According to the Disc Golf Association, the group was established in 1976 as a way to promote a new international sport and to encourage the creation of disc golf courses worldwide. From its informal beginnings in the late 1960s, the sport was based on Frisbees, but Wham-O's control of the brand name for its flying disc prevented use of the word "Frisbee" for any other purpose such as a game called Frisbee Golf. The key development in the formalization of the sport came with the 1975 patent of the Disc Pole Hole, which used 10 metal chains suspended in a basket shape from a pole to stop the flight of a disc. Now players could actually see if their disc had hit the target.