This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
06/06/2017 03:30 PMLocal fans of the increasingly popular sport disc golf may soon have a place to play close to home. After a successful disc golf tournament in town last fall and with growing community interest, Guilford is now laying the groundwork to establish a disc golf course in town.
Disc golf is a game that combines Frisbee and golf. A golfer is given a disc and has a certain number of throws to reach the “hole,” which is a stand with a chain basket sitting on top. Parks & Recreation Director Rick Maynard said disc golf is “growing like crazy” across the state. Nearly 80 people of all ages and experience levels came out to play in the town tournament in the fall and Maynard said having a regular course can draw in even more enthusiasts.
“My peers who have disc golf courses in other towns—I think there are 26 throughout the state right now—they tell me they get 30 to 50 people per day using the disc golf course,” he said.
With interest on the rise, Maynard said the logical next step is to build a course in town. The Park & Recreation Commission is currently considering two locations, Bittner Park and Peddlers Park, to establish a course, according to Maynard.
“As long as there are no issues with the Planning & Zoning Commission or something, the commission is committed to building a disc golf course,” he said.
To build the course, which will be 18 holes and likely spread over several acres, Maynard said he hopes it will come together in a similar manor as the Dog Park on Nut Plains Road—through volunteer efforts.
“We are looking to model this kind of like the dog park where we picked the spot in Nut Plains Park and then the dog park committee got like 20 volunteers to come out over a few weekends and they cleared it and did all that work,” he said. “This is much bigger—you are talking about an 18 hole or 18 basket disc golf course [that] is a lot more area than the dog park. It is spread out over about 25 acres or so. It will take longer to get it done.”
Volunteers are already prepared to get started. Maynard said he has recently spoken with two eagle scout candidates looking to build tee boxes (the spot from which a player throws the Frisbee) and potentially an entrance kiosk and course benches. In addition to physical labor, Maynard said people are lining up to help with the financial aspects of establishing a course.
“There is a businessman in town who is interested in helping do the fundraising—solicit businesses to be hole or basket sponsors,” he said. “A typical basket is about $325 and so he is going to work on that and he thinks we can get a lot of sponsorships…We haven’t even publicized this yet and we already have people who know about it and are wanting to come forward and help out.”
Once the commission decides on a location for the course, Maynard said he has two volunteers—one who has designed a course before and another who is a professional disc golfer—at the ready to help design the course.
“Both of them thought the potential at either location is really good for a very high quality course,” he said. “I don’t think we are looking to build anything championship level, but there is room to do both. You can make shorter fairways for the more recreational disc golfer and longer for the more professional guys.”
To build the course, Maynard said he has spoken with a few Boy Scout troops to see if they would be interested in helping to clear brush as a troop project.
“A disc golf course is not like a normal golf course where you have these big wide fairways. They like having trees in there for the obstacles,” he said. “Mostly it will just be clearing out the small undergrowth. We wouldn’t be taking out a lot of big trees because it is part of the challenge.”
Maynard said normally disc golf courses are free to the public, but if the sport picks up in town, there might be an opportunity to form a league or host tournaments. For now, Maynard said he is just excited by the community enthusiasm for the project.
“It is really exciting it really is,” he said. “It [disc golf] is growing like crazy and my understanding is there are no other courses on the immediate shoreline so this would be the first one that will benefit people in this area.”