if non-players cross the course. No one minds if large groups play together.

There is some basic etiquette, but no one cares too much if, say, a disc comes headed your way. It’s a lot easier to spot a disc after someone hollers, “Fore!” than it is to spot a little white ball. And a disc won’t kill you, though it can inflict pain.

If you play a sport to reduce stress, you have to admit there is less to get stressed about, other than your own lacking performance.

The number of players playing golf is declining, according to the National Golf Foundation, and disc golf is one of the fastest growing sports in America, according to sources ranging from EA Sports (a video game company) to the Professional Disc Golf Association and any organization that tracks the growth of sports.

In an ESPN.com story last month about disc golf, players give reasons for the increase in participation. Time is a big factor.

It takes less time to play a round of disc golf. At Bancroft Bay Park, it takes about 90 minutes for 18 baskets. It takes four hours for 18 holes of golf. It is difficult for parents these days to get that much time away from the family on a regular basis to stay good at the sport. In fact, according to a 2008 New York Times story, golf course owners are looking at ways to accommodate changing family dynamics, such as teaming up to offer multi-course package deals for nine holes an outing.

The ESPN story also pointed to less land and less alterations of the land. Disc golf courses across America sprung up in places unsuitable for other activities or in between and around the spaces for other items. It doesn’t take much land to put one in. The Bancroft Bay Park one is spacious compared to many courses. And the land isn’t altered much. Sure, tee pads and baskets are installed, but the land is not manicured like in ball golf. Who needs fertilizer? Who needs sod? This matters to some who are green-minded.

But my favorite claim for disc golf is that it attracts people from all backgrounds. Young players who otherwise play video games with their free time are among them. Disc golf is doing a good job of getting people to exercise.

From ESPN: “Although there is sure to be some long hair involved and although there may even be some hippies, there also are doctors and lawyers, teachers and plastics engineers, people from all walks of life.”

Interestingly, the new “Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10” for the Nintendo Wii has disc golf as a play option. You can have your favorite pro golfer play disc golf. (John Daly and Zach Johnson are my favorite pro golfers.)

Like I said, these are differences, but the two sports have more in common. Players of both understand why they play. Both are addictive. Both are relaxing. Both require a calming concentration that takes your mind off other worries.

To be sure, ball golf has little to worry about from disc golf. Disc golf has been the next biggest thing since it began in the 1970s. This quote from a player in the ESPN story: “We all say, ‘It’s gonna be huge in three to five years,’ We’ve been saying that for years.”

Tribune Managing Editor Tim Engstrom’s column appears every Tuesday.