On Saturday, more than 50 people gathered at the historic site of the Hearst Mill at the end of Newsham Road in Silver City to celebrate the opening of Grant County’s first permanent disc golf course, the result of local momentum in the sport that may result in there being three courses in the area by the end of this year.
The Old Hearst Mill Disc Golf Course is a nine-hole course made up of par-3 holes. The first fairway runs parallel to the parking lot, while the next two holes go downhill into the bottomland, where Pinos Altos Creek provides a little cooler experience under a canopy of cottonwood trees. Holes 6, 7, 8 and 9 then zigzag back up the hill, ending the course at the tee box for Hole 1.
Forty-nine people signed up to win competition discs donated by Ace Hardware in a raffle. Others participated in a closest-to-pin competition, where experienced disc golfers were on hand to explain the technique of throwing.
The Mint Chip had their ice cream truck on hand, and Gila Hike and Bike, which will be offering Innova-brand discs and other gear at their store downtown, set up a booth, where they sold much of their on-hand supply of drivers, mid-range and putting discs.
The course came about with cooperation from the town of Silver City, the town’s Trails and Open Space Committee and a group of disc golfers spearheaded by Jeff and Alicia Hamm.
“It came up in one of our meetings that the town wanted to convert this space into something [people would use],” said Martyn Pearson, who was on hand Saturday as owner of Gila Hike and Bike and vice chair of the trails committee.
Around that same time, Pearson had been in other conversations with people about possible sites for a disc golf course — including his neighbors, the Cramms.
“The town had contracted someone to come clean up the area of burned trees and other debris from a recent fire,” Pearson said.
He then brought Cramm out to check it out as a potential site, and the process just took off from there. The Cramms designed the course and organized some community help to get baskets and signage in place. This involved getting area businesses to sponsor holes to help offset those costs.
One of the…